Elliot Daly says England rugby’s first target at the World Cup is making sure they qualify from their pool following a nightmare campaign four years ago.
England were tournament hosts in 2015 but they failed to make the quarter-finals after defeats by Australia and Wales.
A pool which contains Argentina, France, Tonga and the USA does not appear to be as difficult but Daly says England are solely focused on reaching the last eight before they start to think about going all the way in Japan.
“Everyone wants to win the World Cup but for us it’s just important to get out of the pool well,” said Daly ahead of England’s opener against Tonga in Sapporo on Sunday.
“Our main focus is to get off to a good start and then we can see what happens. We have spoken about 2015 and I talked to the guys involved to understand the extra pressures and what to expect.
“We’ve got USA and Tonga to start and then Argentina and France, so they’re our main focus.
“We need to perform well in that opening game to get off to a good start and then we can see what happens after that.
“We’re in a good place because of the way we’ve conditioned ourselves, not only physically but also mentally in terms of knowing what this World Cup will be like.”
| England fixtures | |||
| Sept 22 | England vs Tonga | Sapporo | 11.15am |
| Sept 26 | England vs USA | Kobe | 11.45am |
| Oct 5 | England vs Argentina | Tokyo | 9am |
| Oct 12 | England vs France | Yokohama | 9.15am |
