Jonny Wilkinson sinks to his knees after being hit by an illegal tackle from Samoa's Brian Lima during last season's World Cup © Getty Images

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There is a fair chance one of the Danny boys - Cipriani or Care - will be England's dominant player at Twickenham on Saturday. But the autumn series opener also requires an authoritative performance from match referee Matt Goddard.

The Australian is a relative novice at Test level, having only secured a place on the International Rugby Board's panel of officials earlier this year.

The best referees, of course, always fade effortlessly into the background but there could be times this weekend when Goddard must put himself in the foreground and stamp out one of Test rugby's biggest evils.

England play the Pacific Islanders, a quality-looking combination of Fijians, Samoans and Tongans who will quietly fancy their chances. Players like Seilala Mapusua - the Guinness Premiership's form centre by a country mile - his London Irish colleague Sailosi Tagicakibau, Saracens' Kameli Ratuvou and Fiji's 2007 World Cup captain Moses Rauluni are good enough to light up any occasion.

But please can people stop applauding and cheering when the next Fijian, Samoan or Tongan commits one of those ludicrously high, late or dangerous - often all three at once - tackles. It has been allowed to happen for far too long.

How many times have we seen it in games throughout the world when so-called "big hits" have left crowds gasping - and opposition players thanking their lucky stars that all limbs still function?

I am not advocating the abolition of ferocious tackling, I just want it done legally. And that is exactly what Goddard should be looking out for on Saturday. Any player, and it obviously applies to England as well, who tackles dangerously should be sin-binned without hesitation, or even sent off.

To me, watching someone trying to knock another bloke's block off has no place in rugby. I don't buy this "we should expect it because that's who England are playing" garbage.

Why is so much made about this type of tackling? It's as if it must be part and parcel of the game, a permanent fixture like the Haka or the tedious pre-match huddle.

Dangerous tackling, high tackling, late tackling and shoulder-charging are offences in rugby union, and I hope Goddard applies the letter of the law if such an incident arises.

It will, after all, be too late when a player is stretchered off the field suffering from serious injuries. That horrible prospect though, is going to happen sooner, rather than later, unless players are left under no illusions they cannot get away with it.

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Rugby politics interest your average supporter like watching a bus shelter being painted.

England invented the prototype for political squabbling with season after season of rows, ego-driven posturing, threats and counter-threats. But that dark toxic cloud has now left the shires and drifted into Wales.

While English rugby bosses bask in the warm glow of a new eight-year agreement between Twickenham and the Guinness Premiership clubs, political warfare has broken out in Wales. Barely a day passes without Wales' four professional regions and the Welsh Rugby Union lobbing a grenade or six in each other's direction.

High Court action one minute, complaints to the International Rugby Board the next, it's almost as if Welsh rugby has finally caught up. Don't let us stop you lads. You just carry on hanging out the dirty washing in public, and the rest of us will do something that really is far more interesting - watching Wales trying to beat world champions South Africa on Saturday.

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Ireland's Limerick appointment with Canada on Saturday is comfortably the lowest key fixture of this weekend's opening autumn Test flurries.

But it could send out a powerful message in terms of next summer's British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa. The Irish three-quarter line this weekend comprises Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll, Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney, and has the ability to dazzle.

On current form, all four should make the Lions trip, but more than that, they might just take the Irish team to a new level. Ireland have underachieved for longer than they care to remember. Is the tide though, about to turn?