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Former England winger Jason Robinson has set Steve Borthwick’s side the target of reaching the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup.

Though he admits that the team have “lost their way” he hopes that can be rediscovered in hopes of a strong tournament.

Speaking on the In The Zone podcast, Robinson said: “England should reach the semi-final when you look at how they can qualify. Looking at some of the groups, I’m so glad we’re not in with Ireland and South Africa. England don’t have to hit 100% form right away, if they can just claw back some, there’s no reason why England can’t get to a semi-final.

“At the moment, there’s some soul-searching to be done. England have just lost their way, how they play and lost their identity. What are we? When England play, we always have a strong pack, one to take on anybody in the world in scrums, line-outs, set-pieces and breakdowns. That becomes your platform to play off and at the moment, because we’ve lost form, teams are coming to Twickenham and thinking ‘we can do this’. In sport, you can build momentum and lose it really quickly.

“England have the ingredients in the team to make the cake. At the moment, they’re just not putting the right ingredients in at the right time. I’m hoping it was like the case in 2007 when everybody had written us off. I know how hard it is when you leave the field and you’ve been beaten, there’s no worse feeling, it’s not something you can park on a Saturday, this is in my head all week, in everything I do. You go shopping and somebody comes up to you and says ‘you guys were garbage at the weekend’, it just doesn’t leave you. That’s the drive to put it right.

“This is a very difficult time for England. I’ve watched the team over numerous years and I think that in this moment in time, we’ve not gone through a period where we’ve played as badly. We’re not getting the results and confidence doesn’t seem to be there. I suppose, looking at how we’re playing, we don’t seem to have found our game and what we are as a team. In 2003, we knew what we were. We knew our strengths and we played to them. England, at the moment, don’t know where those answers are coming from.”