Stuart Lancaster has revealed this weekend's opponents, Wales, have provided the inspiration for England's RBS 6 Nations campaign after his side's opening defeat to France.
The defending champions, who visit Twickenham on Sunday, overcame losing their first fixture last season to go on and win the title.
Lancaster, the England head coach, said: "It was the objective at the outset to try to win the tournament. We didn't quite achieve what we wanted against France. That put us on the back foot.
"From that point on we've used Wales as motivation, after they lost their first game against Ireland last year but went on to win the title.
"To win a championship you have to win four straight after losing the first. No-one has won a title on three wins. If we can get the win on Sunday, it's still within our capability."
Lancaster has worked hard to try to ensure his team to not invite the "arrogant English" taunts past teams have attracted. He values humility and admits he would be stung if tag were to surface before the Welsh arrive at Twickenham.
"I'd be disappointed if it was put against us as a group because I don't think it's a reflection of the group at all," he said. "We want to come across as a group who have our feet on the ground, who aren't getting carried away with ourselves and have a bit of humility about ourselves."
Providing ammunition for Wales, though, is the elitist image of the English game. Should Lancaster, as expected, name an unchanged starting XV from the win over Ireland, only two of the players included will be state-school educated.
"I'm quite fortunate that having worked in education I've seen it from both sides," said Lancaster, a former PE teacher. "I've taught in a comprehensive, I went to a boarding school myself and I've coached in both.
"I think the appeal of our system is that players can get through from both areas. State school lads now have unbelievable opportunities to come through and become international rugby players. That's important."
Manu Tuilagi and Marland Yarde joined England's extended training squad for the first time in this Six Nations after lengthy spells in the treatment room.
Centre Tuilagi made his comeback from a torn pectoral muscle for Leicester on Sunday, while London Irish wing Yarde is two matches into his return from a hip problem.
However, Lancaster said they would be unlikely to figure against Wales. "They'd have to go some in the next couple of days, it's fair to say," Lancaster said. "It's a big ask for Manu to come back having had such a long period out."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article