Easter is sure England can tough it out

Nick Easter is satisfied England's pool at the Rugby World Cup will leave the team sufficiently battle hardened for the knockout stages.

The Six Nations champions open the tournament against Argentina on September 10 and also face Georgia, Romania and Scotland.

In 2007, Australia and New Zealand paid the price for their romp through the group stages by falling apart during high-pressure quarter-finals, with the Wallabies losing to England.

"You want a challenging pool," said England and Harlequins No8 Easter. "You don't want it too tough, obviously, because you could end up giving everything just to get out of it. But you definitely want some tough games where not everything goes according to plan so you have to work out different situations."