All Blacks have strength to do to us what our forwards did to Australia

No disrespect to Australia's scrum but the chat in the dressing room was already turning to the All Blacks before some of us reached the showers. New Zealand, as we're all aware, will be the acid test. After a short post-match reception the vast majority of the lads got back on the bus, returned to our hotel in Bagshot and went straight to bed because we know how important this week is going to be.

We obviously have to improve considerably in certain areas but we're realistic enough to know that. What happened at Twickenham was great but you have to take it with a grain of salt and say Australia weren't at their best, especially up front. They let us take forward supremacy far more easily than would normally be the case and no one expects that to apply this Saturday.

Last time we played New Zealand everyone predicted our scrum, with a similarly destructive scrummager in Julian White, would give them trouble. When push came to shove they came out and demolished our forwards. Everyone looks at New Zealand and talks about their exciting attacking backline but they've also got a very good set of forwards who pride themselves on their work at the set-piece.

We do, though, have Andrew Sheridan. How strong is he? Maybe the following story will give you an idea. During our autumn training in Loughborough, where we did a lot of physical work, myself and Danny Grewcock were looking around for a spare bench in the gym. Sheri was on a bench on his own and invited us to join him. We both declined, saying we weren't in his ball-park, but he told us not to worry, explaining that he was only doing a light session. Unfortunately we discovered his "light" weights were still too heavy for either of us to lift.

I'm told that when he was at Bristol he lifted weights that would have qualified him for our Olympic weightlifting team. He's just a beast of a man and unnaturally strong. Most rugby players pride themselves on their strength but when Sheri's in the gym everyone just turns and stares. He doesn't just lift a small percentage more than anyone else, it's massively greater. I'm simply glad he's on our side.

Australia certainly had no answer on Saturday until the game went to uncontested scrums, which no one enjoys. It is tough to accept when you've got such dominance and it gets taken away from you. In some ways, though, it did us some good because in those last 10 minutes we strung together a passage of play which lasted 17 phases and led to Mark Cueto's try.

You could argue, had there not been uncontested scrums, that sequence would not have happened. Instead we now know we can play like that if we want to. We don't just have to score off first, second or third phase; we can also keep hold of the ball and get something at the end of it.

The even better news, having inquired about Matt Dunning, is that his neck injury seems less serious than first feared. Speaking to George Gregan on Saturday night, he's also taking consolation from the fact that things could be worse for the Wallabies. He knows they're not playing well but they're not losing by much and it's certainly character-building. If it means they have to go through this trough in order to be tougher to beat at the World Cup I think they'll take that.

We're also making progress in that regard. Winning the World Cup leaves you with a certain amount of baggage; everyone compares the squad with 2003 and it's vital we create a new identity. I felt the way we played in parts went some way towards that.

First and foremost we had to win, which is satisfying in itself. We took them apart in the front five and our lineout on our own ball was excellent. Of course there are aspects we can improve but, after Saturday, we can now do that from a winning base. It makes life so much easier.

As for myself, I'll obviously be doing my best not to drop the opening kick-off on a regular basis. It wasn't the greatest of starts but, once it has happened, you can let it go one of two ways. You can either let a dodgy first couple of minutes affect your whole game or you can try and put it right.

I like to think it was an uncharacteristic fumble and I intend it to remain that way. If I could just take out the first five minutes, I would be very content with what I contributed over the remaining 75 minutes.