BATH back Anthony Watson is hoping to take the lessons learnt from a disappointing World Cup campaign to be a better player when he joins back up with Bath.

The 21-year-old helped England bow out of the competition they are hosting with a brace in their 60-3 victory at the Etihad Stadium.

Watson returned to Bath on Monday and is hoping to be in contention for a starting place when they kick-off their Premiership season at the Rec against Exeter Chiefs on Saturday.

“Everyone will have to take the lessons from this going forward because there are so many,” said Watson.

“I think that is an advantage that I have. I played in this World Cup at a young age and fingers crossed I can play in another one and take the lessons I’ve learnt from here into the next one and be a more experienced and wiser player.

“I’m going to go back sit down with the coaches at Bath and take it from there, but hopefully I will be playing next weekend.

“The World Cup comes around once every four years, so I will definitely watch the quarter-finals, semis-finals, final.

“Part of me will be gutted that we are not involved but I am going to go back to the club and try and improve as a player and I am sure the rest of the boys will be looking to do the same.”

Despite the pressure on the England players and staff following their disappointing performance in Group A, the fans in Manchester were fully behind the team with a big cheer for Stuart Lancaster pre-match when his name was announced on the Tannoy.

England ran in 10 tries on the night, with Watson scoring first in either half for the host nation, and the 21-year-old was happy with the team’s performance.

“I think all the boys enjoyed playing out there,” he added.

“We were massively disappointed to not get through so we wanted to come out and put on a good performance for the fans who have supported us since the Fiji game, and even before that.

“Even in the week, getting tweets showed that the fans were behind us, which helps massively when you are trying to get over something very disappointing.

“We felt like we owed a good game of rugby to them and we felt like we did that.”