Johnson gets RFU backing

England manager Martin Johnson has been given a vote of confidence by RFU chairman Martyn Thomas, despite losing two out of three autumn internationals. Johnson's men went down 19-6 to New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday, following defeat against Australia and a poor performance in narrow victory against Argentina.

They have scored just one try in those three matches but Thomas insists Johnson is the man to take England through to the 2011 World Cup.

Thomas said: "I've got every confidence in Martin. The guy is an outstanding character. This is a guy who doesn't walk away from things. He's an excellent man-manager. He was a great captain on the field and is an outstanding man."

Johnson's coterie of coaches have come under fire and former England players such as Will Greenwood have said he will "be dragged down with them" if he does not make changes.

There have even been suggestions that he should bring in former Lions coach Ian McGeechan.

Thomas, however, maintained they would support Johnson, who has backed his coaching team, in whatever he decided.

Thomas, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme, said: "Martin's getting on and doing the job and we can be satisfied with yesterday. Martin is a winner.

"I'm perfectly comfortable that Martin Johnson is the right man. If he decides he wants to do something then so be it, we'll back him.

"At the moment Martin has made it clear he is happy with his coaching team."

To the question of whether things might change if England had a poor RBS 6 Nations tournament, which starts in two months time, Thomas said: "We don't go around firing coaches. We tend to sit back and look at what's happening.

"At the moment he has my confidence to continue and carry on. Martin will lead us into the World Cup in 2011 for sure."

Thomas also revealed that the RFU expect to appoint a new chief executive to replace Francis Baron, who announced his departure last week, by the summer.

Thomas said: "I would hope we would have the right man in post in time for the RFU AGM on July 4."

Meanwhile, former captain Will Carling has branded England "static and predictable".

Carling admitted the passion and determination improved against New Zealand but it is the inability to score tries which concerns him.

"I wanted to see some passion from England, wanted to see some real commitment, some intent. I think we saw that in defence for the first time.

"I thought Lewis Moody was outstanding again and it was great to see Simon Shaw back.

"It was a very brave and fiery performance by England but in attack we are way off the mark at the moment.

"If we'd been making quite a few line breaks and looking creative and attacking and incisive then that would be ok but we're not.

"Our attacking platform is very, very static, very slow, and we are so predictable, that's the bit that worries me. There don't seem to be any decoy runners, any change of pace, any change of angle and it's almost like we're playing some very basic rugby and at Test level it's not good enough."