Vickery: Let's prove ourselves

Phil Vickery has called on England to restore their reputation in the Six Nations.

New England captain Phil Vickery has urged his side to restore their battered and bruised reputations in the RBS Six Nations.

A torrid run of eight defeats in their last nine matches has seen the World Cup holders slump from champs to chumps, but Vickery wants to see England turn the tide and start building towards their title defence.

And the first step towards redemption for Vickery and his squad comes on Saturday when Scotland arrive at Twickenham for the Calcutta Cup clash.

Vickery said: "We have had a lot of criticism, on and off the field, in recent weeks and months, and a lot of that criticism has been taken on the chin.

"I don't know all the answers to some of the problems. All I know is we have a team prepared to go out this weekend and hopefully show the rugby public what England are about.

"We have no reputation any more, so it is a good chance for everyone to go out and start the building blocks again.

"Individually, there are reputations, but as an England team and a pack of forwards, our reputation is not particularly strong at the moment. That is not me criticising my team - that is just fact.

"It is easy to say forget about what has happened in the past, I have not forgotten about it, because it hurts, but we have to move on.

"Talk among the players this week has been that we have got an opportunity to go out and prove ourselves."

Time is running out for England to turn things around ahead of the World Cup in the autumn - and Vickery knows every minute is now vital to their preparations.

He said: "We need to use this game and get something out of it.

"If you look back at the autumn Tests, what did we get out of those games? Not a huge amount. We need to make use of every single minute of rugby we've got coming up.

"Yes, we want it to be a good game and a good performance, but ultimately we want to win it."