Wednesday 30 July 2014 16:35, UK
Danny Care believes England possess the time and potential to bridge the gap on New Zealand before next year's World Cup on home soil.
The All Blacks whitewashed England in their recent Test series in New Zealand, but Care feels they can recover in time for next year’s World Cup.
New Zealand, favourites to retain the Webb Ellis trophy in 2015, face England at Twickenham this autumn but Care is upbeat going forward: "Results-wise the tour wasn't successful.
“We lost three out of three games and that's not good enough. But we play them again in the autumn and we're on the right track.
"They're where we're aiming to get to and we have 12 games before the World Cup in which to get better.
"The younger lads are getting more experienced and this is an incredibly exciting time for us.
"In 12 months' time we will not be far away from New Zealand. This autumn we have four tough games that will give us a really good indication of where we're at."
As for his own shoulder injury, suffered in New Zealand during June, Care added: "It's fine now but the timing of it was really annoying.
“I got it in my second training session of the tour. I was battling every day to try and get it right.
"I ran across to do a grubber kick to Jonny May – a kick I'd normally do a hundred times – and completely missed the ball, tripped over and landed funnily on my shoulder.
"I'd fall over a thousand times in a year and it would be fine but it was just this one time that I caught it wrong and it jarred at my AC joint.
"It was bit of a nightmare and hopefully I won't be doing that again anytime soon."
