I’m here on merit, Dave Attwood warns his England rivals

Bullish England lock Dave Attwood believes an impressive series of autumn displays has thrust him into pole position for a Six Nations starting spot.
In warning Geoff Parling and Joe Launchbury they face a battle to win back their shirts, Bath's boiler room linchpin insists he has plenty more to offer.
England's pack stood proud during November's jousts with the Southern Hemisphere's finest, with Attwood earning plaudits for edging personal battles against Eben Etzebeth, Sam Carter and New Zealand's world player of the year Brodie Retallick.
Now he wants to build on that, telling The Rugby Paper: “The trick is to keep hold of the shirt. It's unfortunate in some way that Geoff and Joe were unavailable because I actually felt that, given Bath's form and my own form going into the series, I should still have been involved – and involved quite heavily.
“For them not to be available was great because now I've evolved more, but there's also a caveat in that those guys could come back and slot straight back in.
“I'd like to think that even if they'd been fit and available I'd have played but it's sometimes a bit difficult to balance that. But assuming we can keep moving things in the right direction at Bath and my form continues, I'll be disappointed not to be heavily involved in the Six Nations.”
Assessing his autumn displays, Attwood said: “Personally, it was a success and our set-piece functioned extremely well. From a pack point of view we were going up against the best in the world and I was delighted with a lot of my contributions.
“When games come so thick and fast you don't get time to stand back and think, ‘wow, look who we just played today'. When we're doing our analysis I'll look at guys like Etzebeth and Retallick and pick out their flaws, just as I would if I'm analysing Montpellier or Gloucester.
“They might be the best in the world but they still have flaws and do things poorly, just as I do, so it's about identifying that and capitalising on it. But it was great to go toe-to-toe with them and go really well.
“That's a personal pat on the back for me but I feel there's more to come. There's another level I can get my game up to in terms of my volume of contribution, and my accuracy during November was down a little bit.
“There were a couple of dropped passes which were uncharacteristic of me and some little areas where I felt I could have done better.”
Attwood, 27, who has 16 caps, shed nine kilos over the summer in a bid to enhance mobility. He said: “The shift in emphasis was about getting back to where I was when I was enjoying my rugby most, which was a bit more ball in hand, a bit lighter.
“Since Argentina in 2013 there's been an emphasis from coaches I've been involved with to scrummage particularly effectively, be powerful around the field and be dynamic and very effective defensively and technically – and I'm proficient enough in those areas to stand comparison at the top of the Premiership.
“But I wanted to shed a bit more weight and get a bit more mobile. I was 127kg (20st) in the summer but I'm 118kg (18st 8lb) now and that's worked out really well.
“I've noticed a big difference but the key is to obviously not lose the things that have made me good over the past two or three years in an effort to reach something else. It's a bit of a balancing act but I think you can see from my performances that it's helped.”
Bath thrived in the absence of their England players, winning four key games and Attwood said: “We've got to try to get back our own places in the team now! But it's great for the club that we've got such quality and strength in depth.
“That we can be missing five, six or seven guys with internationals and still be putting teams to the sword is fantastic. The Premiership is looking really encouraging for us and it's one reason why we're looking at being quite successful this season.
“It's going to be a big Christmas and New Year period, with big games coming up against Gloucester, Exeter and Leicester, but we're not shying away from that.”
Attwood is unique in that he has completed the ‘golden triangle' of playing for Bath, Gloucester and Bristol and with the latter pair hinting at renaissances, allied to Exeter's stunning rise, he believes a period of West Country domination could be imminent.
He added: “Bristol are waiting in the wings to strike back up there and traditionally the West has been a hotbed of rugby. It's been dormant for a while, so to have four clubs in our region who are starting to create success is really encouraging for fans.
“The rise of Exeter has been massively positive – one of the success stories of the modern game – and they have set the example of how a club gets promoted, stays promoted and develops its infrastructure, sponsors, players, staff and fan base.
“They've been exemplary and if Bristol can fulfil their potential at Ashton Gate there could be a lot of local derbies around here before long!”
NEALE HARVEY