Watch England vs Wales at Twickenham, live on Sky Sports Action, from 1pm on Sunday
Tuesday 6 August 2019 10:00, UK
Maro Itoje says England's "common goal" is to succeed at the Rugby World Cup in Japan this autumn.
England begin their final preparations before the World Cup in September as they face Wales in front of a home crowd at Twickenham on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
The versatile forward believes all of England's work now points to rugby's flagship tournament as they look to be crowned champions for the second time and relinquish the demons from the home World Cup in 2015.
Itoje said: "We are all here, we are all tied by a common goal and that is to succeed at the World Cup.
"Every other ambition falls beneath that. That's our common vision. That's the goal that were buying into.
"Therefore, every action, everything that we do from this point to the World Cup, is to be successful."
England have been on a 12-day training camp in Italy to prepare for the humidity they will endure in Japan during the World Cup, and Itoje feels the camaraderie within the diverse group is very strong.
He added: "It's probably the most diverse England squad for an awful long time, if ever. There's people from different parts of the world, different parts of the country. Obviously we all play for different clubs, however we are all buying into this goal we have here.
"A lot of the players have been together for a decent while now so there's a base level, a foundation level of chemistry. A lot of players have gone through the age groups together.
"We've known each other for a fairly long time now so it's not easy but it's something that we've bought into and look to hopefully do well out of."
The training camp, along with Sunday's fixture, will be the last chance to impress coach Eddie Jones before he picks the 31 players he will take to the World Cup on August 12.
Itoje's team-mate Tom Curry, who is also likely to be included in the final squad, says Jones is giving the players more control as preparations continue.
Curry said: "We've been given the reins a lot more in terms of players controlling things because ultimately we are the ones out there training and playing and we have got to take a big chunk of the control ourselves."
England begin their World Cup campaign on September 22 with a Pool C fixture against Tonga, before subsequent games against USA, Argentina and France.
Watch England vs Wales at Twickenham, live on Sky Sports Action, from 1pm on Sunday.
