Power and passion is the key to taming the fired-up Aussies

I know exactly how the Australians are feeling going into this World Cup quarter-final with England.

As a member of the the team that lost the 1991 final to the Wallabies at Twickenham, I couldn't wait to take them on in the last eight of the tournament four years later and the memories of that bitter disappointment drove me on.

Those of us who had been in the losing team in 1991 passed on that pain to the new guys and it did give us an extra yard and cranked up the intensity and England will know that the Wallabies are going to be fired up by the same kind of emotions.

If England can pull off a victory over Australia tomorrow, the euphoria it will generate will equate to winning the tournament - that's the size of the task they now face.

After so many injury set backs, retirements and changes of coach in the last four years, this is the team's Cup final and I hope they can finally produce a performance to reward all the hard work that has gone into getting them to this point.

The Australian forwards have made a dramatic improvement from two years ago when they were in real trouble at Twickenham and while I still believe England can use their power to bludgeon them up front, it's going to be a real battle.

I haven't yet seen this England team produce that kind of performance because the side has not played together and constant changes of personnel - for various reasons - have been one of the key features of the 2007 campaign.

It is no secret that the bludgeoning tactic is Plan A, but if it doesn't work have we got a Plan B?

England may well go out and destroy the Wallaby forwards but where is the alternative if the opposition don't play ball?

It's about time other players - not just Jonny Wilkinson - put their hands up and took control . Jonny will give us the usual haul of 20-plus points and is the one player that you don't, as a coach, have to worry about in the build up to a big game.

What we don't know is who else is going to stand up and be counted. It really isn't about just one player and Martin Johnson always dismissed the idea that he was responsible for winning the World Cup in 2003.

Jonno insists it had nothing to do with him as captain and that there were seven or eight other "leaders" in a team of world- class players. One player doesn't make a team - what Jonny can do is help produce a winning performance and we cannot just dump the responsibility on his shoulders all the time.

While you cannot fault the players for their honest toil and effort, head coach Brian Ashton hasn't been given real selection problems by guys pressing their case on the pitch in the Cup matches to date.

As a result, all we have seen has been parts of a real performance and now we have reached the quarter-finals of the Cup with yet more changes forced on the team by injury.

England face a very intelligent Wallaby outfit, one that can raise the tempo of the game or slow it down, depending on what is needed at that point.

They have players such as George Gregan, the man who beat my record as the most capped player, still playing brilliantly at scrum half and are a team that finds a way to constantly solve problems on the pitch.

I am a great believer in luck playing a part in any team's fortunes and this England side are due their slice.

England haven't had any at all during the tournament and the loss of Andy Farrell with a calf injury is the latest example of this.

I am hoping that if we put in a really good 80 minute performance tomorrow we may finally get that little bit of luck that can decide a match and put England into the semi-finals.