Johnson: Wales will be true test

Few assignments in world rugby are currently as daunting as a trip to Cardiff to face Warren Gatland's men, who opened their campaign with a largely convincing win in Scotland last weekend, while England laboured to a 36-11 home victory over Italy.

Johnson said: "When you get to the Millennium Stadium playing a confident and talented Welsh team, you are going to be up against it. We will find out what we are about."

He added: "I thought last week Wales were strong, they overpowered Scotland on man-on-man tackles and most of the time won the collisions which gave them momentum to win the ball pretty quickly.

"You have to win those battles and we have to be sure in our system defensively. We've got to have bloody-mindedness to handle the crowd noise. If we start well and impose ourselves on the game we will be in a good place."

Johnson insists sexy rugby will be the last thing on his mind as England head into their Valentine's Day rendezvous.

Wales coach Warren Gatland issued a timely dig on Thursday, taunting England for being "negative" and not as dangerous as the Leicester team with whom Johnson won Premiership and Heineken Cup titles as a player.

But the England manager refused to get dragged into Gatland's pre-match mind-games and declared: "We do not have to justify how we play to anyone."

Johnson insisted England's only ambition is to overturn the odds which are stacked heavily against them leaving Cardiff with a victory.

He explained: "I understand people's frustration about how we played last week and we shared that sometimes. At times we could have hung on to the ball a little more. We know there is lots of improvement in us."