Johnson has to finally deliver a performance, if not victory

When the rugby cognoscenti of London turned up on that January Saturday in 1910 they did so in such numbers that the kick-off had to be delayed by 15 minutes – no TV producers with schedules to keep in those days – and they thrilled to an 11-6 win for the home side.

Afterwards players and spectators alike would have looked forward to a relaxing dinner before bed; church in the morning; office and profession again on Monday. The amateur ethos was in safe hands.

Today's punters will travel by car, plane and train to a stadium given over almost totally to making money; the players on both sides will be in a physical and mental condition far removed from that of their counterparts a century ago – professional to their toenails.

Everyone with an interest to declare will tell you we are playing a different game and they are right. But, different or not, England's supporters, players and management, not least the man in charge of the team Martin Johnson, would love an opening minute or two to equal that of a century ago.

Wales – in the shape of Ben Gronow, then a prop with Bridgend, later the coach of Morley – kicked off and England's captain Adrian Stoop, the flamboyant Harlequin fly-half (who later had his club's ground named in his honour) dispensed with orthodoxy.

Instead of gathering the ball and kicking to touch, he did what William Webb Ellis, another product of Rugby School, had done before him; he ran with it.

He galloped into the Welsh half and after a brief ruck and swift handling from four other England players, the home side scored in the corner. Within 75 magical seconds England were ahead with an audacious try. Victory by any margin over Wales today would delight Johnson, his employers and all those of us who would love England to win the Six Nations Championship. We would also like to see a glimmer of the style of rugby which might just give hope for next year's World Cup, a touch of the Adrian Stoops.

The irony is that should any England player attempt to replicate what Stoop did in 1910, Johnson and most of them around him would be in danger of apoplexy.

England run with the ball? Do something unorthodox? That would be against virtually all previous form from a team coached by a player who spent most of his time buried deep in scrum, ruck and maul or battling hand-to-hand for possession at the lineout. Johnson was a tight forward and he is a tight coach, or rather has been thus far in his career. Today, we are told, things will change.

Who tells us? The players no less, obviously speaking with the authority of the beetle-browed one whose playing style has been so abysmally dull the majority of the rugby public have been driven to despair.

Listening to the England players was like hearing the first birds of spring. "As a group our mind-sets have opened up a bit to try things," said Otley-born scrum-half Danny Care, like Stoop a Harlequin. "We have the full support of the coaches to go and express ourselves." Hooker Dylan Hartley waxed further: "Things have definitely changed since the autumn," he said. "Going into the forthcoming games there will be a new style of rugby, a heads-up style."

Even No 8 Nick Easter enthused: "You've got to back your players and play heads-up rugby," he said.

Can there be an admission of error here? "Heads-up rugby" is a key phrase in the coaching manual of Brian Ashton, the man who led England to runners-up position in the 2007 World Cup, second place in the Six Nations and was brutally sacked for his pains.

Those who still defend Johnson and his coaching "qualities" – a much-reduced band since the growler took over in April 2008 – have stuck to his themes: that because of injuries he has never been able to pick a first-choice XV; that his players are worn out by too many Premiership and Heineken Cup battles; that he needs more time to develop young players.

There are hints of truth in all that but they hardly constitute a valid excuse for the turgid rugby we have seen on Johnson's watch. Injuries are part of the game and every other country suffers; English clubs carry big enough squads for the programme they face; Johnson has been almost pathologically reluctant to field new talent even when the opportunity arose.

Today we will hopefully see the start of the second phase of Johnson's reign; to see if England can indeed play rugby.

He knows if the RFU hierarchy – the men who knifed Ashton and put a man with no coaching background in his place – were going to sack him they would have done so after the three pre-Christmas defeats. To leave it until after this Six Nations would be too late; the World Cup would be not so much on the horizon as in their face.

To win today would be excellent but even to lose playing a different kind of game to that played in November might offer signs of progress.

Then again, even a smile from Johnson would indicate progress and he, like the other realists, appreciates that to win England will need to overcome a Wales team which appears superior in virtually every department with the possible exception of the front five.

Ah well, heads up lads, you have to start somewhere.