Tom Croft: England can back up Paris Six Nations win against Ireland

The flawed shortlist for the Six Nations player of the season has attracted justified criticism from all quarters. It must have seemed a good idea simply to round up the man-of-the-match award winners and invite fans to vote for a winner but the omission of Wesley Fofana, Tommy Bowe, Stephen Ferris, Rob Kearney, George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Brad Barritt and Tom Croft has seriously undermined the exercise. Croft's performance against France alone was as good as anything else seen in the championship to date. Watch a rerun of the game and Croft is even busier than it felt in the stadium at the time: scoring one of the great match-winning tries, securing lineout ball, stealing French throws, hitting rucks, defending stoutly. Who was there to tackle the French captain Thierry Dusautoir as France mounted their final, doomed attack? You've guessed it. No wonder Croft admits to sneaking a look at the tape and will do so again whenever he needs a lift. "I watched it a couple of times after the game just because I don't score too many tries. Seeing highlights of yourself playing well can be nice, especially before a big game if you've got some nerves." Apart from anything else, Croft's exhilarating surge between Imanol Harinordoquy and Aurélien Rougerie for his decisive 71st-minute score in Paris has buried the popular belief he has never performed for England as well as he did for the Lions in South Africa in 2009. That backhanded compliment has been needling the 26-year-old; now, finally, after 35 caps, he is free of it. "It wasn't about emulating what I did for the Lions, it was adding more layers to it and improving," he repeats. "Hopefully I'm heading in that sort of direction. It's now about backing it up against a very tough Ireland side." Back-row opponents certainly come no tougher than Ireland's Ferris, whose unfortunate injury on that 2009 Lions tour cleared the way for Croft to win a Test spot. The Ulsterman's comments this week about the English being "bad losers" have further stirred the pot, particularly as Croft has twice been on the receiving end against his opposite number in the past year, once in Dublin this time last year and again for Leicester in Belfast in January. "From a Leicester perspective, away in Ulster we were caught very cold and lost the game in the first 20-25 minutes," says the Tigers flanker. "It was similar in the last game of the Six Nations last year. We know the threat and we'll be fully aware of it come the weekend. Ferris is a world-class player ... if he hadn't been injured on that Lions tour I potentially wouldn't have got my chance [in the Test team]. Not having much of a knee left doesn't seem to be stopping him. He really leads the way forward … he's a phenomenal player, he carries the ball, he hits hard and he seems to be everywhere. Their back row will be a massive challenge." At the same time England are increasingly a more robust team themselves under Stuart Lancaster and his fellow coaches. Croft is only one example of a player who has emerged from his shell, partly as a result of working hard on his basics but partly because of the energising effect of those around him. "When you bring in a whole load of new players, especially guys who haven't been capped before, the energy they bring in games and training is noticeable," confirms Croft. "Everyone's doing extras after training and you don't want to be the guy who's not doing it. It's had a ratchet effect in terms of people working as hard as they can to lift the team." Trying to keep up with the line-busting power of Ben Morgan and the work rate of Chris Robshaw, in particular, seems to have galvanised Croft hugely. He clearly rates Morgan – "You don't just want a guy who's going to truck it up, you need someone who can move it, beat defenders and put other guys through holes" – and his pièce de résistance in France was partly inspired by the No8's spectacular first-half run which set up Ben Foden's try. "You see him doing that and think: 'I want to get my hands on the ball and do something special.' We always try to better each other because ultimately that leads to a good side. That's a great environment to be in." All that remains is to finish the tournament in rousing fashion against Ireland. The starting XV should involve a recall for David Strettle on the wing but otherwise Croft and Lancaster would settle for an exact French repeat. "Stuart laid out in Leeds what he hoped and expected from this team. Players have really bought into that. They're taking ownership of the team and it's showing in our performances."