Click here to receive The Rolling Maul via e-mail, delivered free to your inbox every Wednesday

Australia appear to be the weakest of the three major southern hemisphere countries touring in Europe this autumn. They only just beat Italy, they are in transition anyway and they have lost Berrick Barnes, a key back, for the rest of the tour.

The spotlight is now, balefully, on England. Before, during and after Saturday’s match against Australia at Twickenham, there must be a total ban imposed on the normal excuses and claptrap which succeeding England managements and teams have been allowed to get away with for far too long.

They must win. Categorically, they must win. They have been together for nearly a month, they are at home and they have few injuries to significant players. If they are not ready now, they never will be. So what we absolutely do not want to hear at any stage of the forthcoming weekend is that they are a team in transition, or a work in progress, or a team that is getting there, or a team doing some good things and not others, or a team begging for more time, or a team that regards itself as being deserving of another outing together.

As I keep on saying, the future has arrived - it is no longer something that Martin Johnson and his men are aiming at. If they beat Australia they can go into the rest of their programme with momentum. And if they do not, then we will almost certainly be looking at the Six Nations campaign of 2009 as some kind of immediate salvation. Win, and only win. The time is now. And in a sense, there is more than one possible result. Victory? Terrific. Defeat? Utter disaster. Middle ground? None.

Big, bad Bakkies

Is he just bad, or is he very bad?

You do tend to get suspicious of a player involving himself with such relish in some of the murkier aspects of matches and it was interesting to read the comments of Matt Stevens, the England prop, who said that Bakkies Botha, the South African second row, had punched him a few times in the scrums during the World Cup final in Paris last autumn.

It makes you wonder whether Bakkies is the real thing, or just some kind of talisman for the team who goes around fixing disputes. If he is indeed the real thing, rather than just some kind of fixer, then the combination of he and the great Victor Matfield gives South Africa one of the all-time great partnerships.

Sometimes, he can look every inch the powerful modern day lock and other times he appears to be strangely distracted. The Scots, provided that Bakkies deigns to play against them, will be the latest pack of forwards to be put to the test and then Bakkies will come to Twickenham to run the rule over England’s rather frail-looking partnership at lock.

The jury is still out, although at the moment the judges have awarded it to Bakkies on points. Is he one of the great locks of the era or just a rather mediocre player, trying to make up for it in other ways?

At present I tend towards the former, but only just. It will be fascinating to examine the evidence, although tin hats might be advisable.