Second best won't be good enough for us, insists Nick Easter

Nick Easter said today that it would be a failure if England didn't win the Six Nations this season.

England have not taken the title since their Grand Slam campaign of 2003 and during Easter's four years on the Test stage the team have finished either runners-up or third.

Martin Johnson's men begin their campaign away to Wales on Friday night, when Mike Tindall will captain the side in the absence of Lewis Moody, who has a knee injury.

Easter had been another candidate for the skipper's role and although he won't be leading the side, he has laid down a challenge for them.

"I've been in sides that have finished runners-up and quite frankly it means nothing," said the Harlequins No8. "Anything else than winning the Championship is failure in our eyes and we will be going hell-bent to do exactly that. It's winning or nothing as far as the players and management are concerned.

"By saying that, we're aware that up to and past the World Cup, we're going to come up against a lot of different sides, different refereeing styles, different tactics and different conditions. The other measure of success from our perspective is to develop an armoury of tactics that allows us to change the game plan and having the nous to implement that in game conditions."

Easter points to the autumn internationals as evidence of how England need to adapt their game.

Just two weeks after an impressive 35-18 victory over Australia, Johnson's men were out-muscled and out-thought by the Springboks, losing 21-11.

"We beat Australia up in the channels and opened them up wide but when we played South Africa we found we couldn't dominate them in the tight/loose in the same way," Easter told planetrugby.com.

"They committed more to the ruck and hit us harder. We were far too slow to react from Plan A to Plan B or C and that's something we need to look at."

The match at the Millennium Stadium will see Tindall lead England out for the first time. The 32-year-old has taken over the captaincy during matches but has had to wait until his 67th cap to have the honour from the start.

The team shows three changes up front from the defeat by South Africa, with Moody's place at open-side going to James Haskell. Hendre Fourie was earmarked for the No7 role but has had a calf injury in recent weeks.

The two other changes see Leicester lock Louis Deacon chosen ahead of veteran Simon Shaw to replace the injured Courtney Lawes (knee) while Tom Wood, the Northampton flanker, wins his first cap with Tom Croft injured. Wood has been given the No6 jersey ahead of Joe Worsley as he offers the team a genuine line-out option, something they lack with the absence of Croft who broke his shoulder against South Africa.

England: B Foden (No'ton), C Ashton (No'ton), M Tindall (Gloucs, capt), S Hape (Bath), M Cueto (Sale); T Flood (Leics), B Youngs (Leics); A Sheridan (Sale), D Hartley (No'ton), D Cole (Leics), T Palmer (Stade), L Deacon (Leics), T Wood (No'ton), N Easter (Quins), J Haskell (Stade). Reps: S Thompson (Leeds), D Wilson (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), D Care (Quins), J Wilkinson (Toulon), M Banahan (Bath),