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November 22, 2008

Posted on 11/22/2008

Honeymoon is over for Johnson

Writing in the Guardian, Jon Henderson raises some damning criticisms of the new England manager after his young side were out to the sword by a ruthless Springbok side at Twickenham..

""It (the defeat) raised questions about the manager himself. Whether, after all, it was such a good idea to put a man in charge of the national team who has no previous experience of such a task, even at club level, and whose main role since his outstanding playing career ended in 2005 has been as a corporate schmoozer. At times the England performance was little short of clueless, for which Johnson has to take much of the rap.
"After three games in charge, Johnson's record stands at an inconsequential win against the Pacific Islanders two weeks ago and two defeats, the first against Australia last weekend and now this record thrashing by a South Africa side whose scrambled victories against Wales and Scotland had alerted England to the possibility of a morale-bolstering success."

Henderson's Guardian colleague Michael Aylwin was no less scathing in his appraisal.

""Where to start? This was bad. Quite possibly the worst we have seen from an England side in recent times, which is saying something. Come back, Brian Ashton, all is forgiven.
"There are mitigating circumstances, of course. For a start, this is a young and inexperienced side, which is very unlike England, and we cannot suddenly complain about that when for years we were moaning that they were too old.

"But this is a second profoundly sobering defeat this autumn, with the All Blacks still to come, and so far there seems to be a distinct lack of positives being taken from them. If there is inexperience on the field, there is even more of it in the stands. At least everyone on the pitch has played rugby before. The man managing the outfit has never managed anything before. It seems ridiculous to look at the battered brow of Martin Johnson and call it inexperienced, but this is a new challenge for him - and not new as in a new degree of difficulty; new as in he has literally never had a go at it."

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