ENGLAND:MARTIN JOHNSON is refusing to panic about England's state of Rugby World Cup readiness, saying there is nothing badly wrong with his team's midfield balance and that they can still worry the best sides.
The England team manager has also ruled out making radical personnel changes with the tournament barely three weeks away, and believes Lewis Moody, Ben Youngs and Andrew Sheridan will all prove their fitness and fly out with the squad to New Zealand on Monday week.
Anyone who watched England fall to a 19-9 defeat to Wales on Saturday despite a glut of possession and territory will have noted their glaring lack of midfield cutting edge but the management believe the critics are overreacting.
Johnson said: “There are things that, with hindsight, we would have done differently in Cardiff but I’m not going to start panicking and throw everything out that we’ve built up.
“You’re looking at a team that has won the Six Nations this year and won a test match in the southern hemisphere last year. It’s not been all bad. We scored the most tries in the championship last year, for the second time in three years. You can look at it two different ways.”
Johnson does concede that his side’s final warm-up test, against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday week, will be significant in terms of boosting morale but believes England should be judged on their World Cup form, rather than their pre-season preparations.
“The true test is when you get out there in World Cup conditions. A game in August doesn’t compare to a game in September when you’re out in New Zealand. When we get things right we can be a very competitive Test side and give everyone a game.”
All this is welcome news for Shontayne Hape, Mike Tindall and Toby Flood, none of whom impressed against the Welsh. Johnson’s immediate post-match anger was impossible to mask but England’s set-piece strength has persuaded him all is not lost. “I was disappointed and angry on Saturday night because I felt it was a test match we threw away. But some good stuff came out if it. We dominated the game and at least we created opportunities and had a huge amount of pressure.
“If we had spent the whole game defending and been beaten by four tries to nil I think we would have a problem. There is also no point finding these things out in September in New Zealand. We need to find them out now.
“If we’d have scored the pushover try and won 16-6 it may have masked some of the problems we had.”
Guardian Service
