But England were nowhere near the standards they displayed the previous week in the defeat of Australia and were consistently unsettled by the physical Samoans at the breakdown.

And with Scotland giving South Africa a bloody nose at Murrayfield, Flood knows England will have up their game in all departments if they are to achieve three wins in the autumn internationals.

He said: “South Africa will be stung. Scotland quite like making life difficult for us — it seems to be part of their job!

“It’s hugely important for us to win. We came into this autumn wanting to win three games and we are two-thirds of the way there.

“We are disappointed with how we played. It’s nice to have that experience in some respects but it was a wake-up call for us.

“If you set the bar as high as we did last week, we have to continue that. We can't have ups and downs.

“The best teams consistently perform to a high standard and that is what we have to get to or we will be back to square one.

“It was quite dejected in there afterwards. There wasn’t much of a celebration — there were no high-fives or pats on the back.

“Samoa did a pretty good job, but we allowed them to harass and harry us. We probably played a part in our own downfall in that respect.”