Nick Westby: Defeat for England still leaves plenty of reasons to be cheerful

Bear with me, there is reason to an argument that goes against the grain of all sporting mantras – win at all costs.

Should England have beaten the world champions at an icy HQ, adding to that spirited and devastating destruction of Australia earlier in the month, then the expectation surrounding Johnson's team would have been sent into orbit.

The Six Nations in the forthcoming spring, would be a breeze. After all – it's only the northern hemisphere teams, and after running the world No 1 All Blacks close and defeating two more of the Tri-Nations powerhouses then the best the British Isles and across the channel can throw at us will be a doddle.

And the World Cup, well we're peaking just nicely for the biggest prize of all and a third final of the century is a cert.

Plus, Johnno has captained a winning World Cup team Down Under ... managing one is just perfect symmetary to a stellar union career.

England would also have moved to No 2 in the world, a rise of four places from their starting position at the beginning of the month. Look out All Blacks, here we come.

No, defeat to the reigning world champions – however far removed from the team that won in France three years ago and now clearly smarting after a difficult year – was the perfect grounding for this developing team. Johnson went into the Autumn Internationals with his job by no means secure after a such a stern baptism of managerial fire in his first two years in office.

The tide that slowly began to turn in Sydney when they beat the Wallabies, gained velocity when they thrashed the same opponents just two weeks ago, with the kind of entertaining, uninhibited rugby the paying public want to pay their money to go and see.

That performance finally illustrated England can compete with the best and beat them convincingly, which in a World Cup year is a heartening prospect.

However, what is also required in a World Cup year is reality, a dose of which was served up at Twickenham by the Springboks.

England still have work to do, they are by no means peaking now – there is no point – but are on the road to peaking when it matters most, in New Zealand next September and October.

Saturday's defeat will keep their feet on the ground – not that a manager in Johnson who controls his emotions on such an even keel would ever let his players think otherwise.

No-one will be getting ahead of themselves – not Ben Youngs the dynamic scrum-half, Courtney Lawes the exciting second row, or Mike Tindall the ageless warrior who has been there, seen it, done it, got the tee-shirt and is now determined to pull it on one more time.

England know the hard yards are still ahead of them – starting with that eagerly-awaited Six Nations in February and March which always takes on added spice in a World Cup year.

After a November of progression with two wins out of four, England will go into the tournament among the favourites.

Scotland have similarly impressed this month – it was their victory over the Springboks in Edinburgh nine days ago that sent Peter de Villiers men down to London hungry to prove growing doubters wrong. But Ireland and Wales are where England were 12 months ago – struggling for rhythm and running out of time.

France pose the biggest challenge as they so often do, but in England's favour is the fact that they play three of the five Six Nations' games at home, with the French set to visit Twickenham in the third game on March 26.

Following that, the countdown to the World Cup really begins with England not scheduled to go head-to-head with one of the Tri-Nations set – who between them will be favourites to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy next October – until the World Cup quarter-final.

England's warm-up schedule sees them play Wales home and away and Ireland in August.

When the serious stuff actually starts, England have already been paired in a group with Scotland and Argentina, a pool from which they should emerge with their head above water.

Granted, without a genuine test against one of the big three, they may be rusty when the time actually comes – something the All Blacks found to their detriment three years ago when they swam unchallenged through their pool only to drown against the first real opposition they met in the quarter-finals. But England will benefit from being in a group from which the Pumas and Andy Robinson's Scots will feel confident they can emerge out of.

A genuine belief pervades around the England camp that Johnson and his coaching staff have settled on the men to take them forward.

The aforementioned Youngs and Lawes could be England stalwarts for years to come, while Toby Flood, Chris Ashton, Ben Foden and Shontayne Hape are all developing with England's steady rise.

Mark Cueto and Tindall add experience to the back division, while Danny Care, Matt Banahan and Delon Armitage are hungry twentysomethings, all battle-hardened by their Test-match exposure over the last two years.

There is also a certain Jonny Wilkinson who may have one last swan-song, and Charlie Hodgson has also forced his way back.

In the forwards, Lawes is in good company with Tom Croft, Dylan Hartley, Nick Easter and Dan Cole, while Lewis Moody, Andrew Sheridan and Leeds Carnegie's Steve Thompson add the required experience. Joe Worsley, James Haskell and another Leeds man Hendre Fourie swell a back row unit as strong as any in the world.

All in all, there is much to look forward to from this England, with defeat to South Africa just another experience to serve them well.

and another thing ...

ZURICH becomes the epicentre of the world on Thursday.

All eyes will fall on the romantic Swiss capital where Fifa will vote on which countries will get to host the the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Here in Yorkshire, the cities of Leeds and Sheffield will wait for news that will surely boost their economies in difficult times with the Elland Road and Hillsborough among the stadiums chosen as part of England's bidding package for the 2018 tournament.

The voting process has been blighted by scandal after demoralising scandal from the very outset, gathering pace in recent months, all of which will be pretty much forgotten if England prevail against Russia and the joint bid from Spain and Portugal.

Should England be edged out, all hell will then surely break loose.

There is very little clean nowadays in a game dominated by money; be it the pitches where the action takes place, or in the boardroom where the real issues are decided.

Whatever the outcome on Thursday, is it too much to ask that it is arrived at fairly and in the spirit the game is supposed to be played in?