Brian O'Driscoll, captain of Six Nations favourites Ireland, thinks England 'have stopped the rot', but agrees with Martin Johnson that they lost their way after 2003: 'They were kind of happy with their lot after the World Cup, and thought that was the winning formula.

'You have to have the attitude that you want to continually better yourselves and move on. They probably didn't do that for a year to 18 months and then fell behind.'

'Sometimes you get caught up in the euphoria,' he adds. 'You pat yourself on the back and say "Job well done". But they will have learned from that. I don't envisage if England ever win another World Cup that will happen again.'

They had still been difficult to beat, though, O'Driscoll says. 'The one thing that I always know is that people have never beaten England by more than a score. Despite how terrible they have been, they have always been good enough to be within a score of the other team.'

'I think England will get to a quarter-final and then what's to say they can't have three massive performances?' O'Driscoll says of their World Cup prospects. 'If you look at it like that, it's still doable, it's just that it's a lot tougher for England because they don't have the confidence, they don't have that winning mentality. They perhaps are lacking some of the strength of players they had last time around.'

O'Driscoll, speaking at the Adidas Techfit launch, is full of sympathy for Jonny Wilkinson, the injured England fly-half: 'Hopefully he will get a bit of an injury-free run. He's got his doubters to prove wrong and he's always had the mentality to do that. He's one of those people who has that mental strength and desire to get back to where he was. I certainly wouldn't bet against him.

'I think a huge number of players would have packed it in at this stage or given up hope. To have so many terrible injuries just after he gets back and to have that ability to go and work hard in the gym and get fit and get back - and then have another injury and still not lose hope. I'm sure at times there were demons eating at him, but it just shows what a strong character he is that he continually fights back and wants to prove those doubters wrong.'