Mike Brown hopes England can soon challenge All Blacks for world No 1 ranking
Monday 7 November 2016 08:48, UK
Mike Brown hopes the momentum gathering behind England's bid to replace New Zealand at the summit of world rugby will accelerate this autumn.
South Africa launch the Old Mutual Wealth series on Saturday, with Fiji, Argentina and Australia also visiting Twickenham on successive weekends.
Eddie Jones transformed England from World Cup flops to Grand Slam champions and masters of the Wallabies, who were subdued 3-0 in June, in the space of six months.
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Brown insists they are now commanding respect, with the team feeding off results that have lifted them to second in the world rankings.
"We are building some sort of aura. Teams can see what we are about and there is still so much more that we can achieve," Brown said.
"It's great if, externally, we build something and people realise that we are here, but in the squad it just builds confidence and keeps pushing us forward towards the ultimate prize, which is being number one in the world and winning World Cups.
"Whenever you are part of a team that keeps winning, you do get that momentum and get on a roll. It is massively important to keep momentum in sport, so that is what we want to do."
If all four visitors to Twickenham are dispatched over the coming weekends, England will have equalled their own record of 14 successive victories.
Jones has pieced together a nine-Test winning run since replacing Stuart Lancaster and has targeted a flawless record for 2016.
"It would be amazing if we did that. We want to win every game and we believe we can do that," Brown added.
"It would be amazing to do that but we are just focused on our next game, which is South Africa. That will be a huge challenge - we haven't beaten them for so long and no-one in our squad has ever beaten them.
"Eddie is looking at the bigger picture, but we are all fully focused on that first game."
