Speed is the key to beating old foes Australia yet again

The team we defeated in the 2003 World Cup Final and then knocked out of the 2007 quarter-finals in France will be motivated by revenge and that is completely understandable.

We have given Australia real problems in the scrums in recent meetings and I am sure they have spent a lot of time sorting out those concerns.

To beat the Wallabies would be a big stride forward for a new England team under Martin Johnson.

Johnno wasn't that hands-on last week but I am sure that will change over the rest of the month.

His assistant Brian Smith, who is in charge of the attack, is very meticulous in his preparation and is worlds apart from Brian Ashton, the former head coach, who took charge of the backs.

Ashton was very much a "play it as you see it" guy while Smith is a lot more thorough.

It was very obvious that the general pace of the game in the win over the Pacific Islanders wasn't particularly high. Yes, there were times when players were operating at full pace and it looked attractive, but throughout the contest there wasn't that speed needed to beat a side like Australia.

The England players probably come off after a big Guinness Premiership match feeling the pace more than they did on Saturday.

There were a couple of big hits where you would have expected a whole series of rib ticklers if we had faced Tonga, Samoa or Fiji as individual nations.

I know from the World Cup last year the heavy hits these big men can inflict but they didn't manage that kind of intensity as a combined team.

It was another successful afternoon for my Wasps team-mate Paul Sackey, who picked up two more tries. He goes about his training without making any fuss and he's not out there, eyes bulging because that's not necessary. Sacks's two tries prove just how good he is at the very highest level and he is a very professional athlete, too.

There was a minor injury worry around another Wasps colleague, Tom Palmer, so I stayed with the squad and took part in all of the sessions until Friday and then trained with my club on the morning of the England match.

Watching your country play from the sofa is never easy but it is a role I have completed a number of times over the years under several coaches!

As a senior player, I will be expected to contribute to the discussion about the Islanders match and I will have to tell them how well I thought Nick Kennedy did on his debut.

I was delighted to see Nick score a try that just goes to show that I am going to have a tough job regaining my place in the second-row alongside skipper Steve Borthwick. But what's new? I have been battling to keep my place throughout my England career and I welcome the fresh challenge now posed by Nick.

I am just happy to be back in the 22-man squad for Saturday and will be trying my hardest no matter how long I have on the pitch.

Away from the rugby field, I had to judge a singing, dancing and catwalk contest at Joe Worsley's testimonial dinner last week and that involved deciding who was the best from a very iffy field.

The singing came down to a contest between former England lock Martin Bayfield and Matt Stevens, our tight-head prop. Bayfield won it by a mile with a rendition of Suspicious Minds.

The catwalk was a straight fight between eventual winner Danny Cipriani and James Haskell. I have to admit that Cips was pretty professional while young James went for the comedy vote for his particular performance which got him a around 150 votes in a room of 600.

The dance-off was between Strictly Come Dancing rivals Austin Healey and Mark Foster and, unfortunately, the Olympic swimming star didn't stand a chance even though his opponent was a muscled midget from Leicester.

One of the highlights for me came after Foster had been introduced and his many swimming achievements and Olympic appearances had been announced by the compere. The Page Three model on the panel with me then greeted the conclusion of his dance with the observation that Foster "doesn't much look like a rugby player, does he?"