If one word has been used more by England, management and players, during their preparations for Saturday’s meeting with Australia at Twickenham, it is trust.

It is a virtue that all teams have, not only in sport, and it takes time to develop. After one year of Martin Johnson’s management, this month’s Investec Challenge Series will show whether England have developed enough of it.

Johnson confirmed yesterday the starting XV widely expected against the Wallabies, who name their side today. It reunites three 2003 World Cup winners — Jonny Wilkinson, Steve Thompson and Lewis Moody — who were part of a team who took nearly four years to reach full maturity and the degree of trust that enabled them to beat the best of the southern hemisphere away from home.

These days coaches and players spend more time together and incoming players — such as Courtney Lawes and Ayoola Erinle, the uncapped individuals on the bench — receive assistance (should they need it) in their public utterances. But Lawes, 20, offered the most positive impression of his brief time with the senior squad, alongside two of the men who convinced him to take up the sport, Johnson and Wilkinson.

He was 14 when Wilkinson dropped the goal that won the World Cup, now he and the fly half are team-mates. Lawes has no more than 20 starts for Northampton behind him, Wilkinson is a world record-holder, but the younger man must understand that now they are of equal importance in the wider scheme of things.

It is a big step to take, for Lawes, for Erinle, whose dream of playing for England had all but died, but just as big for Thompson, even though he has 48 caps behind him, because two years ago he thought his career was over.

This was what Johnson emphasised yesterday, that if injuries have affected his plans, they have also allowed him to recall Thompson, to offer Jordan Crane and David Wilson starting places and the chance to show they are worthy of long-term selection, and to give Shane Geraghty his head.

“The squad has a better feel to it in terms of spirit,” Johnson said. “Last year it felt like a group of 30 players had been thrown together, and the guys you play Test-match rugby with have to have trust in each other.”

Johnson’s regime was characterised by Graham Rowntree, his scrum coach, as being replete with honesty, relentlessness and integrity. “He has grown into the job, he has found his style, how he wants to manage,” Rowntree said. “He has really worked on the spirit and values. A year ago, I don’t think we were prepared to do as much for each other as we are now.”

These are easy virtues for a young group to understand, harder to live up to when Australians, Argentinians and New Zealanders place them under scrutiny. But Johnson can hold up his trio of World Cup winners as examples to the rest, alongside the likes of Ugo Monye, Tom Croft and Tim Payne as players who experienced an uplifting tour with the Lions in South Africa last summer.

The team manager has no qualms in moving Monye from wing to full back. “He’s a very composed guy, he’ll handle the position well,” Johnson said. “He’s shown real leadership with the back three this week.”

Similarly, he will field Wilson at tight-head prop, even though he has started only once for Bath this season and has had to recover from a knee operation that has limited his game time. But Wilson can only benefit from the experience alongside him of Thompson and the work he has already done over the past year with Rowntree, who revealed that he has also had a hand in the preparation of Ben Alexander, the Australia prop. When Alexander was playing at Bedford, he was coached a couple of times by Rowntree, who considers that the Wallaby pack has improved considerably.

If it is Wilson’s first appearance in a Twickenham international — Lawes has not played a game at headquarters — it is also the first match there since March 2006 for Thompson. Had Dylan Hartley not suffered a hamstring twinge, it is possible that he would have started, but Johnson said: “We had to get Dylan through some hoops in terms of fitness. He’s disappointed not to start, but we’ve seen what can happen with hamstrings. He’s eager to get off the bench as soon as possible.”

The team manager said he had received a text message suggesting that Lawes resembled a young Johnson but “more athletic, funnier and better looking”. Lawes, who has no better mentors for advice on second-row play than Johnson and Steve Borthwick, his captain, denied the possibility of being better looking, but that was all. It speaks of a confidence that England, at this stage, must treasure if they are to negotiate the rocks ahead.