Stuart Barnes calls for England manager Martin Johnson to admit that winning is everything in his column for The Sunday Times.
"England could not have had a better preparation for this Test match. Harangued by their home media, the received abuse quickened as these two great rivals drew near to kick-off in Cardiff.
"If Martin Johnson had any problem building a fortress mentality within his squad at any stage in the week, Warren Gatland completed his construction job with devilish humour and no little accuracy. We writers may have created “an atmosphere of disdain”, according to one member of the England team, but God alone knows what the side were thinking as Gatland went through his vocabulary . England were described as “negative and disjointed”, as “regressive”, and of yesterday’s game in the clash between the rugby forces of positivity, as negative, with England cast in the role as the “dark (and extremely dull) destroyers”.
"To a man such as this, he has to be ecstatic at the abuse. Here was a chance to settle a score with their detractors. There is frustratingly little a team can do against their own national press, but when the Welsh manager mocked them there was a golden chance to ram his ties down his throat and leave the confident Kiwi horrendously humiliated.
"John Wells, the England forwards coach, was confident that England were capable of just that. In midweek he said England would win if they were still in contention near the end of the second half. This was a fascinating assertion because one of Johnson’s favourite mantras as captain was to tell his team to stay in it for an hour; if they achieved this the superior fitness of England, and the knowledge of how to win tight games, would see them through."
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