England coach Andy Robinson believes his British & Irish Lions experience will be useful to the world champions.
Some questioned Robinson’s decision to join Sir Clive Woodward’s Lions coaching staff in New Zealand, rather than working with England on their summer Churchill Cup trip to Canada.
England won that tournament without him and their next assignments are two demanding November Tests against the All Blacks and Australia.
Robinson, though, believes lessons will be learnt from the Lions’ 3-0 series defeat, which saw New Zealand score 107 points and 12 tries.
"I was criticised for coming here, rather than being with the England side for the Churchill Cup in Canada, but what I’ve learnt from here will benefit England," he said.
"You can’t switch it on and off like a light. We need to go home and learn from this.
"We got punished for our mistakes by a very streetwise side, and we needed to be more streetwise ourselves. It is often easier to achieve that as a national side that gets much more time together.
"When New Zealand come to Twickenham in the autumn, we know now they are going to be a major enemy of ours heading into the World Cup."
