England Manager Martin Johnson outlined his blueprint for winning the World Cup on Thursday, saying substance not style was what mattered most.

At his first press conference since the Six Nations champions arrived in New Zealand, Johnson also played down the recent back-to-back defeats by tournament favourites New Zealand, describing them as irrelevant.

England won the World Cup in 2003 on the back of a staunch forward effort supported by the boot of flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson, and Johnson praised the "exciting players" in the backline of the current squad.

But it was not the contrasting styles but how they were executed that mattered most, he said.

"I don't think there is a certain style. There is a certain resilience that will win the World Cup. You have to deal with the pressure and expectation," he said.

"World Cups are about pressure - dealing with it off the field, dealing with it on the field when you get into close games with it all to play for in the last 10 minutes.

"I am sure whoever wins it will have a game where they are down. Finding a way to win is what World Cups are about. If you talk about style, it is the team that can battle back and find a way to win a close game in a knockout."

The All Blacks, as the top ranked side in the world, face intense pressure from the New Zealand public to break a 24-year drought and claim the William Webb Ellis Trophy for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1987.

The mood in the host country has not been helped by the All Blacks going into the tournament on the back of consecutive losses to the South Africa and Australia.

But Johnson said the results had no bearing on how the World Cup will play out.

"This time of the year, everyone wants to speculate on what the results mean. It was the same with our warm-up games. People talk about them until the tournament starts," he said.

"I am sure they will be very competitive despite a couple of losses. When you get to the World Cup it doesn't really matter what happened last game, last month, last year - it is about what happens on the day.

"It's the same for us. We come in off a good win (against Ireland) but when we go into Argentina we have to start again and win that game from the first minute," Johnson said.

The All Blacks play Tonga in the opening match of the tournament in Auckland on September 9 and England open their campaign against Argentina in Dunedin the following day.

AFP