Wales had won 10 of 11 RBS 6 Nations ties since February 2012 prior to their second round defeat in Dublin last month but have now been beaten in two of their last three Tests after a 29-18 loss to England in London last weekend.
The disappointing reverse at Twickenham came on the back of a comprehensive 27-6 success against France in Cardiff but Warren Gatland’s troops weren’t able to repeat the feat across the Severn Bridge on Sunday.
And North, who has featured in Wales’ last 15 fixtures in the 6 Nations, admits that he and his team-mates want to be hitting the heights of the 2013 Championship winning campaign and their 2012 Grand Slam success ‘week in, week out’.
“We have got to make sure we are consistently performing rather than having these ups and downs,” said North, who now has 39 Wales caps to his name and played in all three of the British & Irish Lions’ summer Tests against Australia.
“It’s continuity: we should really be performing week in and week out, but at the moment we are bit up and down. It is massively disappointing. Emotionally it’s not like we weren’t there – the emotions were good – I think we have just got to step up to that pace straight away.
“We knew England were the team to beat right now, they are the form team, and they showed it. They showed a good variation in their game and in the end we were out performed.”
North highlighted England’s strong start, with scrum-half Danny Care scoring after just five minutes, and a number of uncharacteristic errors as among the key reasons as to why it is Stuart Lancaster’s men and not Gatland’s who will be challenging for the tournament title when the final round of action gets underway on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, who plays alongside England starters Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes, Tom Wood and Luther Burrell and replacement No9 Lee Dickson at Northampton Saints, knows that improvements must be made against Scotland but that a third victory of the campaign remains well within reach.
“As a team it is all about getting into the game. In the first 10 minutes they came at us really hard. We knew they were going to but we didn’t really ride the wave,” added North.
“I felt like we failed to get in the game at some points, myself included. We had a few chances to finish but our accuracy let us down. As an individual it is about taking chances. I have learned that a lot recently. When it comes down to crunch times you have got to take that chance or offload the ball. We came up a long way short of what we would expect, especially in their 22.
“It’s a hard lesson. But it’s a lesson that we have got to learn going forward. Now we have got to regroup and all focus on Scotland next Saturday.”
