England risk trouble if they pick an unfit captain for Rugby World Cup

There is an interesting passage in Martin Johnson's autobiography in which he discusses the difference a captain can make. He cites the occasion when Will Carling returned to the dressing-room in the build-up to England's 1994 encounter with France in Paris. "We were all very apprehensive. They were a very good side and this was a huge game. Will came in from tossing up with Olivier Roumat, the French skipper. 'Bloody hell,' he said. 'That Roumat is nervous as hell. You can see it in his eyes. He looks really anxious and wound up.' Instantly you could sense the dressing-room lift. They must be worried about us. And we went out and beat them." When he himself became England captain, Johnson remembered Carling's example and decided to try a similar psychological ploy. "When the Lions played the first Test against the South Africans in 1997, I came back from tossing up and told the boys that Gary Teichmann had been really on edge. I completely made it up – he had looked fine – but again we relaxed slightly, played well and won." The moral of the story? Captains do not win games single-handedly but the odd well-chosen or well-timed word can be of real importance. Or are such bon mots wholly irrelevant? Fast forward to 2011 and Lewis Moody, talking on the eve of last week's World Cup warm-up game against Wales: "A lot is made of being captain but, on the day, you don't have a huge amount to do other than talking to referees at certain points during the game. Your main role as captain is to focus on playing as well as you can." England duly went out and won, which goes to show that, erm, hands-on leadership takes many different forms. Only after Moody had left the field injured did his team lose their way. Coincidence? It depends on your point of view. So does captaincy really matter? Michael Atherton, in his autobiography, reckoned rugby and football are different from cricket. "It is the manager or coach who has ultimate control, leaving the captain as nothing more than a glorified cheerleader on the field." So when people yearn for an England rugby captain with the understated, holistic impact of an Andrew Strauss, they misunderstand professional sport. Rugby, apparently, does not require a captain to be anything more than a good tosser. The only problem with that theory, particularly at international level, is that the historical evidence suggests otherwise. Would Australia in 1999 and South Africa in 2007 have won their World Cups without the estimable John Eales and John Smit, respectively, at the helm? Did Nick Farr-Jones and Francois Pienaar have next to no input to their countries' triumphs in 1991 and 1995? And what about Johnson himself in 2003? Some will tell you that, before the start of extra-time in the final, Johnson told Clive Woodward in blunt terms to leave the players alone in their huddle. Sir Clive, as he would become, wandered off to find Jonny Wilkinson instead. Johnson, Dawson and Wilkinson addressed a few tactical issues and that was it. The rest is English folklore. No, the truth of it is that captaincy does matter. Or, rather, good captaincy matters. You can lead by example or, like Smit, by knowing precisely which buttons to push at moments of maximum stress. Ideally, you should be sharp and decisive tactically; if you happen to be a good 'people person' so much the better. But as Johnson waits to see if Moody will be fit enough to command an automatic place in the team to face Argentina in England's opening pool game on 10 September, you wonder what he is really thinking. He is modest to a fault about his own considerable captaincy input but, as the Lions found with Ciaran Fitzgerald in New Zealand in 1983, you risk trouble if you appoint a captain for a major tour or World Cup who, for reasons of fitness or form, is not the pre-eminent player in his position at the time. The best teams in the forthcoming World Cup will be the ones possessing strong, undisputed, fit leaders. Those who don't have them, historically at least, will fall short. Dark Arts Enough already about black shirts. Wales will be wearing them this week, with England reverting to white, but the novelty has already worn off. It is all getting a bit yawntastic, unless you happen to work for a certain sportswear company. But, hang on, what's this? According to unofficial research done by one zealous rugby statistician, England's penalty count dips by 25% when they wear a jersey colour other than white. Any truth in this? Well, let's see. England conceded eight penalties wearing black last Saturday. How many will it be in white this weekend? Top ranking So, Ireland's 10-6 loss to Scotland has bumped them down to sixth in the IRB world rankings . England now occupy fourth spot following their victory over Wales at Twickenham, while France also climb one to fifth. A fair representation? We shall find out soon enough. These World Cup warm-up games grow ever more intriguing ...