England pick 'Bazball' brains before Australia Test

England coaching staff have turned to their cricket counterparts for inspiration before Saturday's opening autumn Test against Australia at Allianz Stadium.

Head coach Steve Borthwick and his number two Richard Wigglesworth met with England cricket coach Brendon McCullum and his assistants in Manchester before the Wallabies encounter at Twickenham.

New Zealander McCullum has instilled a fearless brand of cricket nicknamed 'Bazball' since taking charge of England in 2022 and is preparing to travel to Australia to face their bitter rivals in the Ashes series starting on 21 November.

And former England scrum-half Wigglesworth said McCullum's mental approach was something that interested the rugby coaching staff.

"We talked about loads of stuff and there was a lot of mindset stuff," added the defence coach, 42.

"I asked Brendon how he changed that in English cricket, which was really interesting. Then we got into the technicalities of coaching someone one-on-one, what that looks like, his role as head coach in that versus his assistants.

"We sat for a good period of time and took loads from it. They're on to a good thing."

After beginning the series against Australia, England will also face Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina this autumn.

Meanwhile, the cricket team will play five Test matches as they look to regain the Ashes for the first time since they won in Australia a decade ago.

"They'll go out and give it a great dig - as English teams who are playing against Australia want to - and hopefully we stick one on the board on Saturday," said Wigglesworth, who was part of the British and Irish Lions set-up as they posted a 2-1 series win against the Wallabies in the summer.

"It's a great rivalry with Australia. Both sides really enjoy playing against each other because there's something there. Bring on Saturday."

England are favourites against Australia, who are ranked seventh in the world.

The Wallabies finished third in the Rugby Championship with two wins from six games and beat Japan 19-15 in Tokyo on Saturday with a much-changed team.