We'll ignore the hype - Johnson

Martin Johnson tonight admitted that there is nothing he can do to control the huge hype and sense of expectation surrounding England’s World Cup campaign.

England, after a relatively low-key arrival last night, spent the first full day at their central Perth hotel settling in and doing some conditioning work.

And there is no doubt, certainly among the sizeable collection of Australian camera crews and journalists already in town, that England are perceived Down Under as tournament favourites.

All the England players – Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Neil Back, Richard Hill, Matt Dawson and Jason Leonard – who were assembled for a busy opening press conference, faced repeated questions about that favourites’ tag.

After recent victories over New Zealand and Australia though, England could not have realistically expected anything else.

“The hype and tag of favourites is something done by other people. We are just here to play rugby,” said captain Johnson.

“You can let the expectation get on top of you, or you can enjoy it, and it is certainly better to be in that position than one where people expect you to lose.”

England’s opening Pool C game is against Georgia at Subiaco Oval on Sunday week, followed by a pivotal encounter with South Africa six days later that will undoubtedly shape the qualifying group.

And there is no doubt that England have arrived at the World Cup better equipped than any of their predecessors to make a major bid for global supremacy.

Johnson though, was still keen to urge caution, especially at such an early stage of proceedings.

“We know how hard it is to win these games,” he added. “There is not a huge margin between beating the big teams, or losing against them. All we have got to think about is qualifying from the pool.”

England head coach Clive Woodward also believes that favourite labels and world rankings will be irrelevant to the World Cup outcome.

England, currently ranked number one team in the world, are expected to make a major impact on the competition, but Woodward is keen to take things one step at a time and maintains his sole current focus is the Georgia encounter.

“World rankings provide good debate and banter, but we cannot control those things,” Woodward said. “The World Cup is a complete one-off event, and it has nothing to do with world rankings or any tag of favourites.

“All we are thinking about is Georgia a week on Sunday. We are not getting carried away by anything.

“The expectation is there, which is fantastic. We all appreciate the ground-swell of support back home, but the expectation from within the team is far greater than anything outside it,” he added.

England will conduct their training sessions at a school in the up-market Perth suburb of Wembley Downs.

And Woodward revealed that he had turned down the offer from tournament organisers to have screens erected around the training ground for privacy purposes.

“It wasn’t my suggestion. It all seemed a little bit claustrophobic to have screens there. We are very happy with our training facilities,” he said.

England are expected to crush Georgia by a landslide score, but although the Six Nations champions have never played them before, Woodward is taking nothing for granted.

“We have watched the video of their recent game against Italy, and it was a game they should have won. We are also aware that most of their guys play professional rugby in France.”

Georgia look as though they will face England without their skipper Ilia Zedguinidze.

The 26-year-old back-row forward suffered a head injury during Georgia’s World Cup warm-up defeat against Italy in Asti last month, and has still to receive medical clearance.

Although Georgian officials have described the injury as not serious, Zedguinidze will be examined by a doctor on Monday, when a decision is expected on his availability for the England game.