England were widely criticised for a laboured and unimaginative performance in last weekend's 36-11 victory over Italy in the opening round of the RBS 6 Nations championship.

Wales coach Warren Gatland issued a timely dig yesterday, taunting England for being "negative" and not as dangerous as the Leicester team that Johnson won Premiership and Heineken Cup titles with as a player.

But the England manager refused to get dragged into Gatland's pre-match mind-games and declared: "We do not have to justify how we play to anyone."

Johnson insisted England's only ambition tomorrow is to overturn the odds which are stacked heavily against them leaving Cardiff with a victory.

He explained: "I understand people's frustration about how we played last week and we shared that sometimes.

"At times we could have hung on to the ball a little more. We know there is lots of improvement in us.

"But ultimately we won the game, a game people were fearing we may lose to Italy for the first time.

"Our objective is always to win the game. When you get to big games people don't actually care how you win.

"If we win by a point tomorrow English rugby fans will be happy, let's be honest.

"But we are going to have to play very well to do that. It's going to be very intense."

With the bulk of Joe Worsley on the open-side and Mike Tindall back at outside, Johnson has selected a physical side in the hope of containing Wales' dynamic game-breakers.

Johnson continued: "When you get to the Millennium Stadium playing a confident and talented Welsh team, you are going to be up against it. We will find out what we are about.

"I thought last week Wales were strong, they overpowered Scotland on man-on-man tackles and most of the time won the collisions which gave them momentum to win the ball pretty quickly.

"You have to win those battles and we have to be sure in our system defensively.

"We've got to have bloody-mindedness to handle the crowd noise. If we start well and impose ourselves on the game we will be in a good place."

On top of his Leicester barb, Gatland threw a few other verbal grenades Johnson's way yesterday including a suggestion that Wales had broken England's line-out codes.

In 2001, Australia deciphered the Lions' code ahead of the decisive third Test and used it to their advantage to win the series.

Johnson was the Lions captain in 2001 - but there was no sense of panic in the England camp today.

He continued: "Teams can pick up bits and bobs. Body language can give things away, you can pick things up off pitchside mikes. Sometimes it's a factor, sometimes it isn't.

"One or two line-out steals at key times can be crucial so it's an area you've got to be aware of.

"Whether we use the same calls, line-outs as we did last week...we are pretty confident in our line-out."