English captain Martin Johnson admitted his side would have struggled to mount the kind of challenge the Welsh did against New Zealand last Sunday and said he is wary of playing a team with nothing to lose.

Wales take on England in a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday and after stretching the All Blacks to the limit Johnson is sure the Red Dragons will again be breathing fire.

Johnson rated their performance to come from 18 points down to lead the All Blacks at one stage in the second half, a "great achievement", one perhaps even England may have struggled with.

"For anyone to come back from 18 points down against New Zealand and to actually lead them is a great achievement," said the towering 118kg lock.

"They were breaking their line at will at one stage and to be honest, I was surprised."

"To put 37 points on New Zealand, not many teams have done that, we haven't done that against New Zealand."

Superboot Jonny Wilkinson said there was always a "fear of defeat" and that loomed with the improving Welsh.

"We've played enough against them to know they're a huge, huge threat and I wasn't surprised to see how they played against New Zealand," said England's leading point scorer who will play his 50th Test on Sunday.

"We know jolly well if we don't start fantastically from the first whistle and carry it through that there's an enormous possibility that the whole year is going to be over for us.

"That's very realistic. We know if we don't go out and compete hard we'll be on the plane going home."

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