So that’s it then. The big bloke takes over from the small bloke. England win everything. When Martin Johnson was sounded out for a role with the 2005 Lions, after his retirement from playing, he complained bitterly. “People think all I have to do is stand on the touchline and we will win,” he said, not without accuracy.

He was at it again on Friday, in front of the media for the first time as team manager, and still denying the legend. “I have always tried to tell people that I am not an icon,” he said. “It is not so simple that everything will become all right as soon as I get into the dressing room.” And that’s the trouble with these icons. Too modest.

Naturally, it is preposterously early in this second coming of England’s messiah to judge whether he has the remotest chance of success; not even Johnson could escape the need on Friday for a media-speak platitude, even smoothing over brief disagreements among the surrounding hacks.

I was not expecting to be inspired or to be filled full of sudden hope for England. But he was vastly encouraging, and for me he showed why his matchless passion and hunger for success in the England jersey is as relevant in his new job as it was on the field; he also showed that his rock-solid grasp of rugby, its tactics and stylistics, will also be supremely relevant.

You see, I cannot resist bringing up the old debate - win or develop. You do not have to be a keen-eyed reader to know that for me there is nothing of any relevance whatsoever in an international rugby match except its outcome. Others harp on that there is some kind of lasting significance, some kind of investment for the future (which never arrives, incidentally), by choosing a team with an eye on challenges to come. All that ensures is that you never choose your best team.

I put it to Johnson that the easiest way of taking the pressure from his shoulders was for England to win games. He agreed in full. “The World Cup is a massive thing, perhaps we let it become too significant, because it is three-and-a-half years ahead of us. Until then, it is all about playing and winning Test matches, about enjoying the experience of individual matches. If you are stable and confident, you can bring in the new player to a confident side, into a team used to winning.” Note perfect, Martin. No claims that academy players should be ripped from the womb.

Then on to the other great catastrophe that tends to engulf new coaches: style. Much of Brian Ashton’s career with England was blighted, through no fault of his own, by an endless stylistic debate and by expectations that since he was well-regarded as an attack coach, his team would suddenly sprout wings and fly. They never did.

The style debate goes on. The International Rugby Board, pushing their appalling and useless experimental law variations, are trying to insist one style of play is better than another. Wales hung themselves out to dry for years by inflicting a single style upon themselves, something they called the Welsh Way.

It is garbage. Why claim to have a national style? The great news is that Johnson will not. “Why would you talk about a gameplan when on the day the weather can change, the referee can be a problem, one part of your team may not be as good as you thought?” he said. “What happens to your style? It is all about adapting on the field, finding a way to win, and doing what it takes. Why nail yourself to a style of play? The art is to win.”

So Johnson is off the blocks, unencumbered by two of the most draining dogmas imaginable, which have hampered and broken decent men and coaches. He wants only to fix his eye beadily on the next game, and will not demand attack or defence or power play or frippery or genius or kicking or running. He will simply want players to perform whatever the needs of the match and the moment dictate. Again, inch perfect, and another indication that Johnson is bringing with him the good sense of a great career.

He has practical steps still to take. He is on the search for a backs coach, hinting that the lucky man could be stationed above the other coaches in the hierarchy. This suggests he may not quite have given up hope of persuading Pat Howard, a former Leicester colleague, to return from Australia, where Howard had intended to stay. If Johnson was intending to install the estimable Mike Catt, highly promising as a coach but almost as inexperienced as Johnson, then surely he would not be envisaging a role above the existing coaching staff. Again, however, you sense that honest Midlands judgment will prevail.

It is also time to overhaul the England squad, and for promising young thrusters, some of them in their fourth year of being promising, to be replaced by sound and physical footballers who have the game and the gumption to influence matches.

England’s midfield remains a problem and it is true that for all his reputation and past excellence as a backs coach, Ashton could never draw much return from the department. That was down to personnel he picked rather than the coaching he achieved. Danny Cipriani, Olly Barkley and Mike Tindall should form a complementary, physical and accomplished midfield. If Josh Lewsey and Paul Sackey are stationed behind them, you have the nucleus.

The biggest problem for Johnson’s England lies in his old position in the second row.

England possess promising players in the front and back rows but little in-between. The notion that Simon Shaw is feeling the rigours of the season is not the point. After the work he has put in, it is remarkable he does not take the field on a stretcher. Let us trust him to recover freshness. But who can be trusted alongside? The answer may be to go back on the notion that Johnson must only pick from the ranks of the experienced. The giant Richard Blaze of Leicester would benefit from a boot up the backside from Johnson.

It is pleasant to be discussing playing matters after so long. I hope Johnson continues to trust his eyes and judgment, rather than the opinions of people trying to impress him and score points by bringing up weak-nesses in the team room. It was good to be reminded that England’s new team manager is still imbued with all the strengths that are as relevant as ever.

And frankly, whatever the shortcomings of the process, it is good to have one of the most inspirational figures in sport and English rugby around again, just when it is most needed.

Jones’s England XV

J Lewsey; P Sackey, M Tindall, O Barkley, J Simpson-Daniel; D Cipriani, H Ellis; A Sheridan, D Hartley, M Stevens, S Shaw, R Blaze, L Moody, T Rees, J Haskell (capt)

My captain would be a man as charismatic as Johnson himself, in James Haskell of Wasps. It would be a long-term choice, banishing the seesaw changes that have hindered England of late and allowing Haskell to settle into the job. Mike Tindall would be my only other contender.