Our pack will be scrumptious again

The Aussies include all but one of their side that led New Zealand at half-time in Hong Kong recently and Johnno and his coaches will ensure the players know exactly what is about to hit them.

But England will have watched the Australians struggle to beat Italy last weekend and they have the players to register a second successive win in front of a capacity Twickenham crowd.

A lot has been made of England's 2007 World Cup quarter-final win in Marseilles when loose-head prop Andrew Sheridan, for the second time in his career, completely dominated his Aussie opposite number. No matter what the Wallaby players say, they remember only too well what England did to them that day.

A couple of the team will even remember the 2003 World Cup Final in Sydney.

But what is important is to recognise they are now being coached by a new man in Robbie Deans, who is very good at his job.

Graham Rowntree is the specialist coach in charge of the England scrum and he has made it clear the players have not pushed other teams around, except for those matches with Australia. Graham was a world-class prop and he is asking his players to step up to the plate in this match. England may play down the importance of the scrum battle but they do have an advantage in this area.

The demands of international rugby mean players arrive at that level having developed their speed, technique and power and every pack should start even.

It is a far more tactical game at the scrum now and it also comes down to how the referee handles the set-pieces. Will he allow us to get stuck in tomorrow?

In the 2003 World Cup Final, we attacked Australia in every scrum and we saw Sheridan put in a huge performance backed up by the rest of the forwards in the quarter-final last year.

In this game, I expect England to choose their moment to exert that kind of pressure in key areas, utilising their technical scrummaging moves to unsettle the opposition.

I believe England will take an important step forward by defeating Australia and give Johnno two key wins going into the tougher matches against South Africa and New Zealand.