England, Sept 19: England rugby union coach Clive Woodward has brushed aside suggestions that his team were favourites to win next month's World Cup. "I just think arriving at this World Cup, in terms of England arriving at the World Cup as the number one team in the world in the IRB rankings and the Zurich rankings is something to be very proud of," he explained. "Arriving as one of the favourites for the tournament is something to be very proud of, but those are all things outside of the team. The expectation is going to be there, we can't control it, we've got to enjoy it. The biggest thing to me when we get off the plane is to not hide, whether we're on the field or off the field and go down and enjoy it, do what we've been doing." England, who have beaten New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and France and won the home nations Grand Slam in the past year, go into tournament with all their stars fully fit are many people's choice to be the first Northern Hemisphere team to lift the World Cup. "The whole expectation and the pressure is nothing compared to the pressure within the team room, " said Woodward . " So I think we can cope with all the expectations, all the billing as favourites or not as favourites - that's fine. The biggest pressure is within the team room where everyone is very focused and none of us will let the team down."

Woodward admitted his team have a great opportunity to be the first Englishmen to win the competition. " I think the guys know if we play to our best it's going to take a good team to beat us, we want to go out there and play as well as we possibly can. It's not a perfect business sport, favourites lose, it can happen, but we won't to go out there and really play. We've got a good team here, a good set up, and we want to try and do it justice on the big stage."


England, who do not arrive in Australia for another fortnight, face South Africa, Samoa Uruguay and Georgia in their group matches.


Bureau Report