England face long, hard climb to restore supremacy

Andy Robinson's first Six Nations match in charge of England will have left him with no doubt that he faces a huge task to restore the world champions to anything like the peak they reached in 2003.

Saturday's 11-9 defeat by Wales was England's seventh in the 12 matches they have played since beating Australia to win the World Cup.

In last year's Six Nations they lost to France and Ireland to finish third and, with France at Twickenham next week and a daunting trip to Dublin to come, there is even a chance that this season could be worse.

"It hurts, but we have to take it, go away and work on things to improve," Robinson said after England's first defeat in Cardiff since 1993.

"It is about us trying to find our feet we weren't able to exert the press we wanted to and they managed to pin us into our 22 for long periods."

It should come as no real surprise that England are struggling for cohesion in the wake of the enormous changes that have been forced on them since the World Cup.

Robinson's problem is partly self-created on the back of last November's convincing victory over South Africa and narrow defeat to Australia, performances that did much to eradicate the painful memories of defeats in New Zealand and Australia and raise expectations for the Six Nations.

No team, however, can be expected to lose the wealth of talent that England have over the last year without struggling.

Robinson's midfield selection of Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait was greeted as bold, but in reality his choices were severely limited with Will Greenwood, Mike Tindall and Stuart Abbott out injured.

The old England back row of Lawrence Dallaglio, Neil Back and Richard Hill was adequately replaced by Martin Corry, Lewis Moody and Joe Worsley in November but only Worsley was fit to play on Saturday and England struggled to secure quick ball.

The pack competed well generally but were never able to subdue the Welsh and it will take a long time for England to redevelop that forward supremacy that was the bedrock of much of their success under Clive Woodward.

Tait, who was 19 on Sunday, remains a terrific prospect but he was overshadowed in all areas by Welsh centre Gavin Henson, while Noon struggled to make any impact.

Charlie Hodgson showed occasional signs of spark but the cool assurance of Jonny Wilkinson, who has not played internationally since the World Cup, would have helped settle England when mistake followed mistake in the Cardiff cauldron.

Robinson and his staff have no need to panic though and will be given plenty of time to build the sort of team he wants.

He has already abandoned his experiment of using former rugby league man Henry Paul at centre but will surely look to add some experience in that area for Sunday's Twickenham clash with France.