England have the hunger - Parling

By Mark Stevens

Geoff Parling insists there is an "unbelievable hunger" within the England squad to get their Rugby World Cup campaign back on track following last weekend's narrow loss to Wales at Twickenham.

Stuart Lancaster's side saw their hopes of qualifying from Pool A somehwat dented as an inspired kicking display from Dan Biggar saw the Welsh to a 28-25 victory.

Now lying third in the standings behind unbeaten Australia and Wales, it's the former who are next on the agenda for the host nation this Saturday.

In what has already been billed as a 'must-win' encounter for Lancaster's squad, Parling knows the time has come for the Red Rose country to stand up and be counted.

Indeed, the Exeter Chiefs newcomer insists England must rediscover their ruthless edge after wasting the chance to take control of their pool last time out.

A wasted line-out chance denied England the chance to grab a dramatic late winner, but Parling - who moved to the Chiefs this summer from rivals Leicester Tigers - believes the writing was on the wall long before then – and the hosts must learn their lessons.

“It’s maybe about putting our foot on other teams’ throats and keeping them down,” said the experienced lock. “When you are ten points up in a game like that, you get a couple more penalties or the next try – suddenly the other team is chasing it and they do what they’re not meant to do. We get ourselves in good positions, we have just got to finish them off.

“We allowed them back in it when we were ten points up – take everything else out of it. When we get ahead, stay ahead and keep going ahead. Get our foot on them and don’t let them get back up.

“I think we showed for 50 minutes that when we focus on us, we get what we do right and we do it well – we are a very good team. We have got to keep that going.”

Although Lancaster has yet to finalise his plans for the weekend, his selection options have been hampered with Billy Vunipola leaving the tournament early and the likes of Jonathan Joseph, Courtney Lawes, Ben Youngs and Ben Morgan each fighting their own fitness battles.

Parling, though, insists the wounds – both physical and mental – of last weekend have not diminished England’s hunger to bounce back and secure safe passage to the quarter-finals.

“Our World Cup has just come a little bit earlier, hasn’t it? We’re up for a massive game this weekend,” he added.

“The hunger is unbelievable. We have been building towards this World Cup for a long, long time. We know we probably threw away an opportunity last weekend and we do not want to repeat that. This is the game of our lives.

“This is everything to me, it’s everything to the other players, to the staff – get behind us and back us because we are doing everything we can to give the best account of ourselves at the weekend and I’m sure we will.”