FURIOUS Martin Johnson admitted he will not be great company on his family holiday this week as he picks through the bones of England’s 19-9 defeat to Wales.
Johnson was bristling with frustration after England’s Rugby World Cup preparations stalled at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday with a performance devoid of invention and intelligence.
Not every player will come in for criticism. Alex Corbisiero, Dan Cole and Louis Deacon produced impressive individual displays in a dominant forwards effort.
But England wasted that platform. Wales absorbed a torrent of largely one-dimensional pressure and then picked off their visitors, with a try and two late penalties from James Hook.
The result may have been skewed by the fact England, according to Toby Flood but not Johnson, took a pre-match decision to use the game to test out moves ahead of the World Cup.
Consequently, England spurned some simple shots at goal but Flood branded their inability to score a try from the mountain of possession as “shameful” and “embarrassing”, leaving Johnson with “plenty of food for thought”.
The bad news for his wife and two children is that Johnson is on holiday this week, ahead of finalising England’s 30-man World Cup squad a week today.
“It is a good time for a break (but) not with me,” said Johnson, who expects to still be as angry when the squad meet up again next Sunday.
“We should be frustrated. This was the strangest Test match I have seen in some ways, to be so dominant for 40 minutes. We have just got to land the killer blow.
“We made 12 changes and lots of players were getting their first starts in a while. There is more to our attacking game, there is more fluidity. It hasn’t shaken my belief because if we hadn’t done anything, if we hadn’t dominated a large part of the game and created the chances then you would be disappointed. It is just frustrating.
“We had a chance to win a Test match comfortably. We didn’t do it. I don’t think anyone is particularly happy.”
England felt they should have been awarded a penalty try after sending the Welsh pack reeling at five successive scrums on their own line.
Matt Banahan, a late replacement for injured wing Chris Ashton, then failed to score in the corner under pressure from Shane Williams and Hook, who did a brilliant job of stripping the ball from the England wing.
But for all their possession England lacked a creative touch, relying too often on trying to bulldoze their way through a well-drilled and fit Welsh defensive line.
