Thompson - looking forward to southern hemiphere tour.

By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer

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Steve Thompson claims England's summer clash with rugby's southern hemisphere giants, New Zealand and Australia, will prove to be the perfect pick-me-up for their RBS 6 Nations disappointment.

The world champions finished third in this season's tournament, behind Ireland and Grand Slam winners France.

But Thompson, the hooker who has received much criticism for his wayward line-out throwing, immediately looked forward to the two Tests against the All Blacks and one-off encounter against Australia in Brisbane.

"It is an ideal situation to go down there and play against the best," said Thompson.

"New Zealand are going through a transitional period, so are Australia. They put everything into the World Cup and I think you are going to see a lot of new players in their squads as well.

"It will be very exciting and the younger players in our squad will learn a lot and so will I.

"We know we can go down there and we can win. We have the players to do that. We need to go back to our clubs, play some good rugby and come back fresh for the tour."

That could be easier said than done after England followed up their World Cup euphoria in such disappointing fashion.

Again the error count and the amount of turnovers in England's game was the main reason for their 24-21 loss against France, even though a stirring second-half fightback almost saw them snatch an undeserved result.

"We gave them their tries, that was the hardest thing," said Thompson. "But they were very clinical when they got the chances.

"We have had a few players retire, a lot of players have come in like fly-half Olly Barkley who has been a great success for us.

"We are going through a transitional period. We have had some big leaders finish. Now other players have got to come through and they are starting to do that."

Thompson rejected the view that England have gone backwards since the World Cup and insisted there was no panic in the squad.

"We had a lot of pressure on us in the Wales match but we came through it and we showed that same character again against France," said Thompson.

"We are not being hammered by teams, we are not being outplayed. We would be worried if that was happening but it is not.

"We had our worst performance for many a year against Ireland and yet we still had chances to win it.

"We are disappointed at losing two games because that has not happened for a good while but we are not worried.

"We have brought new players into the squad and for me it has been good, I have to take more responsibility on my shoulders.

"I think we have come forward. All the teams we are playing have absolutely nothing to lose and have come at us. But we have finished third in the Six Nations.

"Now we can look forward to the summer tour and go and play some good rugby."