Pressure is England's biggest test

A further solid victory over France at Twickenham on Saturday is leaving Martin Johnsons England team in great shape ahead of the this Septembers World Cup and a potential Grand slam, as they head into the remaining Six nations games with Scotland and Ireland on the back of three convincing wins.

The excitement and buzz around Twickenham at the full time whistle on Saturday, is a result of an exciting and fresh England team who have made incredible strides with their performances over the last few months. On the verge of a grand slam, the excitement of England fans is understandable. But despite trying to remain optimistic, I do fear that English supporters may get ahead of themselves. The irony of performing well, results in additional pressure and expectation on the young English team from the English fans and media. This could be the deciding factor in England's success whose main weakness is their experience of being in high pressured situations. Their recent goalwire live scores have been good, but that doesn't guarantee future success.

As the country gets excited, more and more comparisons are made between the current team and their potential to emulate the 2003 World Cup winning team of which Johnson captained.

Fortunately Martin Jonson is quick to play down the future potential of his team as he refuses to look beyond the next game and their current rugby live scores.

Of course it is human nature to get carried away and hope for the best for our national teams. But too many times in sport do we see that the hyped up expectations and pressure from us fans and media, is actually one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome to achieve success.

Comparisons with the team of 2003 are certainly too premature. Johnson's men certainly have the ability to defy the odds and bring home the world cup in September but they lack the experience which was the core of the 2003 team's success. It would be certainly sensible to relax the hype around England's hope when heading to New Zealand, in order to give them the best chance of victory.