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England regret lost opportunities.

There has been huge media attention surrounding this game. It has been billed as a fresh start for Martins Johnson’s England. The victory against Australia by a mere point unveiled a new side to the era of Martin Johnston as England coach. His time as England coach has been uninspiring and the failure to utilise the talent of Danny Cipriani as a world class fly-half one of several failures that have taken place under Martin Johnston’s watch. Martin Johnson policy of win first entertain second has had an adverse effect on British rugby. Not only is it complete disregard for the 83,000 that turn up at Twickenham expecting to see something resembling entertainment. Ok for line out enthusiasts then England under Martin Johnson has been a pleasure to watch.

However, the fact of the matter is England have been boring under martin Johnson and far from inspiring, the 15-15 draw against Scotland was an indication that things had to change in English rugby. At this time of huge cuts to public spending, sport has been a big loser in the comprehensive spending review. As the sporting cuts will hit team sports particularly hard funding for rugby then there must be something which enthuses the nation’s youth into joining rugby clubs and not leaving in droves as they have been. Martin Johnson has arguably been obstruction into the development of rugby in England. His blinkered style of rugby which has saturated the entertainment aspect has rendered the entertainment of watching English rugby almost non-existent.

That was until the Victory over Australia in August. The margin of victory just 1 point and at last there was flare in the English play once again. To be fair Martin Johnson does not have the players around him as a manager that he did as a captain. Although I am know Martin Johnson I except that his managerial tactics and philosophies are not the only reason for the demise of the England team. Indeed the winning ratio under Martin Johnson is only 43% barely half of the 80% winning ratio that Martin Johnson enjoyed when he was the captain of that World cup winning side. It would be wrong to play down the importance of today’s game against the all blacks and England could count them unfortunate that the margin of defeat was 10 points. The All blacks were superb in the first 20 minutes and England were dogged in defence wih survival being the only objective, such was the quality of New Zealand. To England’s credit they were still in the game after 40 minutes was to there credit. New Zealand’s two converted tries had the ability to open the floodgates for the All Blacks to hammer England. However, after the two converted tries the half was equal on point terms. Carter’s influence waned as the half progressed and the game became a scrappier affair. The scrum held up against the scrum back and that can only please Martin Johnson. England were the better team in the 2nd half there is no question of that and the domination of the English should have been rewarded by more tries. New Zealand gave away 6 penalties in the scrum compared to England’s 3. England’s failing was in their lack of conviction to hurt the All Blacks when they had the chance. But a defeat of 10 points to the best team in the world with a youthful team is a good effort and all though this was not the fresh start that It was perceived as, it is not a disaster.