News
State of the nation - England
December 02 2008
England must not go any lower than they are right now. Must not. The 2011 World Cup should already be chalked off as an aspiration, the management from Martin Johnson upwards should put on their grubbiest grafting suits and stiffest upper lips, and set themselves in for seven years of hard work.
The general consensus is that Martin Johnson is not the right man to be head coach, and Steve Borthwick is not suitable to be captain. One of those opinions is a misunderstanding, the other is simple codswallop.
Johnson is not suited to be head coach, but he is suited to be a manager of coaches. Tactically, he knows what he wants from the game and is astute enough to understand coaches who tell him how to get it. This, after all, is the man who said of Sir Clive Woodward: "He had lots of ideas. The good ones we used, the bad ones we didn't." Johnson's role was never creator, but he was the one who knew what the team could use when an idea was presented to him.
This is where Johnson currently suffers. Brian Smith is a good attack coach, John Wells a good forwards coach. But Wells particularly does not have the maverick thinking that Johnson needs to balance his eithic of simple honest graft. Brian Smith might do - he needs more time to develop some ideas - but until Johnson is surrounded by people who can provide the creativity that Johnson would harness so well, England will not fulfil potential. It's a shame Brian Ashton was so abominally-treated, had he been in cohouts with Johnson right now, England could be firing on a couple more cylinders at least.
Saying Borthwick is a bad captain is a cheap shot at making a scapegoat for England's poor November. Borthwick has been a leading soldier for his club for a long time. He never shirks responsibility on or off the pitch, he never stops working, and he never loses his rag petulantly. He is not too far off being Johnson personified, although with a friendlier face. What he does not have is any supporting captains, any senior members of the squad to help him in his duty. Nobody except for Phil Vickery has been there long enough, and Vickery has enough on his shoulders.
Time will bring these characters through. Nick Kennedy has done enough to earn an extended run in the side for the Six Nations, as has Delon Armitage. In his 65-minute cameo against the All Blacks, Toby Flood did as well. Why he was never tried at inside centre next to Danny Cipriani is a mystery, he has both the running and the kicking skills required to support a fly-half and is more confident than he's ever been from his time at Leicester. James Haskell has the requisite mean streak for a flanker, and let's not forget Danny Care.
All five of those players will have ten more caps by the end of next year, assuming they don't go with the Lions or get injured, ten more caps of learning and growing into their roles. All five will be in their prime going up to 2015. All five can eventually be the support structure Borthwick needs. But they must be given more time.
Which is England in a nutshell really. Three coaches have come and gone in four years, playing staff has chopped and changed and been pulled about with no continuity at all. There's been no momentum; the whole chariot has shuddered to a grinding halt. Now at least there are some good people putting in good work in the right areas, English rugby fans should leave them to it and practice patience, the same patience that carried them from 1997 to 2003.
Star man: Danny Care. A feisty, snarling, sniping scrum-half, very much in the Dawson mould. Careful nurture will yield a long and polished Test career.