Two points: When the big boys come out to play, you don't concede two tries and win Test matches. Nor do you when 65% possession doesn't make the scoreboard rattle up the points. Last week against France, England were guilty on both counts. It can't happen tonight.
Make no mistake about the importance of facing France in Marseille. Stade Velodrome, for all its footballing heritage, is a rugby cauldron. Clive Woodward couldn't win there, even in 2003, and France have lost only once in this stadium. Paris is difficult enough, but it is not the heartland of French rugby, whereas Marseille is practically on the doorstep of so many of the great teams of the south.
Lose, and England go into the World Cup with their heads down and just one match - the pool game against the US on September 9 - in which to fix things before the crunch and South Africa. Win, and defending the Webb Ellis Trophy becomes a possibility, not only in optimistic English hearts but also in All Black, Wallaby and Springbok minds. Respect matters. So tonight is massive, but none the less it is the perfect setting for big players and the guys, I believe, will stand up between now and the second week of October.
Key is England's back-row. Mike Ford is a fi ne defensive coach and I'm sure the mistakes which allowed Fabien Pelous and then Sébastien Chabal in at Twickenham - both from fi rst-phase possession - will have been ironed out, but it is the chemistry between England's two fl ankers and the No8 which can banish last Saturday's biggest sin: the waste of all that possession.
The longer I am in rugby union the more I understand the importance of the open-side flanker in pulling together the backs and the forwards. Last Saturday there were times when the two units looked just that: endless recycling does not equal continuity. Phase after phase gets nowhere without quick ball. A top-class international No7 works like the oil in an engine and for the first time since Neil Back retired in 2004 England have the genuine article. I know I'm partial, but look at the videos of Tom Rees in last season's Heineken Cup and you will understand why New Zealanders venerate their No7s, especially their captain, Richie McCaw.
We tend to look to our No10s, but Jonny Wilkinson will need an on-song Rees to match his words this week to deeds tonight. At Twickenham Ollie Barkley and Mike Catt got slow ball and the English backs rarely looked like escaping the French blanket . Wilkinson has been saying all the right things this week and if the England back-row can give him a little more of a comfort zone I fancy he is in the mood to inject a bit more adventure into England's game.
However, that also means that Nick Easter has to have another big game. Forget his four tries in the drubbing of Wales a fortnight ago; that showed very little other than Gareth Jenkins misjudged things horribly. Tonight Easter, a novice in Test terms, has to prove himself a big-game player, because there are guys waiting in the wings who are.
Mind you, it's not just England who are under the cosh. The French don't appreciate having their pack shoved around at scrum time or dominated in the lineout. This week their management has been airbrushing the picture somewhat, but I fancy the machine might stutter again tonight and, so close to the start of the real thing, the stands won't be silent for long.
