Sydney, Nov 20: Australia and England prepare for Saturday's Rugby World Cup final. The Australian media has added to its criticism of England's rugby union squad ahead of Saturday's (November 22) World Cup final, suggesting they're too old and their play is boring. The tabloid has a point regarding maturity. The average age of the eight England forwards who will start Saturday's final in Sydney is 29.25 years, compared with an average for Australia's pack of 26. That average nudges up to 30 when England's four reserve forwards are taken into account, including 36-year-old Dorian West, Jason Leonard, 35 and Martin Corry (30). Also, England's back row trio of Lawrence Dallaglio (31), Neil Back (34) and Richard Hill (30) were a full quarter of a century older than Australia's David Lyons (23), Phil Waugh (24) and George Smith (23). But Australia's front row is older than England's. Discussing England's tactics, head coach Clive Woodward told a news conference in Sydney on Tuesday: "You don't win the World Cup playing with width, you win the World Cup by winning and we're here to win. However we go about doing it is up to us, whether we play narrow, tight, wide depends on the conditions and everything else. We're here to win this game and that's the only thing we're focussing on. How we go about it you'll find out Saturday night."


Regarding the various statistics thrown at the England squad by the Australian media, Woodward said: "I think the last four games we've played Australia we've won four out of four, that's the only stat' I know and that's what we pride ourselves on. How you go about it is entirely up to you. I thought Sunday night's game was incredibly exciting. If we want to play boring rugby, we'll really play boring rugby, but that was exciting for me Sunday night, so I guess the Australians have seen nothing yet if we want to play really boring."


England forwards coach Andy Robinson praised the Australian team -- and was also pleased about a change of tactis.


"They've (Australia) got the ball-winning capacity in the lineout and from the scrums from the first game against Argentina, where (coach) Eddie (Jones) came forward and said he used certain tactics, they've stopped doing that and have actually started to take on the scrum which is excellent."


Woodward remained confident about the result on Saturday. "If we come second we're going to be mighty, mighty disappointed, but you don't win World Cups based on cheque books, or we wouldn't all be here, it would be very easy wouldn't it? You win World Cups based on having a group of players who are totally committed to trying to achieve something which England are very lucky to have at the moment."


The Australian squad trained at Coffs Harbour on Tuesday. Later, head coach Eddie Jones gave a news conference at which he praised England, but in his usual guarded fashion.


"The thing about England is that although they've been heavily criticised they play poorly and still win. They've lost five games in the last four years so they've got that ability to win. Sides struggle to beat them because they control the first phase possession so well and convert it to points."


Talking of their semifinal against France, he said: "Their (England's) first 40 minutes was just impeccable, their forward control was just impeccable. They're probably in front against us up front, but there's 80 minutes on Saturday which is a totally different game. In the time I think our forwards have improved enormously."


Bureau Report