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England’s legendary World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson says the current management should consider resting key players this summer to boost the chances of history being repeated in Australia next year. Johnson was among several senior squad members who did not tour Argentina in the buildup to their 2003 global triumph and suggests a similar policy could assist England’s 2027 campaign.

In 2002 England beat the Pumas 26‑18 in Buenos Aires with only eight of their subsequent World Cup-winning squad involved. Johnson is fully aware that post-game recovery and conditioning techniques have moved on significantly but believes the current captain, Maro Itoje, and others require careful handling if they are to prosper in 2027.

“If it’s the right thing for a guy who’s just had a big Lions tour to have a summer off and not go on the trip, that’s just managing your player with the World Cup in mind,” said Johnson, who also led a British & Irish Lions squad to Australia in 2001. “Who comes into that category is up to the coaches to decide but, yeah, that could be a possibility depending on where people are. Guys are always carrying something injury-wise, particularly later in your career.

“The rugby season’s just non‑stop. You don’t get a two‑month block of training which would put a lot of people in a good place. If they can manage some guys to get that it would work for them, I’m sure. We had a summer off in 2002, the year before the World Cup, although that [Argentina] game was played so late the rest of us were already back in pre‑season training for the next year.

“With experienced players who have been around and have the appetite to go to another tournament then maybe you can manage them. I don’t like saying ‘a good summer off’ because what you want as a player is a good off season in which to train. It’s the only time you can really make physical fitness gains and improvements.”

Johnson, in training for the Race to the Slater Cup on Saturday in aid of Ed Slater, Lewis Moody and motor neurone disease research, was also England’s head coach at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand and knows from personal experience that balancing future tournament planning with, in this case, the shorter-term imperatives of July Tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina is not easy.

“I love it when people talk about planning – ‘we’re aiming to peak for the final’ isn’t much good if you get knocked out beforehand. You can plan all you like but then you get three phone calls one weekend telling you that three of your best players are injured. Where are your plans now?

“We all know how it works. Some guys who we think are going to be key won’t be there because they’ll be injured or lose form. And some guys who we’ve never really heard of will have great World Cups and become stars.”

In common with many others Johnson is unsure what conclusions to draw from England’s Six Nations campaign which delivered four defeats and a fifth-placed finish. “We know they can play well but they just didn’t for three games. They’ve got to work out what that’s about and sort it out.” The final fixture in Paris, however, fuelled his sense Les Bleus are a rising threat. “That last game … wow. I’ve not seen a game played at that pace, ever.

“You watch the way the French play and I think they’re changing the game a little bit. If you didn’t get them under pressure their transition game just ripped teams to pieces. And they won the title despite conceding 96 points in their last two games. Is something changing there? It was interesting to see the game being played slightly differently. You’ve got to play to your strengths, not just do the same as everyone else does.”

Johnson’s son Henry was part of the England Under-18 squad beaten 63-33 by France U18s this month – “My lad came off the bench and said France did all their damage from kick returns and transitions” – and, at 56, the former Lions captain’s competitive nature still burns. In the Race to the Slater Cup two teams of cyclists, captained by Johnson and Mike Tindall, will try to be the first to reach Villa Park from Leicester and Gloucester respectively before the Big Match Bonanza weekend Prem game on Saturday.

In support of Slater and his former teammate Moody, Johnson is committed to helping fund more research into MND and its potential causes. “I don’t think we know enough about these things. That’s partly why we’re doing the ride. We live in an age when we think we have the answer to everything but we don’t. I’m all for research and science trying to give us the answers. The more we can do to find out the truth the better.”

Tickets for the Slater Cup at Villa Park on Saturday 28 March start at £10 here. £1 of every sale goes to 4ED to support families affected by MND.