British & Irish Lion Owen Farrell believes his England side have made great strides in their development towards next year’s World Cup after a largely successful start to the year.
Fly-half Farrell featured in all five of England’s fixtures across February and March and scored 64 points, with a loss to France the only dent in their good form.
Head coach Stuart Lancaster was able to give the likes of centre Luther Burrell and wings Jonny May and Jack Nowell a spell of games for the Red Rose as he looks to shape his squad for next year’s showpiece on home soil.
And Farrell, who featured for the Lions as they triumphed Down Under last summer, is confident despite the overall disappointment of not winning the title his side have moved up another level.
“You play in competitions to win them and it was gutting to lose out in the way that we did, I think that what we take away from the Six Nations is that we played better together as a team and we made big steps forward,” said Farrell.
"When you look at the development leading up to the World Cup that is important, everyone was hurting but as long as we made the steps forward that’s the important thing.
"I think the squad have always had that intent but I think it’s just the detail we are putting on top of things now and making sure that we are developing and getting better. I think we have done that over the course of the Six Nations.”
