Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mick Cleary puts forward his belief that England manager Martin Johnson needs to gain the respect on his players first-hand.
"True, there was a severe downturn in results during the autumn when record scores were posted against England by South Africa and New Zealand. But Johnson was new to the job, slack was being cut, and hope was on the horizon.
"Hope has turned to disenchantment, expectation to anger. The Six Nations scoreboard may be more favourable to England, with narrow defeats to the supposed form teams in Europe – Wales and Ireland – but the mood has darkened among the public.
"They wonder if Johnson is up to the job, if he has the leadership skills to cope, an unimaginable state of affairs given his track record as a player. But his credibility is taking a battering for one simple reason – his players have let him down.
"Why won't they listen to him? Why won't they obey instructions? Why do they behave like pillocks in the middle of Test matches? You could single out any one damning incident from Danny Care's wanton charge into Marcus Horan, Toby Flood's upfield chase and flop onto Brian O'Driscoll, Phil Vickery's poked hand through a ruck or James Haskell's indiscretion within 17 seconds of the second-half re-start."
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