Jason Leonard backs England to win Rugby World Cup on home soil
Monday 7 September 2015 18:22, UK
England's most capped player Jason Leonard believes Stuart Lancaster's side have every chance of winning the Rugby World Cup on home soil.
England bounced back from a disappointing defeat to France in Paris with a convincing 21-13 win over RBS 6 Nations champions Ireland on Saturday.
Lancaster succeeded Martin Johnson as English head coach following the 2011 World Cup and has carefully reshaped the team to build a side capable of regaining the Webb Ellis trophy won by Leonard and his team-mates in 2003.
"If you think about where they started from to where they are now, that progression is huge," Leonard said.
"It has been fantastic. What Stuart has done has been nigh on miraculous really.
"Can they? Yes. They have got the players. They have got players that are up for a big game and the coaching staff are fantastic as well.
"People get hung up sometimes about performance pre-World Cups. You don't need to be the best team in the world for four years from World Cup to World Cup, you just need to be the best team in the world for four weeks. That wins you a World Cup."
England begin their World Cup campaign on September 18 against Fiji as they seek to navigate their way out of a daunting Pool A that also contains Australia and Wales.
In Wales' final warm-up game against Italy, full-back Leigh Halfpenny and scrum-half Rhys Webb were both stretchered off with knee and ankle injuries respectively.
Halfpenny has since been ruled out of the tournament, while Webb's participation remains in doubt.
"I think it's a real shame because both of those players are fantastic players," Leonard said.
"I would say Halfpenny would be the bigger loss because, even with Webb who is fantastic and on form, I've got to say I'm a big Mike Phillips fan as well.
"If he comes back in, to be quite honest, I don't think that is too much of a problem really. But both players are fantastic and you want every side to have all their players.
"You can't worry too much about the opposition. You have got to worry about yourselves and how you perform and how you do as a team."
