Amid all the conspiracy theories involving Princess Diana, President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe - not forgetting those ludicrous claims that Elvis hasn’t left this world (or even the room), I’ve got another one to put forward.

Could it be that the England rugby team’s disastrous form over the past four years has been deliberately orchestrated just to make their rivals think they would be Rugby World Cup walkovers?

Don’t laugh. I’m not seriously suggesting the RFU charioteers would have orchestrated such a scenario - or indeed, would be intellectually capable of handing the likes of Australia and New Zealand a four-year takeway in the wake of the 2003 World Cup Final.

'The nation is now convinced that Phil Vickery and his men will become the first team ever to retain the Webb Ellis trophy'


But the team’s amazing form reversal in the past couple of weeks defies logic to such an extent that one starts looking for weird and bizarre explanations.

Just look at the facts. Under Clive Woodward’s coaching regime and Martin Johnson’s inspired captaincy, the England juggernaut peaked in 2003, taking the Six Nations Grand Slam and then winning the World Cup in that memorable showdown with the Wallabies in Sydney.

When the world rankings were first introduced in October that year, England were deservedly given the No.1 spot. Yet by June the following year, they had dropped to third place and after the 2005 Six Nations they plummeted to sixth. They are currently at an all-time low - ranked seventh behind New Zealand, France, Australia, Argentina, Ireland and South Africa.

England’s slump between the two World Cups was unimaginable. Between January 2004 and the start of the current RWC tournament, they lost 12 of their 15 clashes with the Southern Hemisphere big three, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa - including all four clashes with the All Blacks.

Yet they had a 100 percent record of success in their four games against the Tri-Nations giants between November 2002 and June 2003 - including two memorable victories over the All |Blacks.

The build-up to the 2007 World Cup was nothing short of abysmal. OK, England beat Australia 26-16 at Twickenham in November 2005 - but of 11 subsequent games against the Tri-Nations teams, France and Argentina, they lost 10 - including back-to-back defeats by the French in August this year.

I know that 2003 side was awesome in terms of power if not flair - but the only significant changes after Jonny Wilkinson booted that glorious drop goal in Sydney were the loss through injury of Wilko himself and the retirement from international rugby of captain marvel Johnson the following January.

I regard the departure of Clive Woodward and his knighthood as irrelevant. He proved he was a mere mortal in the months after the World Cup win by ’leading’ England to a miserable third place in the 2004 Six Nations and then quitting after they were hammered in all three matches on their Antipodean tour.

Less than a year after being crowned kings of world rugby, England were slammed 36-3 and 36-12 by New Zealand without scoring a single try, followed by a 51-15 thrashing by Australia. Woodward predictably fell on his sword - and poor Andy Robinson was left to pick up the reins of a shattered nation.

Golden boy Wilkinson was nowhere to be seen. A plague of injuries affecting his knee, arm, shoulder and kidney sidelined the hard-tackling Newcastle Falcons fly-half from Test rugby for an astonishing 1,169 days. Indeed, he did not play for England from the 2003 World Cup Final until the opening game of the 2007 Six Nations championship.

His long-overdue return, when it came, was dramatic. He celebrated his comeback with 27 points against Scotland in February and then became the highest points-scorer in the championship the following week against Italy.

The great man was back…well, sort of.

As the nation held its breath expecting him to inspire England to new glories, Wilko proved he was as fallible as the rest of us during pre-World Cup defeats by South Africa and France.

Then tragedy struck again - or so we all thought. Jinxed Jonny hobbled out of training before the World Cup opener against the USA and saw his teammates struggle to victory and then crash miserably to South Africa. It was men against boys as the Springboks walked all over them to the tune of 36-0 - and England were lucky to get nil.

With Tonga showing up well in their games in the same pool, people really began to believe England might not even make the quarter-finals. Their Antipodean detractors labelled them the ‘’worst world champions ever’’ - and it was difficult to argue with them.

Then, galloping into the arena on his dashing white charger, came the one and only Wilko. Fit again, boots raring to fire golden bullets again.

The rest, as they say, is history. His mere presence inspired victories over Samoa and Tonga, and after passing Gavin Hastings' all-time RWC points record, he helped to put paid to the Wallabies again last Saturday. Even if his goalkicking wasn't quite up to its usual accuracy.

The main thing is that the boy is back - and so are England. France are now the only obstacle to a second successive World Cup Final, and the nation is now convinced that Phil Vickery and his men will become the first team ever to retain the Webb Ellis trophy.

The reality is, of course, very different. France are cock-a-hoop after their conquest of the All Blacks and after three victories over the English this season, the hosts will start hot favourites in Paris on Saturday.

As Wilkinson says: "The great strength is that France have this amazing ability to just win at the moment. I think that comes from a huge and well-justified self-belief and confidence.

"I guess it gives them a huge amount of strength on the mental side as well as knowing there is very little they cannot deal with. That comes from having a huge power up front, great pace out in the backs and a very talented decision-making core."

It is that self-belief and confidence that just might be France's undoing. They underestimated Argentina in the opening game of the tournament and lost.

Underestimate England, and Wilkinson’s sword will cut them to shreds.

Who do you fancy to reach the final - and more important, to win the Rugby World Cup? Post a comment below or submit an article to Sportingo.