In the wake of an Ashes summer the man whose goal-kicking secured Australia’s most famous rugby victory at the home of the English game goes along with the view that today’s meeting of the sides is the biggest since that 1991 World Cup final.

Michael Lynagh kicked nine of Australia’s points when they beat England 12-6 in a hard fought encounter at Twickenham 24 years ago but he is acutely aware that the key moments in winning World Cups can arrive long before the final.

In his recently published biography “Blindsided” – co-written with Scotsman Mark Eglinton - the former Wallaby play-maker explains why he reckons the crowning moment in his own career came not in the final, but in the quarter-final against then tournament co-hosts Ireland when, having taken on the captaincy, he scored the try that allowed a team that was facing defeat with four minutes remaining to stay in the competition.

Once again Australia have a chance to eliminate a host nation today, then, but now a London-based television pundit rather than see this as a chance to strike back after the Ashes and Davis Cup reverses his countrymen have suffered, Lynagh admits to being torn about the prospect of England facing such an ignominious exit, questioning the tournament draw.

“It’s ridiculous that there are four teams in one group that are in the top nine in the world,” he said of Pool A which featured Wales and Fiji as well as the teams that meet at Twickenham today.

“I don’t want England to go out, but I don’t want them to stay in at the expense of Australia. Living here and working here, though, it would be a disaster for the World Cup if the home nation went out. It won’t be the end of it, but it could be even more fantastic.

“Arguably all three of those teams (Australia, England and Wales) should be in the play-offs and there will be some teams in them that aren’t as good, so that’s wrong.”

None of which prevents Australia’s all-time record points scorer from sharing in the anticipation of a match he believes is worthy of the billing it is receiving.

Whereas it was slightly overblown to describe last week’s meeting of England and Wales at the same venue as the biggest ever between the sides when they have played many major trophy deciders in the past and both would have a second chance if they lost, England have now effectively reached the knockout stages two matches early and, albeit Australia will have another chance to qualify when they meet Wales, Lynagh acknowledges this game’s importance.

“Last week everyone was saying it’s the biggest English game at Twickenham since the World Cup in 1991. Well that lasted a week… now it’s the biggest one again,” he laughed.

Not that it will be easy to match the drama of last weekend’s events.

“I’ve never seen Twickenham like it… well I’ve never seen a rugby crowd like it, it was amazing,” said Lynagh.

“The whole game was tense and this week will be exactly the same”

Few could be better placed to assess the prospects given the time Lynagh spends analysing elite rugby in both Europe and the Southern Hemisphere in his role as a Sky pundit, but he admits that it is hard to pick a winner this time.

“I think Australia are probably a little bit more settled than England, particularly in the centres, but Australia hasn’t really played anybody yet,” he acknowledged.

“We beat Fiji, but not convincingly. We didn’t get that bonus point and that’s fine and then last weekend against Uruguay it was a different team altogether and we lost a couple of players after that. So Australia are in pretty good shape but still, to come and play England at Twickenham, it’s not an easy thing to do and Wales were magnificent last week, unbelievable.”

That said he clearly feels that England should have won that match and paid a price for the relative naiveté of their players and management.

“England had that game to win and I do think that the experience factor of not having played in World Cups before or those sort of matches really counted and I include the coaches in that in (Stuart) Lancaster,” said Lynagh.

“They should have closed that game off, but they made a few changes that didn’t seem quite right and it proved to be that way.

“Wales were a really experienced team and you look at the coach as well who has been around for a while and is quite canny.”

For all that such important Test matches tend to be tense affairs he expects to see Australia look to generate an open game because it suits them to do so and if they can then he believes they may edge it.

“I still think Australia will try to play,” said Lynagh.

“That’s the way Michael Cheika (Australia’s head coach) wants to play. He wants to play at speed with two No.7s in the back-row.

“England have had some problems at the breakdown both against Fiji, where they had 11 turnovers against them at the breakdown and then Wales last week was the same and they gave away a lot of penalties, so that would be an area Australia can attack. Then if the scrum can, touch wood, hold up I’m quietly confident… I’m not going to shout it from the rooftops, but I’m quietly confident.”

Not that the man who is paid to offer his opinion is prepared to put any of his hard earned where his mouth is on this one, adding shrewdly: “I still think England at home, even after last week, they’ll re-group and they’ll be pretty strong. If I had money to put it on it I’d keep it in my pocket.”