Chris Hewett: As always, England will get their kicks

Jonny Wilkinson steered England to one World Cup. Has he got a glorious final flourish in him? Photo / AP

Johnson's men will thrive in the tight stuff, writes Chris Hewett

Martin Johnson said an interesting thing as he left the England team hotel en route to Heathrow for the long flight to Auckland. "All that matters," he pronounced, those famously intimidating beetle-brows closing in on each other in time-honoured fashion, "is winning your games. We know how the New Zealanders and the Australians like to approach things, but if you play one off the ruck or kick the ball in the air and chase, it's still rugby. You can win World Cups doing that."

He should know. When the great Leicester lock led England to their one and only seizure of the Webb Ellis Trophy in 2003, there was precious little tripping of the light fantastic. Two tries in three knockout games told its own story, and if the trend continues - Phil Vickery's side managed only one in three sudden-death fixtures in reaching the 2007 final - they will draw a complete bank this time round.

Not that anyone seriously expects England to be challenging for the big prize at Eden Park at the back end of October. They may be Six Nations champions for the first time since that year of years under Clive Woodward - or Sir Clive, as we must call him now - but by finishing the tournament on a downbeat in Dublin, where Ireland treated them to a rare old pasting, they laid bare their vulnerabilities for the world to see. When they come under real pressure, there is no Hill or Dallaglio or Greenwood to see them through it. Still less a Johnson. The manager may be an important part of the set-up, but it is difficult for him to do the things he once did so well from the umpteenth row of the grandstand.

Jonny Wilkinson is back in pole position for a start in the No 10 shirt, having played second fiddle to the more attack-minded Toby Flood for a year or so, and it is true to say that the goal-kicker supremo has had his enthusiasm for the sport rekindled down on the banks of the Mediterranean, where he plays Top 14 rugby for the ridiculously wealthy Toulon club. But this takes us back to Johnson's comment about smacking the ball skywards and chasing like hell. Wilkinson can do that brilliantly, in his sleep. But is it a tactic that will scare the All Blacks, petrify the Wallabies or discombobulate the Springboks?

England are big and extremely fit, give or take the odd lingering orthopaedic concern. They probably have the best bank of props in the competition and have a dependable lineout, always assuming the hookers throw straight. Possession should not be an issue, and as possession is nine-tenths of every law under the sun, they should find a way past Scotland and into the last eight as group winners.

At which point, Johnson expects the tournament to tighten up. But if it doesn't tighten - if they find themselves involved in the kind of loose game Wales forced them to play in the quarter-final eight years ago - they are nowhere near as well equipped to come up with answers now as they were then. When it comes to the running game, where the decisive points are scored with ball in hand, they are deeply uncomfortable.

If there is a man to watch outside the scrum, it is the Samoan-born Manu Tuilagi - the youngest of the professional players from rugby's first family, and possibly the best. Known as the "human bowling ball", his latest strike put poor David Wallace, the Lions flanker from Ireland, out of the forthcoming tournament. Strong as a prop, as quick as many wings and a wild-eyed obliterator in the tackle, he has all the gifts. There again, he is only 20 and just a little temperamental. If England are depending on a two-cap newcomer ... draw your own conclusions.