Woodward urges England to focus

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Woodward, who led the nation to their triumph in Australia four years ago, was in the crowd in Marseille on Saturday as Brian Ashton's men overturned the odds to dump Australia out of the competition to book a semi-final clash with hosts France.

Woodward warned: "They have got two games. It is right there, but they have just got to concentrate on next week. Forget the final, you have got to concentrate on somehow coming off that pitch against France with more points than them, which sounds so obvious."

He added on BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme: "It is not about being flash next week, it is just about working out ways to put this French team under huge pressure and just keeping taking the points.

"They know France very, very well and the French players will know them well, but there are no hang-ups for England beating France at all."

England lost twice to France in August having defeated them 26-18 at Twickenham in the RBS 6 Nations Championship, but Woodward believes none of those results will have any bearing on Saturday's game.

He said: "It is another 50-50 game. They have moved on hugely in the last few weeks since the start of the tournament.

"I went to the South Africa game and you could not have imagined that England could have actually played like that just a few weeks later.

"It just shows you if you keep players together with a good coaching team around them, you can get these huge improvements very, very quickly. It is going to be a hugely competitive game and I think England have got every chance of winning."