Talismanic fly-half Jonny Wilkinson believes England's rugby stars must forget about their post-2003 World Cup woes if they are to have any hope of defending their title in France.

The world champions have been on a downward spiral since Wilkinson kicked Sir Clive Woodward's men to the Webb Ellis trophy with his never-to-be-forgotten last-gasp drop-kick in the final in Sydney almost four years ago.

But boss Brian Ashton will be hoping his men can raise their game when they kick off their defence against South Africa ahead of group matches against Samoa, Tonga and the United States and a possible quarter-final clash with the Wallabies.

And Wilkinson believes England's players have the ability to find their form when it matters, telling reporters: "You have an enormous amount of self-belief and you never let that brim over into anything but pure confidence in what you are doing and what you are able to do if you get it right on the day.

"The concept of even thinking about losing any games has always been something I have never been able to compute.

"So, going into this World Cup now, it is really a case of understanding that we need to be undoubtedly at our very best on the match day - and especially along the way on three or four big match days in order to succeed to the level we want to win this."

The 28-year-old continued: "You do not sit here now and think 'is this going to be too much?', you just think 'right, we have not had the run of results we had four years ago where we went in with an unbeaten record and were able to take the momentum in'.

"So, in exchange of that momentum, we are going to have to find an extreme togetherness and a positivity that is going to allow the best to come out of everyone under big pressure."