Johnson: England stronger

Johnson's choice of the 30-year-old Saracens lock has been the focus of intense debate with some critics querying his right to be in the England side in the first place.

But at the official Six Nations launch, Johnson (pictured) said the players were fully behind their captain.

"Steve has done a great job in difficult circumstances, the players are all behind him, he has a huge amount of integrity as a person, and as a player," Johnson said.

"The good thing at the moment is we have a good leadership group and that is the strength of any side - that you can have three, four, five guys who could be captain.

"Look at guys like Dylan Hartley, he is relatively young but he is captain of his Northampton club side, that brings him maturity and experience.

"Add to that guys like Jonny Wilkinson, Lewis Moody, Nick Easter, Simon Shaw, Riki Flutey, Mark Cueto - you start building a core of leadership there who can support Steve and help the team."

Johnson said the current squad, who finished runners-up to Grand Slam winners Ireland last year but who then endured a difficult injury-hit November international series, had improved over the last 12 months.

"We are building a good squad now, a little bit of depth in the group, more than we have ever had before. We know the (2011) World Cup is coming up and you need to plan accordingly. But you also need to be competitive and win games as you build up.

"There are a lot of young guys coming into the group, you need that balance. But we are here to win. We have never said we'll sacrifice winning games versus blooding players.

"You have to stay very competitive and also bring those guys in. That's the balance you need to strike."

Borthwick added there was no problem in his role as captain, saying: "All we can do as players is hope to be selected and do the job that the coaches want us to do. There is no problem as far as I am concerned.

"The team is going to be incredibly passionate about what we are trying to achieve. Each time we play for England it's special, it's up to us to make sure that we start this tournament as we mean to go on.

"Training has gone well so far and Twickenham is going to be packed to the rafters for the opening game against Wales. They are a good, experienced side, and all we can do is prepare as well as we can to be the best we can be on the day."

Although neither man would make any predictions, Johnson said he thought it would be hard for Ireland to repeat last season's Grand Slam success.

"They are going to be formidable again, but I think it will be tough for them to do the Grand Slam again," he said.

"Last year they found their way to win lots of close games, you win them one year, the next year they can go the other way."

One man eager to beat England is France coach Marc Lievremont, whose side crashed to what he described as a "catastrophic" 34-10 defeat to England last year.

"It is always a special game against England and it will be very special this year, maybe more so than before because we got a huge slap in the face last year at Twickenham.

"Nothing worked that day. From some losses you can build something, for example when we lost to the All Blacks, but when we lost to England, it was a catastrophe from the word go."

Asked if France had a problem against England, he replied: "The problem is we can't win against them.

"We have lost the last three, but in the 90s I think it was even worse - we lost 10 matches in a row against England, so there is a margin still between three and 10."