Brown expects tough week

Editor

England full-back Mike Brown admits “there’s lots to work on” following their success over France in their Six Nations opener on Saturday.

A narrow 19-16 victory got the Grand Slam holders off to a winning start, but it was far from pretty as the French pushed them all the way.

Eddie Jones has since said he will address the issues in the build-up to facing Wales in Cardiff and Brown knows that will mean hard work.

“It is great to get the campaign off to a win but there is lots to work on and lots to improve,” the England full-back explained to Sky Sports.

“It was a bit scrappy at times and we didn’t do what we set out to do, but a win is a win. If we were looking for excuses we might say it was our first game, but we’re not a team to do that.

“We didn’t put out on the pitch what we wanted. We’d trained really well over the last two weeks, but just didn’t do it.

“All credit to France because really disrupted our breakdown and then that has a knock on effect on everything else. We weren’t physical enough. There’s lots to work on.

“It’s always a big game against Wales and it’s an unbelievable atmosphere there. It will be a great game. It’s a great stadium, it’s one of my favourite stadiums to play at, but in the Six Nations every away game is special.”

England’s bench played a significant role in getting them over the line in front as James Haskell, Danny Care and try-scorer Ben Te’o impressed when called upon, something that pleased Brown immensely.

“Eddie always talks about it being a 23-man squad and it takes that effort to win matches. He doesn’t call them substitutes, he calls them finishers,” he added.

“They’re there to finish the game whether we’re winning or losing and they did an outstanding job. Care lifted the tempo, the forwards carried hard in attack and then Te’o dotted over for a winning try – it was great work from them.”