No hiding place for Ashton's England

''There's no hiding place now,'' said the England head coach.

''We've got to play two cup finals in two weeks and win two games, it's as simple as that. Two games, two weeks, two wins. Full stop.''

Easily said. Not so easily done against Samoa on Saturday and Tonga the following Friday when England must erase the humiliation of that 36-0 defeat by South Africa if they are not to become the first world champions to exit the competition at the group phase.

There was, however, a rare spark of optimism at their Trianon Palace hotel base.

For one, the squad were due to be joined by Newcastle Falcons' Toby Flood as replacement for his club colleague Jamie Noon, who is returning home after suffering a knee ligament injury against the Springboks.

Jonny Wilkinson has also declared himself fit to play against Samoa while Ollie Barkley is also a possible starter and Jason Robinson, who appeared to have played his last game when he limped off the Stade de France with a hamstring injury, is hoping to have recovered to face Tonga.

England need all the help they can get, but at least Ashton was in honest mood.

He accepted much of the flak taken by his side and accepted ultimate responsibility for the dismal performances.

What he did not do, in common with the rest of the management team, was give the faintest clue of how England were going to turn the ineptness of the past few weeks into anything remotely capable of matching the might of teams such as Australia and New Zealand.

No hint of a change in strategy, no mention of how to pump fire into the pack or creativity into a sterile threequarter line.

Instead he said: ''We're making too many errors and our discipline is not what it should be at international level.

''I do accept the criticism, it was a poor performance and I take ultimate responsibility. I've had easier weekends, that's for sure.

''But we're continuing to work as hard as we can. Everybody in the squad has to stand up and be counted.''

Which is roughly what he has been saying since they lost their two warm-up matches against France.

Yet Ashton dismissed the notion that the players are not good enough, something which his assistant Mike Ford has implied, and insisted it is a matter of confidence.

''We should have beaten France in the first warm-up game,'' Ashton said. ''It is since then we have dipped. We have performed nowhere near the potential level of the ability we have got. I don't accept we have not got the players.

''I've got confidence in their ability but ultimately we all have to have that confidence, I don't go on that pitch.''

At 61 and around 5ft 3ins that's probably as well even if he could not do much worse than some of those wearing the white shirt of late.

Ashton put most of England's woes down to a lack of balance, not helped by injuries around the ten and 12 positions, which the return of Wilkinson and Barkley would go some way to rectify.

But he called for an end to the criticism of Andy Farrell, whose fast-tracked switch to rugby union has been described by one ex-international as ''cheapening'' the England shirt.

Ashton added: ''There's no question of players letting anyone down. Players do not go out on to a rugby field to lose games. It's a no-brainer.

''Hopefully the side we pick this week will beat Samoa and we're back on track again.

''In a poor team performance on Friday night he (Farrell) was no better or worse than anyone else. People keep going back to talking about the same player time and time again and it's grossly unfair.

''If the other 14 were playing phenomenal rugby and one player wasn't, then there might be a case for talking about him, but it's highly unfair to single anyone out.''

Ashton has put Sale prop Stuart Turner on standby, should anything happen this week to England's three available props - Matt Stevens, Andrew Sheridan and Perry Freshwater.

England captain Phil Vickery is still banned for the Samoa game, and Turner will act as cover if any further front-row issues arise.