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'Clock ticking' for England
From correspondents in London
July 06, 2007
ENGLAND captain Phil Vickery admits he is not surprised his side has been written off as Rugby World Cup also-rans.
Vickery acknowledges that England has a lot of work to do before it can expect to compete with the top nations. "If you were a betting person and you analysed results, then it is not a particularly unfair comment," he said.
"Everyone involved is working and striving to get back to the top of world rugby. We would all like it to happen overnight, but it doesn't happen that way.
"But we have certainly got a lot of great players and a good coaching set-up in place. Hopefully, we can produce it at the World Cup.
"Everyone will be waiting with their guillotines, and if it doesn't work out, they will give us a good chopping."
England has been training in the Algrave ahead of next month's Cup warm-up matches, and the Wasps prop knows it is in a race against time to find a winning formula.
"The clock is ticking," he said. "I don't want to be part of something that is not successful.
"But you cannot sit in your room at night solely worrying about the negatives that are going around. We've got to keep trying to progress as fast as we can.
"We are all aware there is not a huge amount of time. It is about trying to make the best of the time we have, and I cannot fault the coaches or players on that front. There are a lot of very hungry people here with a lot to prove.
"The thing about the World Cup is if you can get to the knockout stages and get the right draw, you are talking about one-off games. I would like to think we have got some big games in us."
Agence France-Presse