By Matt Majendie

Kay has been impressed by Corry's captaincy to date

World Cup winner Ben Kay believes Martin Corry is the ideal captain to turn England back into world beaters against Australia on Saturday.

England have struggled on the field since Martin Johnson's retirement.

But Kay, who has been dropped by England for the Wallabies game, told BBC Sport: "Martin's new to the role and will go on to do a great job.

"He's a very similar captain to Martin Johnson and there's no reason why he can't go on to enjoy similar success."

Johnson inspired England to World Cup success as well as leading the Lions on a series-winning tour of South Africa in 1997.

Corry is still a relative novice as England skipper but captained them to victory against Italy and Scotland towards the end of the Six Nations.

I hate not being involved with England Ben Kay

Kay said: "Martin's a great friend of mine and I hope particularly for him that things go well against Australia on Saturday.

"Like Johnno (Martin Johnson), he's not a big-talking captain telling you what to do. But he plays very physically from the front and expects people to follow that lead."

Corry was one of the star performers in English rugby last season, which was capped by him being named Zurich Premiership player of the year and winning the players' player of the year award.

His club colleague Kay, however, has fallen out of favour with the international side and will instead face Gloucester in the league this weekend.

The 29-year-old said: "I hate not being involved with England and I'd love to play for England again but I can't worry about that.

BEN KAY FACTFILE Born: 14 Dec 1975 Position: Lock Club: Leicester Test caps: 40 England debut: 2 Jun 2001 against Canada

"You can get in a spell worrying about it too much and then you don't perform at the top level. You panic about making mistakes but I need to put that behind me.

"I just have to do my best for Leicester, enjoy my game - which I'm doing more than ever - and just hope I get picked for the Six Nations."

Kay's match against Gloucester clashes with England's international but he insists he will be in the stands at Twickenham to watch the games against New Zealand and Samoa.

The Tigers lock admits he "is not quite there" in terms of his best form and joked "I need to stay on the pitch for the full 80 minutes to impress coach Andy Robinson" in reference to a hat-trick of sin-binnings in his last three games.

But he insisted: "The first one was a penalty - nothing more - and the second wasn't even a penalty. That said, in the third instance I was fortunate not to be sent off.