Mike Brown urges England to continue winning momentum

England fullback Mike Brown urged his team to maintain the winning momentum in the upcoming autumn internationals in order to achieve the goal of number one ranking.

Since Eddie Jones took over the charge of the team following the 2015 World Cup, England are on a nine-match unbeaten streak which saw them climb to the second position in the World Rugby Rankings displacing the Wallabies, who they defeated 3-0 in Australia.

England are scheduled to take on South Africa in their Old Mutual Wealth series opener and they have never beaten a Springboks side at Twickenham previously. Following the clash against Allister Coetzee's men, England will also lock horns with Fiji, Argentina and Australia to complete their autumn internationals.

The 31-year-old, who has made 52 appearances for England, said the number one ranking and a World Cup win Japan are the ultimate goals for him and his team.

"We are building some sort of aura. Teams can see what we are about and there is still so much more that we can achieve," Brown said.

"It's great if, externally, we build something and people realise that we are here, but in the squad it just builds confidence and keeps pushing us forward towards the ultimate prize, which is being number one in the world and winning World Cups.

"Whenever you are part of a team that keeps winning, you do get that momentum and get on a roll.

"It is massively important to keep momentum in sport, so that is what we want to do."

A win for England in all the four games of their autumn internationals will take their unbeaten streak to 13 under Jones and 14 overall. However, Brown insisted that their current focus will remain only on winning the challenge against Springboks.

"It would be amazing if we did that. We want to win every game and we believe we can do that," Brown said.

"It would be amazing to do that but we are just focused on our next game, which is South Africa.

"That will be a huge challenge - we haven't beaten them for so long and no-one in our squad has ever beaten them.

"Eddie is looking at the bigger picture, but we are all fully focused on that first game."

England have given lock Courtney Lawes time till Tuesday to prove his fitness while Mako Vunipola was also struggling with a hip injury last week.