Stuart Lancaster would like to be England's permanent head coach

Stuart Lancaster today sent in a stand-in captain for the Six Nations launch before revealing he wants to be England head coach permanently.

Flanker Tom Wood lined up alongside the skippers of the other five countries in London but is set to miss the first two matches against Scotland, at Murrayfield a week on Saturday, and Italy due to a toe injury.

Lancaster won't reveal his skipper until Monday - Harlequins' Chris Robshaw is now the favourite - but the interim head coach did announce he wants the job beyond the Six Nations.

The match away to Italy on February 11 comes four days before the Rugby Football Union's deadline for applications to succeed Martin Johnson.

Lancaster, the former Saxons coach, said: "I haven't applied yet but I will. I love trying to help players improve and building teams so to get the opportunity to do that with England is a fantastic opportunity.

"The priority for me isn't Stuart Lancaster, it is getting the team to be cohesive and getting the team wanting to play hard for each other and represent their country. We want to be a humble, hard-working honest team and represent England with pride. The power of a nation behind you is a terrific force we want to make sure the spectators feel excited about watching us and connected to us."

Lancaster has been running the rule over his squad during a training camp in Leeds this week and he explained why he has not rushed into appointing a skipper.

"In any strong team you have a strong leadership foundation," said the 42-year-old. "The leadership model I believe in is that the captain comes out of that leadership group but doesn't necessarily sit way above it as an iconic figure. So, at the moment, we are developing the leaders and giving them responsibility and it is giving us four or five days just to work with the players."