With a tight, tactical battle in prospect, the match could well boil down to a shoot-out between the goalkickers on either side.

England have Jonny Wilkinson, but he has only a moderate 62.5% success rate in this tournament, compared to the 73.9% of France's Jean-Baptiste Elissalde.

Despite concerns over the balls, he said: "My whole ethos has been never to blame your tools. You want to walk off the field knowing that if you had your chance again you would do exactly the same."

If he gets the same chance as in Sydney four years ago, England fans would happily settle for the same result.