 |  Charlie Hodgson especially was immense |
England became the best team in the world by challenging the way rugby is played.
We produced some wide, attractive, open rugby and that mirrored the effectiveness and directness which the forwards gave us.
If you combine the two you have a very good outfit and Saturday was the first step on a long road aimed at being the best again.
We are a long way short of that at the moment but as a first step it was pretty good.
It would have been very easy to come unstuck and get bogged down with lots of errors against a team like Canada, who are very confrontational and can disrupt your patterns.
So to score 70 unanswered points against them was very pleasing.
Yes, there were some elements of rustiness but the most pleasing aspect of the performance was we got back to playing some attractive rugby. What a pleasure it was to play with Charlie Hodgson and Henry Paul, whose distribution skills were fantastic.
As a back-three player it is great to be put into space like that and I thought Charlie especially was immense.
He balanced the game and played as well as he has done for England.
| The way the back three play is indicative of how the rest of the team plays |
The way the back three play is indicative of how the rest of the team plays, and if you have players like Charlie and Henry inside you, you are going to get the ball.
I think it was no coincidence that the back three scored seven tries between us. That speaks volumes for the rest of the boys.
Personally, it was really nice to score a try at all - it's been a while! The last one I got was in the semi-final of the Heineken Cup against Munster in April.
Both of them were fairly easy scores - I just had to catch the ball and flop over the line.
They weren't too demanding but it is the space created by the people inside you that makes it easy.
To play in that manner was really enjoyable and that is what we are trying to get back to.
This last week was all about us. No disrespect to Canada but we knew that we should beat them and it was about concentrating on the performance rather than the result.
This week we will analyse how Ireland beat South Africa and see what we can take from that.
The Springboks will come to Twickenham with something to prove and it will be a massive challenge for us, showing we can make the right decisions under pressure.
Of course we know we need to go out and get a win. That has to be our priority.
But for me, up there alongside that is the importance of playing some good rugby again.
We took the first step to doing that against Canada and if we can repeat that against South Africa, it should be a fantastic occasion.
MMIX
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