Martin Johnson came to the defence of his former charges on Friday
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The former England manager Martin Johnson came out fighting over the recent World Cup recriminations but his defence was unconvincing. The Guardian's Rob Kitson reports.
"Martin Johnson could clearly take no more. The prospect of stewing in silence for another day, let alone another week, was too much, the pent-up frustration too great. "There are opinions and there are truths," he said. "Do not take extreme opinions written in extreme circumstances to be fact." He sounded like a barrister attempting to persuade a court his client's confession had been extracted under duress in a police cell where no one could hear the screams.
"It was a noble effort with a couple of glaring weaknesses. First, the comments to which he was referring were extracted with the aid of neither thumbscrews nor water torture. They were the honest assessments, albeit leaked without permission, of international sportsmen who were under no pressure to say anything bad at all. Nor was it simply one or two individuals belly-aching about the quality of the food at meal times.
"Second, Johnson is no longer in charge of the England team. He is a mere citizen once again with his nose pressed to the glass like everyone else. At times it seemed that new truth has not entirely sunken in. "The fact we have let it get to here is disappointing and the way the game and the team is now being portrayed is damaging."
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