Lawrence Dallagio has torn into England saying too many players in the current squad are not fit enough, not disciplined enough and nowhere near as good as they think they are.

The former England captain said the team were way off the required standard ahead of their second round Six Nations match against defending grand slam champions Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

England began the tournament with a 36-11 win over Italy at Twickenham last weekend. But the margin of victory belied the fact that several England tries owed much to Italy playing flanker Mauro Bergamasco at scrum-half for the first time in a Test.

"If you picked your top five players in each position in world rugby, where would those England players slot in? There are not too many that would even make the top three or four," Dallaglio said on Monday.

"We have this attitude at the moment where our players walk around thinking they are the bees knees.

"There are a lot of guys who think they are there - but they are not.

"You wouldn't be quaking in your boots playing England at the minute," the 36-year-old World Cup winning backrow forward added.

And the British and Irish Lion said what most concerned him was England's lack of fitness.

"There was a time we prided ourselves as being the fittest side in the world. We used to point the finger at other nations.

"When Wales start talking about being fitter in the last half hour that would really annoy me as an England player because I have always looked over my shoulder at my Welsh counterparts and said 'I will definitely be fitter than he is'."

Wales began their title defence with a 26-13 win away to Scotland while Ireland defeated France 30-21 in a match where even the beaten 'Les Bleus' played with a pace and intensity beyond anything England managed at Twickenham.

"I watched the next two games and they looked like a completely different sport," Dallaglio said. "Ireland-France was just a different level of rugby."

He also added England could ill-afford the indiscipline that has seen them collect six yellow cards in their last two matches.

Against Italy, back-row forward James Haskell was sin-binned for a trip and replacement Shane Geraghty also had to spend 10 minutes off the field for taking an opponent out in the air soon after he'd come on.

"Martin Johnson will be tearing his hair out about discipline. You can't have players getting sin-binned every game," said Dallaglio.

"I wasn't shy of a yellow card but I only did it when I had to. At the moment we are just shooting ourselves massively in the foot."

Johnson is due to name his team to play Wales later on Tuesday.

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