England boss Martin Johnson is backing his team to succeed on the stage where he led them to their last title. The Independent's Chris Hewett reports.
"He [Johnson] has had his share of luck, both politically – the top brass of the Rugby Football Union, whose behaviour in establishing the Johnson regime in 2008 was nothing short of despicable, have cut him an awful lot of slack over the past three years – and in terms of personnel. When the former captain succeeded Brian Ashton as head cook and bottlewasher, players as good as Chris Ashton, Ben Youngs, Dan Cole and Tom Wood, all of whom start today (not to mention Courtney Lawes, who does not) were not even twinkles in the selectors' eyes. But in abandoning his initial heavy-handed approach to team management and lightening his touch, Johnson has shown himself to be more adaptable than anyone dared imagine during the first, gruesome 18 months of his stewardship.
"...Yet there is no one better placed than Johnson to talk meaningfully in the hours before kick-off here, for he knows what it is to secure a Grand Slam on this age-old rectangle of grass. Eight years ago, a few months before the World Cup triumph, he summoned from his playing colleagues one of the finest England performances in living memory: an overwhelmingly impressive, five-try, 42-6 victory over a distinctly useful Irish side who also happened to be chasing the Slam that day."
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