Exclusive - Tindall: 'Autumn internationals are harder than the World Cup'

Mike Tindall has told talkSPORT the autumn international series in front of England is one of rugby's toughest tests - and probably even more of a challenge than the World Cup.

Martin Johnson's side face four massive clashes on successive Saturdays, starting this weekend against New Zealand.

And Gloucester star Tindall is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead of his side.

He told talkSPORT: "It's a massive month for us to prove that Sydney was Sydney [beating Australia last summer] but that week in, week out we can compete with the best teams in the world.

"We want to be the best team in the world so this is autumn is a chance to prove that.

"With the intensity of it, it’s probably even harder than the World Cup. There are no easy games and they are four massive tests.

"It’s hard to say where we are at the moment. Ultimately all we’ve done is win one game away. Yes, you can look at the history and say very few teams have done that, but that means nothing come Saturday.

"We’ve got to wait until after these autumn internationals to asses where we are. We want to build from the basics upwards and we’ve got a great chance to set some standards about what we are as an England team."

Tindall is also calling on England to make their home base a place where opposing teams fear to tread.

"We want to make Twickenham an impossible place to come and win, and that starts at the weekend," he added. "We’ve had very limited success against New Zealand in recent years and we’ve got to step up to the plate.

"We want to play multi-phase rugby and score tries and make this an England show, not a New Zealand one."