Wilkinson and co chase wins in World Cup warm-up

England will head for New Zealand and Australia determined to serve the southern hemisphere giants with a World Cup warning.

Clive Woodward’s side will look to build on home victories over the All Blacks, the Wallabies and South Africa last autumn by winning in Wellington and Melbourne next month to confirm their growing reputation as genuine contenders for the game’s biggest prize when they make the trip Down Under again in October.

England will use the short tour to attune themselves to the conditions, and fly-half Jonny Wilkinson is confident they can throw down the gauntlet for what lies ahead.

“It’s important to us to go down there for our own sake to get some experience of playing down there,” he said.

“It’s going to be helpful to us, but at the same time we want to go there and win.

“They are one-off games and even if there was no World Cup, the first off game against the New Zealand Maori team and then New Zealand and Australia, you want to win those games to be able to say you have won those games.

“We will prepare for them just like we always do, as big one-off games that we must simply try to win. If we don’t win, there will be huge disappointment; if we do win, then there will be very great elation, it’s as simple as that.

“But at the end of it, we come back and we prepare for the World Cup and we use it as a preparatory tool for the big tournament. But while we are out there, it’s going to be a case of three one-off games, and we need to put a marker down.”

England know they will have to be at their very best in the World Cup if they are to lift the trophy which has been so jealously guarded by the southern hemisphere sides over the years.

However, they are currently the form team in world rugby and went some way towards shedding their rather unkind tag of chokers with the resounding Grand Slam victory over Ireland in Dublin on March 30.

“That was a big step for everyone, not just for the sake of being able to say ‘we’ve won a Grand Slam’ but a big game like that away from home against Ireland, who were playing fantastic rugby,” Wilkinson admitted.

“The recipe was there for them to be favourites so on a day like that with the support they had, it was a big, big day for us and we managed to perform against all those elements and perform fairly well.

“It’s testament to the sides that have won the World Cup, the likes of South Africa, Australia twice and New Zealand, to say that they have been able to bring out that 100% day, or that day when they perform well enough to sneak a victory or to win well, the most often.

“Being able to do that every week against top sides is what we have been trying to prepare for with those games in the autumn, and so far, we have done well.

“But we have a long way to go and this summer will be a big example of that.”

Wilkinson’s comments came as he was unveiled as the latest Lloyds TSB ambassador to help promote the game at grass-roots level and produce successive generations of international players.

He joins the likes of Scott Quinnell, Simon Taylor, Jonathan Davies and Will Carling in one of a series of initiatives backed by Lloyds TSB, who recently set up associations with the Welsh and Scottish Rugby Unions and are sponsors of the Barbarians tour which will take place later this month.