Ben Youngs says England need to improve for Six Nations
Sunday 26 November 2017 13:02, UK
Ben Youngs admits England cannot successfully defend their Six Nations title unless they improve on their autumn performances.
England's 48-14 victory over Samoa rounded off a clean sweep of their three autumn internationals which included wins over Argentina and Australia.
Despite England's securing nine victories from 10 Tests this year, Youngs does not think it is enough to defend their Six Nations title for the third consecutive year.
"We're really pleased with the wins but know that what we've done over the last three weeks won't be good enough to compete for the title," the Leicester scrum-half said
"We need to make sure we learn pretty quickly in those areas that have let us down.The important thing is to see how quickly we evolve on the back of the lessons we've had during these three weeks.
"The Australia match was vital for us and Samoa was a little bit of a different mindset because of the changes made to the team, but it was pleasing to see the depth of the squad.
England amassed seven tries against Samoa including two from wing Elliot Daly. Mike Brown opened the scoring within two minutes of play, but England lacked accuracy at times, struggling to turn possession into points.
A frustrating mid-game drought was overcome late on as Henry Slade and Semesa Rokoduguni touched down to give England a convincing win.
"The later tries showed that if we're accurate and go through the phases, there will be opportunities," Youngs said.
"We had the right intentions early on but you just have to control the ball a bit better and we managed to do that at the end of the game.
"It shows that if you give any team a sniff, they'll be amongst it. We were able to go back to our basics eventually, but it would have been better had we done that sooner.
"The intention of the boys was outstanding. It was probably accuracy that let us down and put a downer on the whole thing."
