IF TOBY FLOOD is to realise his potential, he needs to become England’s midfield ringmaster, in the same way Will Greenwood was for the 2003 World Cup winners. To do that, he needs to see himself as an inside-centre rather than a fly-half-in-waiting - waiting for Jonny Wilkinson to retire, or get injured - and start to impose himself as a hub in making England more of a creative attacking force.

Flood is a contradiction; sometimes he is anonymous, and at other times he makes you sit up and wonder where the hell that flash of creativity came from. When I first saw him, after hearing of him being flagged up, I was left wondering what all the fuss was all about. He was a scrawny kid who had played alongside some big names such as Wilkinson and Matt Burke, but he didn’t appear to have a huge impact.

However, last season when he made his debut in the Six Nations one thing struck me above all. He was calmness personified, despite playing in an ordinary England side in front of 80,000 people at Twickenham rather than 8,000 at Kingston Park. Apart from that, there were not too many added extras, and he appeared to amble through the World Cup – apart from the push in the final that nearly put South Africa’s Percy Montgomery into the stands at the Stade de France.

In this Six Nations, Flood has given us another glimpse of his ability, because his support of Lesley Vainikolo for his try against Wales showed intelligent reading of the game. Flood did the same for his try against Italy, tracking Wilkinson cleverly - even though only he will know why he took a flying leap on the way to touching down. Again, however, he went quiet, and although he covers the bases in defence and attack, you rarely feel that he is extending himself – and against France, apart from one flash of audacity when he took the ball in the fly-half channel, he did not set the world on fire.

In defence, he’d like to think that he’s aggressive, but he tends to hang on in the tackle rather than being a real scrapper such as Wilkinson or Jamie Noon.

But there is something about Flood as a creative force that is untapped. Against Italy he sniffed a gap, checked, went off his left foot and took it. It was enough of a break for someone reading him to have scored a cracking try – but, unfortunately, the rest of the back-line was too robotic.

What Flood has to do is step out of Wilkinson’s shadow. It’s a big shadow, and the signs at the moment are that he doesn’t have the swagger or self-confidence of Danny Cipriani.

I remember a similarly tall, gawky centre by the name of Greenwood coming into the England side. Like Flood, he wasn’t electrifyingly quick, but he had a great rugby brain, and the vision to open gaps and score a shed load of tries.

Greenwood was a creator and finisher, and Flood might have the potential to go the same way if he applies himself to the task. Greenwood’s success was built on intelligence. He was not known for his superb long passes, but he had a bit of a shuffle, and was deceptive. He held the ball out in front, making defenders think that he would offload before the tackle. He would show the ball left, then right, and as they followed the imaginary pass, he ghosted through. He was also a leader in defence, and more solid than his build made you think.

Flood should get hold of tapes of Greenwood and use him as a model. One thing he would notice straightaway is that Greenwood’s work-rate is far higher than his own. He also needs to graft on some of Greenwood’s ability to carry the ball into heavy traffic. Greenwood may not have been the most physical centre in the world, but he bumped people when he had to, and had a fantastic ability to get the ball over the top of a tackler to make the telling pass.

In his favour, Flood has one thing in his armoury that Greenwood did not, and that’s a kicking game. But overall, he has to learn to toughen up and impose himself more – which is not easy when you are 22 years old and surrounded by players with so much more experience.

But for England’s sake, and his own, he needs to take some of the load off Wilkinson and become another pair of midfield eyes who is influential in shaping England’s attack.

He can indicate the direction to go in, depending on where the opposition are weakest, and he should make it his business to be the link who brings the back three on to the ball, and into the game.

That might be getting Vainikolo to come of the blindside wing more often and to appear off either his inside or outside shoulder, or asking the full-back when and where he wants the pass.

He needs to start creating his own options and become a fulcrum as important as Wilkinson, spreading the load in terms of responsibility.

England need a whole array of attacking options at their fingertips, rather than the one or two that they appear to have at the moment. Apart from those already mentioned, Flood needs to get Wilkinson looping around him more often, and get the back row to take on some of the hard yards. For him it is a question of telling Noon to do this, and Vainikolo to do that.

At the same time, he must never stop doing what he does best, because he is a very clever support runner who reads the game incredibly well. That alone will never be enough, but if Flood uses it as a cornerstone to build on he might just develop into a new Greenwood.