Mitchell is now in charge of Waikato

Clive Woodward's World Cup winners face the All Blacks twice on 12 and 19 June and Australia in Sydney on 26 June.

Mitchell, a former assistant to the England coach, said: "Don't be too worried - the English side that comes here this year won't be that great.

"Clive made one big mistake going into the Six Nations and that is he held on to too many (older) players."

Mitchell lost his job as All Blacks boss in the aftermath of his team's World Cup semi-final defeat by Australia last November.

But he expressed faith in his replacement, Graham Henry, to repel England's challenge and said selecting the All Blacks would not be difficult.

"We've got better talent in this country than anywhere else in the world -- we just need to develop it," he said.

However, Mitchell admitted the shortcomings of Carlos Spencer - who he controversially selected over Andrew Mehrtens for the World Cup - which should see him dropped in favour of Daniel Carter.

"Carlos is a wonderful talent but he has shown at the highest level a tendency to premeditate his attack and I don't think you could train that out of him," he said.

"You've got to start building three years out from the next World Cup so I'd start Carter."