Johnson wants a cricket score against Georgia

England's last outing was the 45-14 win over France at Twickenham when they took Johnson and Wilkinson off just after half-time because the game was well and truly won. Given that both players are so important to England's cause, it would make sense to repeat this move if the Georgians have been similarly humiliated.

The major selection issue that the game could settle is who will be England's starting scrum-half a week later against South Africa. Dawson has the No9 jersey on Sunday, despite a worrying ankle injury, and he will be desperate to impress after a long period as Kyran Bracken's deputy.

Bracken is now on the replacements bench having started the wins over New Zealand and Australia and the second World Cup warm-up against France at Twickenham last month.

In the past, Dawson's ability to break close to the ruck and maul has often exposed the Springboks for England and the Lions. Another eye-catching game on Sunday should keep the Northampton scrum-half in the job.

Iain Balshaw, the Bath full-back, will have to pass a fitness test to be included among the replacements and he must be 100 per cent to have any chance of breaking into the side. At present, he is merely an option with Jason Robinson, Josh Lewsey and Ben Cohen the preferred back three for England.

Captain Johnson wants a professional job from his team and is promising to prove that his pack is not made up of ageing players who will struggle to last the pace in the Cup. This is the constant claim from Australian experts and Johnson said: "We will see what happens in the tournament but we heard the same thing before we beat Australia last summer in Melbourne.

"The fact is that we are one of the older teams in the World Cup but we wake up with that every day!"

Georgia, whose players will go to Perth's Russian Orthodox church on Sunday morning, had a bruising encounter with Italy in their last match and possess hard men up front and very little in the backs. That should allow Wilkinson to bring the best out of an England threequarter line that is still being portrayed as limited and one-paced. It's how the Southern Hemisphere believes England play the game, although match videos of previous victories tell a very different story.

Australia won the 1999 World Cup in Wales thanks to a brilliant defence that conceded just one try. Everyone agrees that this will not be repeated this time round: every team will leak tries because the game has become more open. In the latter stages when the best nations go head-tohead it will be a case of damage limitation.

For now, it's the haves against the have-nots and that means the WACA scoreboard may be needed to register the England and South Africa wins this weekend in Perth.