Jason takes heart from England's great escape

Captain Johnson admitted England had been forced to "grind out a win" and added: "Everyone would've loved it - except England - if we had been beaten. We know that and Samoa nearly did it. Our defence wasn't at the races for the first 20 minutes and we were on the ropes for a little while."

Johnson is taking heart from his team's ability to dig themselves out of dodgy situations and this has been seen in the wins over South Africa and Samoa. Other leading nations are romping to huge wins while England are having their position as the top ranked team severely tested but, to date, they are maintaining a winning run.

"We know what we need to do to get better," said Johnson. "We are making too many mistakes and we won't beat teams in the knock-out stages making those kind of errors. We could've lost if we had panicked against Samoa but we didn't and after the match all the talk in the dressing room was about what we have to do to become a better side.

"We are not as good as we could be, but our fitness came through and we won the try count four to one."

Will Greenwood's return today to Brisbane, after spending time in London with his pregnant wife, will help solve many of the attacking problems that surfaced against Samoa and the inclusion of Richard Hill, the flanker, against Uruguay is another reason for England fans to feel more confident.

Hill's hamstring is now fully recovered and as Matt Dawson showed last night, players who have been sidelined by injury need game time before the quarter-final with Wales arrives.

England's training this week will reflect the numerous areas that need attention if this World Cup campaign is to move out of second gear. They have topped the group without getting close to their attacking best and with fly-half Jonny Wilkinson below par.

He appears to be struggling with the pressure opposition teams are putting on England's half-backs and having Greenwood alongside him in the coming weeks will be hugely beneficial. There is a danger that Wilkinson will train himself into the ground in a bid to iron out the mistakes and that would be counter-productive. Greenwood can bring much-needed perspective to the squad having been away for a week and Wilkinson, in particular, should seek the Harlequins centre out for a chat.

Campaigns as intensive as this cup bid can make the simplest of problems seem ridiculously big and having been given two major scares, it's time for the England squad to take a step back. They have to rediscover the clinical efficiency at the break down that used to starve opponents of ball and gave Wilkinson the time to unlock defences.

England now have the self belief that winning tight matches generates and while this Cup challenge is far from convincing, it's still very much alive.

As head coach Clive Woodward said: "This result doesn't shake my self belief in the team because we have a very confident group of players. It's still going to take a good side to beat us."