Every England player has to be good at everything if we are going to be the best, insists Lancaster

Next month’s trio of games against Australia, Argentina and world champions New Zealand marks the mid-point of the journey to the 2015 World Cup on home soil.

England have progressed under Lancaster after he took over in the aftermath of their dire World Cup campaign of two years ago.

They have twice come within one win of a Six Nations grand slam and last November claimed the landmark scalp of the 
All Blacks at Twickenham.

Those victories need to become more frequent if England are to move up from third in the International Rugby Board world rankings to first.

Since their Six Nations campaign ended on a sour note with a heavy defeat in the title decider in Wales, Lancaster has begun to stress the importance of flawless rugby to his players.

When they reconvene at their Leeds base for a week-long training camp ahead of the autumn series, he will look to hammer home that message.

“To win in international rugby you need to have an all-court game,” said Lancaster, who in the past has said he wants England to at least be ranked second in the world going into the quadrennial global tournament.

“You need to play in the right areas of the field, so you’ve got to have a good kicking game, you’ve got to attack, and have attacking threats to score tries, and you’ve got to be very good defensively.

“What we’re saying to players, and we’ll continue to say, is that in order to get from third in the world to first in the world, every player has to be good at everything. What we can’t have is players who have got weaknesses in some parts of their game.

“The big message through the Lions, the summer tour to Argentina, the summer camp in Loughborough, is you’ve got to work hard on every part of your game.

“If we want to get to where we want to be we’ve got to make a step and that step has to come now.”

Lancaster is not setting loose targets, such as two wins out of three, for fear those goals will relax him and his players into thinking that one defeat is acceptable.

The meeting with the All Blacks (on November 16) is the game the fans and the media are getting excited about, and given how well England did against them 12 months earlier it is the fixture that will provide the biggest benchmark of their progression.

Yet because England have never beaten Australia under Lancaster, there is a determination to settle that score in 24 days, and start the new season in style.

“Having been through this, this time last year, all the focus and energy has to go onto that Australia game,” said the former Leeds Carnegie player and coach.

“They’ll be a significant threat and we have to focus on that first.

“I don’t think Australia will lack for motivation in any game, particularly not England at Twickenham.

“Last year they played better than us and they won, so we’ve got plenty of motivation ourselves.

“I would like to think we’ll rise to the challenge.

“International rugby is about winning and our focus will be on getting that first W against Australia, because if you get that then the self-belief and the confidence grows and it gives you a springboard into Argentina.

“Whilst New Zealand is in everyone’s mind, I looked at the Australia performance against Argentina (last weekend), and it was as good as I’ve seen them this season. So if we get too far ahead of ourselves then we’ll find ourselves in trouble.

“We’ll have one eye on Argentina and New Zealand, but we’ll be focusing on Australia.”

On the All Blacks, who last Saturday sealed the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship without losing a game, said: “No one’s unbeatable, but the consistency of performance they’ve put in has been exceptional.

“New Zealand are the benchmark for not just teams in rugby, but teams throughout sport because of their consistency.”