KEY POINTS:
Martin Johnson is an imposing man, a natural physical presence with an enormous wingspan and a torso which has to stoop to get through standard doorways.
He also brings a reasoned analysis and carries himself with the dignity and authority of someone who raised the Webb Ellis Cup as England's captain at the last World Cup.
By all accounts Johnno, as he is known, was not someone who ranted and raved inside the dressing room. He did slap his fist into his palm and implore his troops but not with the histrionics others have favoured.
He was a man of sparse but cogent instructions and his ideas about the All Blacks latest World Cup demise are equally convincing. He had predicted New Zealand would end their 20-year tournament famine, so how had they slipped up this time?
"It's all up here," Johnson said jabbing a finger into his temple.
"My psyche when we played the big games was to downplay it, otherwise the pressure gets to you and you can't play.
"Maybe with the All Blacks, the burden of them not winning is so big in their minds that it hurts them."
Johnson set aside a theory that northern hemisphere sides had one advantage over their southern rivals because of the amount of knockout rugby they played. He did not give it much credence, noting that the Super 14 and Tri-Nations all had knockout components.
"Physically, the teams have all got the ability to be successful but it is so much in the head, this game," he said.
" It was a pity a couple of guys got injured but the World Cup has been built up so big for them it has almost become suffocating. They have been building up for three years, everything they think about is the World Cup and when they get there, it gets to them.
"When you walk out on to the field you want to go, it is just a game of rugby, it is just a game of rugby and let's do what we do.
"Every other country in the world would have given anything for what the All Blacks had - an extended squad, the build-up - but approaching the quarter-finals it was so interesting and so important to see how teams reacted."
Johnson spoke about teams needing to have the edge or a "healthy fear" of their opposition. It engendered respect, the need to deal with the next game, to concentrate all the energies on the next victory, to be pragmatic and realistic.
The Wallabies, he felt, might have been guilty of looking past an England side which they should have beaten on most occasions. Same with the All Blacks and France.
Australia and New Zealand started so strongly they had their opponents backpedalling for a big chunk of the opening half. Then, in an oddity at international level, the Wallaby scrum was wrecked, while the All Blacks went quiet. Both games were on a precipice after an hour and in both cases the underdogs took their chance, it was psychologically fascinating.
With two of the favourites fallen, how did Johnson see this morning's opening semifinal between England and France?
Without a strong beginning, England would struggle. They would then be battling the crowd and the waves of French attackers and the task would be difficult.
Johnson suggested his old team play the semifinal in 10-minute blocks, trying to get a toehold, to gain some surety, momentum and belief.
They would not get the scrummaging freedom they had against the Wallabies so they had to come up with other ways of finding victory. If they were right in the test after an hour, that was crucial. France would get twitchy, their supporters would be cranking up the pressure.
