England tour: Clive Woodward had every excuse to lose his cool yesterday. This has been a tough tour, England have lost four of their past five Tests and the Sydney Morning Herald says his knighthood should be re-awarded "for services to thugby" after last weekend's acrimonious defeat to New Zealand.

After seven years of media sparring as England's head coach, however, Woodward has learned a few crafty moves of his own and, if his team show a similar ability to roll with the critical punches, the Wallabies will need to be on their guard at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday as they attempt to avenge last year's World Cup final defeat.

Woodward has already chosen to dip into his opposite number Eddie Jones's repertoire of pre-match kidology, repeatedly reminding his audience that the Wallabies have lost their last five games against the world champions.

"Eddie Jones has probably never had a better chance of beating England but he hasn't succeeded yet," he said. "This is their chance. Let's see if they can take it or not." The subtle transfer of pressure will not have escaped Jones's notice.

There were even a couple of decent jokes as Australians wait to hear if their rugby league star Andrew Johns is defecting to union with the NSW Waratahs ("He qualifies for England through his grandparents, you know . . .") but, banter aside, Woodward knows the onus is on the tourists to demonstrate that they are neither a weary, discontented side in terminal decline nor a team out of control on the discipline front.

He was adamant that Simon Shaw's red card and Danny Grewcock's stamping ban at the weekend were not indicative of a new wave of thuggery. "If the Australians and the All Blacks want to make a big deal of this, hopefully rational people will see we gave away only five penalties.

"That's not a team out of control. You do not win World Cups or international matches unless you play within the rules of the game and with a great deal of self-control. We still pride ourselves on that."

Woodward has lost the centre Stuart Abbott, who has flown home for a shoulder operation, but with Trevor Woodman, Richard Hill and Mike Tindall all responding to treatment, raising hopes they will be named in the side tomorrow, the coach insists that England at full strength are better than the All Blacks, despite their 2-0 series defeat.

"If the World Cup team had stayed intact and we'd come down fresh and lost by 33 points it would have been a massive blow. But I don't think that would have happened.

"I actually think we'd have won both Tests against New Zealand comfortably. When we put our best team on paper and we're fully fresh and raring to go, there's nothing I saw in New Zealand to change my mind."

Even the coach admits, however, he would have been startled to be told in November his backline against the All Blacks seven months later would include Andy Gomarsall, Charlie Hodgson, Olly Barkley, Fraser Waters and Tom Voyce. He also points out that he has rebuilt his team before now, not least after England lost 76-0 here in 1998.

One of the survivors of that traumatic game, Josh Lewsey, says the team have "a cold, steely determination to try and finish this season on a high".