George Ford insists England must up their game for the summer tour to South Africa after losing to the Barbarians at Twickenham.
The invitational side ran in nine tries in a 63-45 victory over the Red Rose to consign Eddie Jones’ team to a fourth straight defeat having finished fifth in the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations.
England will face the Springboks three times but Ford is hoping to see more from the country, especially defensively.
He said: “We weren’t good enough by a long way I don’t think. We didn’t start the game well.
“On the positives it’s a good help for us and it’s match fitness before we go away but we’ll have to have a good look at that because we cannot be performing like that.
“I thought we improved. I thought we looked in better shape and looked more threatening. The breakdown was a little bit better.
“We still got a little caught out. They’ve got some dangerous players but we let tries in too easily.
“There’s a bit of work to do but we’re very excited. We’re looking to go out there and break the mould a little bit.
“We want to get three positive results in South Africa. It’s going to be a tough and physical challenge but one we’re really exciting about.”
England will welcome back players from Saracens and Exeter Chiefs for the tour after they played out the Premiership final at Twickenham this weekend.
Elliot Daly got the opening try of the afternoon for England and the Wasps wing is adamant England can pick themselves up for the summer tour.
He said: “We’ll have the full squad back together and we’ve got two weeks to put the wrongs of this game right and get the full squad together for South Africa.
“We know we can do it. We’ve won games of rugby and we’ve lost the last couple of games of rugby. We know we can score points and win games and keep teams out.
“We’ve just got to put it all together now.”
