We have nothing to fear

That picture is about to be flashed up on television screens across the globe, from the desert army camps of the Gulf, where England full-back Josh Lewsey's former Sandhurst officer cadets are serving, to the main bar of Barking RFC in east London, where Jason Leonard started his rugby career when still a jobbing carpenter with a penchant for nicking food from his mate's fridge in the dead of night when he was sleeping over.

Die-hard rugby fans have been joined by new-found converts caught up in the wild enthusiasm generated by an English sports team that actually wins on a regular basis.

And to make the task even tougher, Woodward's men are attempting to claim the ultimate rugby prize on foreign soil. Yes, they do speak English over here but following every "G'day mate" is the inevitable "We're going to beat you bastards". They really do want to stuff us.

Maybe the constant victories in the Ashes series and the rugby league Tests have created a dependency on sporting triumphs over the Mother Country. That's certainly the impression given in the last week as the host nation has woken up to the nightmare thought that England might just beat Australia.

When you strip away the emotion and bigotry and examine the fundamental truths about this World Cup Final it is patently obvious that England have nothing to fear. Australia may be the reigning champions, but no country has ever successfully defended the Cup and that should still be the case at the end of this final.

England have won the past four meetings with Australia. Ben Cohen led the way in June, in a hugely impressive victory in Melbourne, when they outscored the Wallabies three tries to one. England will be looking for more of the same from Cohen tomorrow.

Last November England trailed Australia by 14 points at Twickenham yet found the self-belief to drag themselves back from the brink and claim a hugely significant victory. Martin Johnson and his England pack are vastly more experienced than the Wallabies and tremendously motivated thanks to the Australian media's constant references to Dad's Army. Yes, the forwards are mainly thirtysomethings but they finished every match stronger than the opposition and can squeeze the life out of an Australian pack that is equipped for cavalry work, not trench warfare.

Coming into this final, England have recorded 21 wins from their last 22 matches and the only reverse was a loss to France by a largely secondstring outfit in August.

England know how to win and that seriously worries every Australian.

It explains why Woodward and his England squad have been subjected to a disgraceful series of supposedly hilarious set-ups by local papers in Sydney. Jonny Wilkinson has been put on posters calling for boring rugby teams to be banned from Manly beach, where they are based.

The No10 has also been drawn as a voodoo doll with readers asked to stick pins in his image. Why is Wilkinson the hate figure? His only crime is to be the best outside-half in the world.

Wilkinson has survived a torrid early period in the Cup, which saw him described as a basket case, and lesser men would have hit out at the critics. Not Wilkinson.

He kept turning up for press conferences, answering the increasingly tedious questions about his sanity and then headed off to the training pitch where he practised those penalty kicks for hours.

When he showed outstanding footballing skills to drop goals off both feet in atrocious conditions in the semi-final with France, all the local media could think of doing was digging up Grant Batty, a former All Black from the 1970s, who put forward the case for reducing the drop goal to one point.

If England had scored 10 tries against France would they have found a rent-a-mouth to call for the try to be devalued?

To a great extent, England have managed to play a shrewd hearts-and-mind game during the World Cup and Woodward's insistence that Australia would beat New Zealand in the other semifinal proved to be inspired.

Most Australian critics had to doff their caps and accept a Pommie rugby coach had got it right while they were totally wrong.

Woodward has been equally adamant about other results, telling anyone who would listen that England were going to beat South Africa, Wales and France.

Now he is making the same noises about Australia, and the 40,000 England fans expected in the 84,000-capacity Telstra Stadium are here because they also believe English rugby history is about to be made.

So do I.