Martin Johnson’s appointment as England manager looked an extraordinary decision when the Rugby Football Union (RFU) made it over a year ago and it looks no less extraordinary now.
The wealthiest of all the world’s leading rugby unions was entrusting the fortunes of its national side to a man who, for all his success as England’s 2003 World Cup winning captain, had never coached so much as a school team.
So far a record of five wins from 12 Tests under Johnson is not one to get that excited about.
And last Saturday’s 18-9 loss to the Wallabies meant England had gone nearly five hours without scoring a try in their last four major internationals against Tri-Nations opposition.
But expecting Johnson to influence England’s fortunes off the pitch to the extent he did when on it was always going to be something of a stretch, even for an old lock.
And that was in part because Johnson, unlike most managers of comparable international sides, agreed when replacing the experienced Brian Ashton to inherit, and not select, his key backroom staff.
Forwards coach John Wells, an old Leicester teammate of Johnson’s, defence chief Mike Ford and kicking coach Jon Callard have all been members of England’s set-up since 2003, leading many to question their performance.
The RFU does have within its ranks someone with senior coaching experience in former Newcastle chief Rob Andrew, mentor to flyhalf star Jonny Wilkinson.
Andrew though has been determined not to move from his position as the RFU’s director of elite rugby.
But the former England flyhalf’s critics accuse Andrew of wanting a degree of power without responsibility and say his post deterred better qualified candidates than Johnson from pushing to become the team coach or manager because they did not want him ”sitting on their shoulder”.
It is true in the run-up to the Australia match England suffered badly with injuries, particularly when it came to prop forwards.
It is equally true though that Johnson, through player release agreements, has been granted the kind of training camp time with his squad beyond the dreams of previous England coaches.
If Johnson’s men lose this Saturday to an injury-affected Argentina side who will only have had a couple of training sessions, the debate over whether England’s ability to think on their feet is being stunted by too much coaching — or too much of the wrong sort — will be revived.
The most damning indictment about England’s performance last weekend came from Wallaby captain Rocky Elsom, who said: ”We just felt comfortable they weren’t going to break the line. We didn’t feel that much was going to happen.”
For ex-England hooker Brian Moore, writing in the Daily Telegraph, the sight of inside centre Shane Geraghty spraying ”passes all over the place” made ”the already difficult job of his outside backs almost impossible”.
Moore was also one of several observers to bemoan the inability of England’s forwards to provide quick possession, arguing the team’s obsession with protecting the ball was making it ”unusable because it is so slow”.
Johnson’s major addition to England’s backroom team has been bringing in Brian Smith, the former Australia and Ireland international, as attack coach.
”Are we happy we struggle to score tries against the southern-hemisphere teams? No, of course not,” said Smith. ”It is an issue we are trying to address. We have made adjustments.”
Even if England do beat Argentina, New Zealand come to Twickenham a week later and anything other than an All Black win will be a huge upset.
Having invested so much faith in Johnson, it is hard to imagine the RFU ditching him before the 2011 World Cup, almost regardless of results.
And the funny thing is that, once there, England might yet get to the final, just as they have done at the last two editions.
While that might provide patriotic consolation for Johnson’s domestic critics, for the Red Rose’s traditional southern hemisphere detractors that would be really tough to take. — AFP
