England need to win emotional battle and gainline against France, says David Strettle

England need to win the emotional battle and the gainline against France if they are to continue their winning start to the Six Nations, Saracens wing David Strettle believes.

England made the perfect start to their campaign last weekend when they beat 2018 Grand Slam champions Ireland 32-20 in Dublin.

Eddie Jones' side host France - who lost to Wales in their opening match - at Twickenham on Sunday and Strettle, who won 14 England caps between 2007 and 2013, believes the gainline battle will be crucial.

"Rugby's won and lost on the gainline and you saw how good the English defence was against Ireland, we were cutting players down before they got momentum," said Strettle, speaking at a Gallagher 'Train with your Heroes' session at Harrow RFC.

"Just getting on the front foot in rugby allows your forwards to keep moving and it means the defensive line has to move backwards and it's self-perpetuating - you move further and further and it gets harder and harder to defend.

"Now the French have got some very, very big players. It's vital that we [England] stop them on the gainline because if they get front-foot ball, players like Camille Lopez and Wesley Fofana are world beaters with front-foot ball.

"If you stop them on that gainline though, they won't really have a plan B and that's where you get them."

Strettle, who has almost 150 Gallagher Premiership appearances to his name, continued to draw upon his time in the TOP 14 as he looked further at France.

"Having played over in France for three years with ASM Clermont Auvergne, I got to see how much of an emotional roller-coaster it can be playing with French players," said Strettle.

"Because after a bad performance, and I'm not saying they played that badly against Wales, but with that result you can sometimes get a backlash and I think that's what England have really got to look out for on Sunday.

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"I think if we start really well in the first 10/20 minutes, maybe not throw the ball around too much and play in the right areas, I think all the energy the French coaches have built in the week and all the emotion will just dissipate.

"I think that's the main thing for England. If France get off to a good start then they'll get their tails up - personally I think New Zealand are the best team in the world but when everything clicks France do take some beating!"

England's back-three unit of Elliot Daly, Jack Nowell and Jonny May worked well at the Aviva Stadium despite limited time as a trio at Test level. So does Strettle feel changes need to be made for round two?

"The problem with putting one player in is you have to take someone out and having seen how well the back-three played I think I'd stick with them," added Strettle. "But then depending on how the game's going, that's when you can put players on with 20-30 minutes to go.

"I do think it'll send a good message if Eddie does put Joe [Cokanasiga] on because that'll give confidence to the younger players but it's how you then manage that with the current back-three."

England and France will both announce their squads on Friday, with the former selecting from a 25-man squad that was named earlier this week.

Strettle - along with Alex Goode and Schalk Burger - was speaking at a Gallagher 'Train with your Heroes' session at Harrow RFC after their U14s won a nationwide competition launched by Gallagher, title partner of Premiership Rugby.