Johnson: This doesn't mean we're the best

Our win against South Africa completed a successful autumn series, but England are not top of the pile yet - we're still a long way from that. One of the most important factors in rugby is home advantage and it is still very difficult for us to go to one of the southern hemisphere countries and win matches.

But I don't understand when people say we may be peaking at the wrong time, between World Cups, because what are we supposed to do - play badly? I am sure the coaches are doing things with the World Cup in mind and are keeping an eye on the younger players coming through. But you have to focus on each match individually. Against South Africa we wanted to play a quick game to tire them out but we never really got through enough phases to score the tries.The Aussies score a lot of points by retaining possession for a long time and we weren't able to do that on Saturday. The Springboks are big, strong and tough but our backs defended brilliantly. They tried to put Jason Robinson under pressure but he handled it well.

We lost a few line-out balls early on which was a bit of a concern - they had obviously done their homework. But I think we came right in the end. After coming back from injury I felt I coped well. Because it was so stop-start it was not a real lung-buster so I adjusted comfortably to the pace of the game.

We now feel that if we play well we can beat anyone. But it is not just a matter of turning up, we have to be at our best - that was proved in Dublin. Since the World Cup we have played Australia and South Africa quite a lot but we haven't played New Zealand. I think the supporters would like to see us play the All Blacks. They seem to have lots of players coming through so I am sure they will be in a good position for the next World Cup. Any team who can afford to leave Christian Cullen, Jeff Wilson and Taine Randell at home must be in good shape!