Johnson laments lack of discipline

ANYONE who ever watched Martin Johnson play rugby will hardly be surprised that the team he now manages has something of a disciplinary problem. After all, ‘Johnno’ was no stranger to the yellow peril himself.

The England manager’s sin was usually one of aggression. His teams are more varied. The big problem is that they are repeat offenders. England have been unable to learn from their mistakes and the crisis is escalating.

Saturday saw their yellow card count rise to ten in just four games. Add in the 18 penalties they conceded and not even Ronan O’Gara’s rare off day with the boot could save their souls.

Those statistics, and offences like Danny Care’s rash charge at Marcus Horan ten minutes from time, prompted one English journalist to ask Johnson if today’s players somehow lacked the intelligence of their predecessors.

The prickly response came as no surprise.

“You want me to say something about intelligence but I’m not going to give you a cheap headline. It is where we are as a team. That was where we lost the game. We are in the here and now and we have to sort it out. I have been saying that for three weeks and we have a higher penalty count in this game than last week.”

A second brave soul prodded deeper.

Have you tried the hairdryer technique?

“What is a hairdryer technique?”

Well, you give them a bloody big blast.

“I just said to them that they had cost themselves the game. Good effort, you have lost by one point in Dublin but you have cost yourselves a Test match. There isn’t much more you can say to them. You have cost yourself a Test match.”

The rest of the press conference, centred entirely on the discipline issue, was conducted with less frost in the air. Perhaps Johnson was just thankful that 2003’s carpet affair had finally disappeared from the agenda.

“I don’t mind talking about (the indiscipline),” he said. “It’s just costing us games. That’s what it is costing us. It is costing us the chance to win games. These guys work hard but it is just crazy to give it away in that manner.

“Who knows? If the penalty count had been eight maybe Ireland would still have won. Something else might have happened but you would have given yourself a better chance.”

His frustrations were more evident during the match itself when he quite clearly took issue with a number of referee Craig Joubert’s decisions. He was still querying some of the officiating afterwards.

“There was one penalty that Ronan O’Gara kicked in the first-half for offside. I didn’t have a clue that it was offside. The touch (judge) has made that call and it was a poor call.

“If you get yourself behind on the count they are going to look at you more. It’s human nature and Danny (Care’s) sinbin probably came from that as well because I thought he hit the back of the ruck. That’s what happens with rucks.”

The details he may have issue with, but he has no truck with the wider picture. His players are letting him and themselves down thanks to their inability to eradicate their offences and no-one is whiter than white.

“They are here to win games. If it was one guy giving away six penalties it would be a big issue but it isn’t. It is seven, eight, nine or ten guys giving away one or two each.”

Next up for England? France in two weeks. Ouch.

It may get worse before it gets better.