AT NO stage this week have England sounded like a team who expect to fly home early next week. Nor, as Martin Johnson pointedly told his audience, do they pay any heed to the opinions of those who write or talk about them. “If I let you guys influence what we do, then you should criticise me to the end of the earth.” No one, least of all Johnson, ever prospered at a World Cup by embracing self-doubt at this juncture.

How interesting, then, that Johnson’s final act before the Rugby World Cup quarter-final tomorrow was to do precisely what his critics have recommended for months. By omitting Mike Tindall, ostensibly on fitness grounds, and picking Toby Flood at centre alongside Jonny Wilkinson to face the French he finally has a midfield with a finely balanced feel to it.

If it works out, he will insist it was always part of the masterplan. And if not? Well, he was right to be stubborn all along, wasn’t he?

To an extent the coaching staff are effectively crossing their fingers and hoping for the best. All those opportunities to experiment since Johnson took the job in 2008, and what happens on the eve of the biggest game of his managerial life? Selecting Flood and Wilkinson in the same team for the first time in 20 months – and assembling England’s 15th different centre pairing in 40 Tests – is the kind of selectorial lurch more usually associated with Marc Lievremont than Johnson.

The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that England have privately accepted they will struggle to go much further in this tournament if they do not up the tempo at which they play. Tindall’s absence from training this week with a dead leg has belatedly allowed them to explore the option of another playmaker at Wilkinson’s elbow.

Frankly, they cannot keep starting matches with all the elan of a bag of cement. It also provides some insurance should Wilkinson’s kicking radar go haywire again. In the end, given Flood’s excellent track record against the French and the fact both he and Manu Tuilagi know each other from Leicester, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

Quite how much longer Wilkinson has left in an England jersey after this tournament remains uncertain but at least he still has the chance to bow out on his own terms. The French still struggle to comprehend certain aspects of English culture – pork pies, binge-drinking, cricket, etc – but they know all about Le Jonny. Wilkinson has supplied all but five of England’s points in their two successive World Cup semi-final wins over France and, if nothing else, retains a vice-like grip on the French psyche.

Tom Palmer speaks enough French to have a chance to decode the opposition’s intentions and will also improve a lineout which creaked against the Scots. Nick Easter, his back problem now behind him, is a far more experienced number eight than James Haskell, who now finds himself among five forwards on the bench. It is a smarter selection across the board, particularly if the game is as physical up front as it threatens to be.

England will also fancy getting at Morgan Parra, France’s makeshift outhalf, and the combination of Flood and Wilkinson should do their tactical kicking no harm. “Having Toby there is hugely reassuring, less in terms of having a (goal-kicking) safety net than knowing there is always going to be someone there making decisions,” admitted Wilkinson.

Equally vital will be Matt Stevens’s ability to avoid the bent-back scrummaging position which has cost England forward momentum, particularly with Nicolas Mas back in the French frontrow.

Assert themselves in those basic areas in the opening 20 minutes and England will be optimistic of completing the job, rather than praying for a late flash of game-saving inspiration.