The World Cup is two days away but, in a plush Paris hotel room, Jason Leonard has a more pressing concern than the rugby ahead. “We’ve been in France almost two days, so it’s about time we had some artery-clogging food,” says the former England prop, an hour or so before lunch. “Steak and pomme frites with foie gras, perhaps.”

This is the Leonard loved by fans, the cockney carpenter from Barking who made 118 appearances for his country and helped them to win the World Cup without ever forgetting that the amateur-rugby principle that pleasure and work should go hand in hand. Today he wants to try a brasserie on the streets of St Germain but has first agreed to assess the present England team’s chances of emulating the feat his side achieved in 2003. Perhaps surprisingly, he sees reason for optimism.

“I actually think if England can win against South Africa, they can go all the way,” he says, looking forward to the key match in Pool A, the loser of which is likely to face Australia in a quarter-final. “And I think England can win that game.

"South Africa have forwards who can win ball at will, who are good in the scrum, good in the lineout. But England have a pack who can compete with any in the world, and elsewhere South Africa have similar problems to England. They’ve great backs but they’re are not scoring a load of tries. Tries from turnovers or interceptions, yes, but they’re not creating tries.”

If Brian Ashton’s side do defeat the Springboks in Paris on Friday week and overcome the United States, Samoa and Tonga in their other pool games, they will face a Wales in the quarter-final and avoid New Zealand until the final. By then, Leonard believes England will have forged the kind of solidarity that defined his World Cup winners but has been so sorely missing from a national team that has had three coaches and a consistently unsettled line-up in the four years since.

“Before winning the World Cup we went through some seriously good times, we won grand slams, we won Championships. But we also had bad times, we lost games, we lost championships. People within that group had personal tragedies. Will Greenwood lost a son, Lawrence [Dallaglio] losing his sister, Martin Johnson losing his mother. They are tragedies, of course, but they bring you together as a group. This group has not been together because of the constant state of flux.

“But they will achieve that and hopefully in this World Cup. You get a bond, something is forged during the games. They can do it, but they just need the game time, and a bit of luck. Come the semi-final, it is down to the bounce of the ball, a missed tackle, a referee’s decision or an injury.”

An England side that spent five or so years in development disintegrated quickly once Leonard quit rugby after the victory in Sydney. Other key players retired, albeit in the case of Dallaglio and Jason Robinson only temporarily, and a few missed long periods through injury, but Leonard will not accept these as sufficient excuses.

The principle blame for losing eight of nine Tests in 2006, for capitulating against South Africa and Ireland this year, and for twice losing against France in recent weeks lies squarely, he argues, with the management of Clive Woodward and his successor, Andy Robinson.

“It [the decline] started the day after we won the World Cup. The succession planning wasn’t there. The coaching staff at the time didn’t ask, ‘Who’s going to be our next team? Who’s going to be in the next World Cup?’ Perhaps they thought, ‘Well, we’ve won a World Cup, how hard is it to win the next one?’

“The rot set in and, with Andy’s two years in the job it accelerated to where we are now. Brian Ashton has inherited this situation.” Is he the right man to lead England into the tournament? “Yes, he’s a very good coach. He has a great relationship with the players. They’ve got faith in him, they like what he’s trying to achieve. He has a great relationship with the press, too. He’s an honest guy, doesn’t mince his words. A Northern guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.”

Geographical background aside, Leonard could be talking about himself in those last few sentences. In the forthcoming weeks, he will find it difficult to sit and watch Ashton's men. “I will start to kid myself that I could be out there, doing a job,” he says.

You can watch the greatest RWC matches from the past 20 years, featuring the best tries, rugby heroes, and legendary moments, exclusively on ESPN Classic, SKY Channel 442 - throughout the 2007 tournament.