World Cup-winning England captain Martin Johnson has given his thoughts on Chris Robshaw’s decision to go for the corner in the dying moments of the loss to Wales last weekend.
England lost the game 28-25 but won a penalty near the Wales 22 metre line, five metres in from touch on the right hand side with a little under three minutes left on the clock.
And the ex-skipper revealed that if he were in the same situation, he would have gone for goal to salvage the draw.
“I was thinking ‘kick the goal’, but then I had a left-footed kicker (Wilkinson)! Chris has had some tough calls in his captaincy. I don’t think I had any as tough as that,” Johnson told ITV.
“If you had kicked it you would probably have got the ball back. You don’t want to get yourself in those positions. Ideally you are in a different position. They are tough calls.
“I wasn’t surprised when he went for the corner, but you have to execute it when you do that. The more disappointing thing for me was that we didn’t execute it. We got smashed into touch. Then we had another lineout and we couldn’t execute that either. It will be a loss they will always remember, that one.”
It has been a tough week for England, as they have faced levels of scrutiny and criticism unparalleled since Stuart Lancaster took over. Robshaw’s decision late on in the game has come in for particular vitriol, with Japan coach Eddie Jones laying into the Harlequins player – somewhat unnecessarily, it has to be said – in a Daily Mail column on Thursday.
“To me, Robshaw is an outstanding club player, but at international level he just doesn’t have that point of difference,” wrote Jones in the Daily Mail.
“He carries okay, he tackles okay, but he’s not outstandingly good in any area. I think that is his limiting factor. He’s a good workmanlike player, but he does not have the specialist skills and the instinct as an openside that Pocock has.
“The breakdown will be a key area of the game on Saturday and Australia can dominate there because England simply don’t have the specialist skills to compete with them. David Pocock is an out-and-out fetcher. At the moment, there is no-one in the world better than him over the ball. Stuart Lancaster doesn’t have that sort of fetcher in his team.
“Australia will have two opensides in their back row, so they are expected to dominate the ruck contest and I can’t see it going any other way with the teams that are going to be selected. Ben Morgan and Tom Wood don’t play over the ball, and Robshaw only half does it, so it looks like an uphill battle for England.”
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
I think that by concentrating on this desicion is deflecting attention from the real issues which are:
Against a poor performance from Wales in attack England couldn’t keep, defend and build on a ten point lead. A team such as NZ would have been 20 points ahead at the time of this line out. The reason for this was poor discipline at the breakdown. England had no need to go after the ball at the breakdown but instead should have let Wales play down the blind alleys they were going before they would have kicked possession away ( see first half).
A good captain would have understood this, and told his players to have stopped competing for the ball at the breakdown. Robshaws problem was he was the worst culprit at the breakdown.
Spot on Jez. And it’s not as if Warrenball is impossible to decipher and defend. Effective it may be, much of the time; unpredictable it is not. And doesn’t its success actually depend on the opposition over-committing to the breakdown?? Even more reason to employ your tactic in that area!
Indeed. I’ve never been the hugest fan of Gatland Wales. In fact I believe that the Lions in Australia showed that to make Wales a very good side you need to add a couple of Irish and English players…
Totally agree Jez. I also totally agree with Eddie Jones – though his comments may be unnecessary, I think they’re spot on.
I have a lot more time for Eddie Jones than either Bob Dwyer and Jonathan Kaplan who’ve reared their ugly heads again!
Slightly misleading headline – led me to believe Johnson was slagging Robshaw off, where in fact his comments show a lot of sympathy – and empathy.
Eddie Jones is absolutely right too. You describe it as unnecessary but he’s acting with his Australian fan’s hat on. Trying to put doubt in the England players’ heads and annoy the fans.
Bang on Stroudos. Tabloid headline on the Rugby Blog page,not good! Regarding Eddie Jones ,I wonder how many England fans wish we were in his hands for Saturday rather than Bomber? I know I do.