Match Issue England
Match Issue England
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Six Nations 2010: England's Martin Johnson Rushes In To Defend Jonny Wilkinson
Martin Johnson may well have stated on Wednesday that "no player is undroppable", but the England manager gave the clearest of signs that he has little intention of deleting the name of Jonny Wilkinson when it comes to announcing his team next week to face Ireland at Twickenham on Feb 27.
The fact that the normally dead-eyed Wilkinson missed two sitters at goal against Italy last Sunday is not the issue. What is up for debate is Wilkinson's ability to generate pace and tempo in his back line, to attack space himself as well as to read situations and draw the best from those around him.
"Jonny misses a few kicks and suddenly everyone is calling for his head, which is pretty surprising and pretty disappointing," Johnson said. "Having a pop at Jonny is vogue and it's not right or fair. It's for [the critics'] own agenda but that's the world we live in."
Wilkinson's back-up is Leicester's Toby Flood, who was one of 14 players released back to their clubs last night in order to get some game time in the Guinness Premiership this weekend. Flood was the starting inside-centre against Wales in the absence of the injured Riki Flutey but he was the only one of the seven substitutes not used in Rome.
"Toby is playing really well, we've got great depth in that position and we're fortunate to have two international-class players," said Johnson, who rejected the notion that Wilkinson was unable to fire a back line into action. "We made five or six line breaks which should have resulted in more scores. So was it Jonny's fault? No, it's a team thing. There's not one single area that really cost us. The opportunities were created."
Johnson did not dismiss criticism of his side in other areas but nor did he pledge that the side would abandon the kicking game merely in order to entertain.
"If we have to kick the ball for 80 minutes, we'll kick the ball for 80 minutes," Johnson said. "We don't just kick it because we can't think what else to do. You kick to create pressure. Against France last year, Ugo Monye came out of his 22, kicked, we chased well, turned France over and three phases later we'd scored. Nobody seemed to complain then.
"You can't just counter-attack every time because if they get a good chase on you then it's suicide. You need to be smart and play what's in front of you.
"Of course, people want to watch exciting rugby but we were playing Italy in Italy and it was what it was. So, of course there are things that we can do better, like our chase game, and we know that we'll have to be better against Ireland who will be hurting. They're coming off a loss and they're getting grief while we're coming off a win and getting grief. It'll be interesting."
Johnson feels that the closeness of the match in Rome will serve England well.
"It won't have been a bad thing to go through," Johnson said. "It was edgy, we had to keep our heads and show composure to get the drop goal."
Those points were scored, of course, by Wilkinson. England break this evening at the end of a three-day training camp and will reconvene on Sunday night to prepare for the game against Ireland.
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