England stay calm in their Manly cocoon

RUGBY WORLD CUP/Countdown to final: Gerry Thornley is impressed by the serene and even light-hearted mood in the England camp as the locals do their best to get a rise out of their favourite enemies.

On Monday night, as he sauntered along the road which runs alongside the Pacific Ocean in Manly, after a meal with his wife in one of the many local restaurants, Clive Woodward seemed totally relaxed. The heat may be rising around England, but the way they have constructed a cocoon of calmness for themselves is impressive.

The throngs of autograph hunters and snappers outside the hotel continues to grow, but the training schedule, like everything else about them, runs like clockwork. As do the daily media conferences. There are any manner of questions loaded to stoke the sporting enmity between England and Australia, or the personal enmity between Woodward and Eddie Jones, but each one is given a smile, a reflective pause and a response which cannot offend anyone.

On being told the Australian media had accused England of applying boring Six Nations rugby wherein three-pointers are king, captain Martin Johnson responded: "We were accused of that after we went to New Zealand during the summer, we were accused of that during the tournament, so no, I'm not surprised by it. It's part of what goes on whenever we're over here.

"Australia scored one interception (try) and five penalties and played brilliantly to win a semi-final. Their press had been writing them off all week, which was entirely wrong, and what they're writing about us this week is up to them. Whoever wins on Saturday, and however they do it, will be world champions and deserving of the title."

Even Jonny Wilkinson caught the mood and cracked what was for this intensely studious and devoted young man something of a one-liner. Asked about the inevitable debate that has sprung up about devaluing the drop goal in light of his expertise, he said: "I'm not necessarily the right person to talk to about that.

"But I think it's the way the game is. It's part of the laws, everybody understands it going into the game, so what can you do? Play to the rules and get on with it. I just hope it stays at three."

Johnson chipped in with a telling point. "We got knocked out of the last World Cup by a guy who knocked over five drop goals against South Africa, and we had to go home, it's as simple as that. You take the points that are in front of you. New Zealand and France would love to be having dropped goals to win the game. Papers will talk about a lot of things this week, next week and the week after. We'll just try and win the game on Saturday night."

All the while there was plenty of good humour, with Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio exchanging jokes either side of Wilkinson, who once had to bow his head to hide his laughter from the battery of television cameras and flash bulbs.

Johnson, though, had to take one on the chin from Dallaglio and laugh it off when the latter was asked to evaluate the English captain's contribution. "A couple of needless penalties," said Dallaglio, in reference to Johnson's early indiscretions against the French, "but we've sorted him out."

Another journalist also relayed to Johnson that Austin Healey had forecast the English captain would retire from Test rugby after Saturday's final.

"Is that what he said? We've talked already about rubbish being spoken and that man's the king of that, isn't he?" Johnson retorted with a broad smile. "He just wanted to say something that someone would listen to, and you were the fool. With due respect."

Johnson was in vintage form. When the point was made that Australia might be weakened by losing tighthead Ben Darwin, which promotes Al Baxter to the starting line-up and the even less experienced Matt Dunning to the bench, he was asked would they be targeting the Wallabies in that area.

"Well, do you mean will we try and push in the scrum? Yeah," he said.

Meantime, the baiting continued, but these English players weren't biting.

What Clive Woodward once called the pre-match "propaganda" (a ritual, pre-match Australian event) was instigated by claims from former Australian coach Bob Dwyer that English players have a tendency to join the rucks from the sides. At least it was a change from the earlier campaign about their rolling maul, but in any event, Dallaglio merely raised his eyebrows and gave his inquisitor that damning glare of his: "Who's referee, Andre Watson?"

But he did use it as an opportunity to highlight their improved discipline in this tournament. "We've had some high penalty counts against us earlier in the tournament, but we've worked hard on it and conceded only eight penalties against Wales and seven against France, so we must be doing something right."

Indeed, even this is indicative of how little or nothing is left to chance.

Ireland's decision to hire Emily Foster, a bio-mechanist, to monitor and, in some instances, change the way a player normally runs, looked too much like expertise for expertise sake.

More appropriate is Woodward's decision to bring in English referee referee Steve Lander to help them work on the vague area of the breakdown at every session. They also have their own chef to oversee their meticulously planned diets.

Woodward has been slightly embarrassed that their acquisition of an anti-bugging device, which has been used to check out their dressing-rooms and hotels, was leaked to the media, but it also served to highlight his meticulous, and even creative, attention to detail.

Nevertheless, when he was reminded that the Australians had learnt the Lions' codes for their lineout calls, Woodward also couldn't resist a dig at the Lions management when they were based in Manly two years ago.

"I think it's common sense. We won't be training at Brookvale Oval with every man and his dog walking past at a lineout session, which I don't think was the smartest thing to do. We just use this equipment to make sure the team meetings are secure and the changing rooms are secure. You can do so much, but the bottom line is that if another team is hell bent on watching you and use the modern equipment, such as a helicopter, which has happened to us on this trip, there's not much you can do about it. But you've still got to be smarter than the average bear."