LONDON: Head coach Stuart Lancaster believes England can win this year's World Cup despite a fourth consecutive Six Nations runners-up finish, he said in comments published by British newspapers on Monday.
"We're definitely still capable of winning the World Cup," said Lancaster, whose side lost out to Ireland after a rousing 55-35 defeat of France on Saturday left them six points short of the Six Nations crown.
"This season we've beaten Australia, we've beaten Wales and we've put 55 points on France. New Zealand we've beaten before and we pushed them close in the summer series, so absolutely (we can win the World Cup).
"Against France you could see the influence the crowd had on the players. Playing at home is a huge factor. And we'll have a good three months inside us after a World Cup camp where we can work on our cohesion."
England have now won their last five games at Twickenham, where they will play all but one of their World Cup pool games, and Lancaster believes home advantage will be a major advantage in the tournament.
"Absolutely Twickenham is a fortress now. I thought the crowd against France were fantastic," he said.
"They gave us energy from minute one and never lost heart or belief, even when we went behind. You literally felt in that driving maul at the end that there were 82,000 people pushing the players over the line."
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