Alastair Hignell: Martin Johnson has his work cut out to emulate class of 2003

Martin Johnson doesn't do sentiment.

While England fans were happy to wallow in the euphoria of World Cup success in 2003 and, like their soccer counterparts hark wistfully back to 1966, rarely turn down the chance to bathe in the nostalgia of that November night in Sydney, the man who led England to victory has never been anything but brutally honest, starkly unemotional and coldly analytical about the whole thing.

And he doesn't do flannel. A graduate, with honours, from the "call-a-spade-a-bloody shovel" school of plain speaking, Johnson has always told it like it is.

He never bothered about sparing feelings and invariably, and unerringly, has gone straight to the heart of any matter.

Which makes his recent comments all the more surprising.

In a long interview in the Sunday Times, the England manager declared unequivocally that "ability-wise, there is probably very little difference between today's team and the 2003 team".

Comparisons, we all know, are odious.

It has always been a pointless exercise comparing players of different generations – Alexander Obolensky was as much a try-scoring phenomenon of the thirties as Rory Underwood was of the nineties, but that was about all they had in common – and, given that the game has evolved so fast, it has not always been helpful to compare players whose careers were separated only by a decade.

But in this case, Johnson's not just talking about players separated by a few short years, he's actually talking about some of the same players.

Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Phil Vickery were part of Johnson's World Cup-winning team. While it may be highly debatable whether they are better players now than they were six years ago, I can't believe that there's any doubt that in virtually every other position the 2009 team is being flattered by Johnson.

Take the spine of the team. There is a theory that if you have world-class players at hooker, No 8, at half-back and at full-back, then you have every chance of a world-beating team.

In 2003, Steve Thompson was redefining the position of hooker. Bigger than the average No 2, he had the speed and ball-handling skills of the back-rower he used to be, as well as the strength, toughness and courage needed to succeed in the set scrum.

Lee Mears may be good enough to start for the Lions but, as he discovered when confronted with a Thompson-shaped Bismarck Du Plessis, he's just not big enough.

I can't think of a single rugby pundit who would pick Nick Easter ahead of Lawrence Dallaglio at No 8, or Harry Ellis in front of Matt Dawson at scrum-half.

If reports from France are to be believed, the 2009 version of Wilkinson may be even better than the player that struck the winning drop-goal in Sydney, but, good though Delon Armitage's first season was, Johnson would still have a lot of work to do to convince me that he is better than the Josh Lewsey of 2003.

Compare the second row. Johnson was probably the best lock in the world in 2003, and definitely the best captain. Steve Borthwick is a distant second on both counts.

Compare props. Andrew Sheridan may be bigger, faster and much, much stronger than Trevor Woodman, but the 2009 version of Vickery is a paler, more battered version of his 2003 self.

At centre, the Tindall of 2009 is similarly a lesser version of the Tindall of 2003 while, as promising as his first international season has been, Riki Flutey doesn't yet hold a candle to Will Greenwood.

On the wing, Mark Cueto is nowhere near as good a finisher as was Ben Cohen, while Ugo Monye can't compare to the extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime rugby player that was Jason Robinson. While Joe Worsley is nothing like Neil Back as an openside flanker, either in type, temperament or talent.

And even though Tom Croft has plenty more pace and much greater line-out skills than Richard Hill, he is nowhere near the latter in his unerring ability to be in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.

But Johnson did go on to emphasise that the 2003 team had "unbelievable experience", pointing out the team that played Wales in the quarter-final had more caps than any team in the history of English rugby.

He reckons his job is to provide today's crop with the platform so that they can become the type of players and characters that emerged in 2003.

Time is not on his side.