Johnson wary of ‘lethal’ Australia

MARTIN JOHNSON warned his players the toughest challenge was yet to come after England missed an opportunity of recording a famous victory against New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday.

Replacement hooker Dylan Hartley scored a try as England came back from 14-0 down to launch a second-half fightback against the All Blacks.

If centre Shontayne Hape had squeezed over in the corner near the end when he should have scored it could have been the perfect start to manager Johnson’s World Cup preparations.

Instead, England lost 26-16 which saw Johnson lamenting England’s habit of starting slowly in games and immediately turning his thoughts towards the challenge of Australia next weekend.

The Australians beat the All Blacks 26-24 in Hong Kong the weekend before last and Johnson admitted: “The Australians are lethal in terms of taking opportunities and spotting space.

The former England World Cup winning captain believes the upcoming Australian game will present “a different challenge” to that posed by New Zealand on Saturday

“We know how dangerous they can be. By no means do we think we have got the tough one out of the way. If you get into that trap you will get yourself beaten very quickly.”

“We’ve just got to start giving ourselves an in into the Test match. The last three we’ve played we haven’t in two of them and have lost them by 10 points.

“The middle one we gave ourselves an in and we won it by a point (21-20 v Australia in June). It will come and get better with working together.

“There is pressure but it is not an excuse for the things which weren’t good.

“It’s a nuts and bolts game, you can have grandiose ideas but it’s about passing, tackling, catching.

“If they (New Zealand) are winning the weight of the tackles which they did at times that drags a few more defenders in and then you get a bit narrow and lose your line speed.

“That’s the crux of it.”

One thing which did please Johnson was the reaction of the players who made the England dressing room feel like the reading room at the British library after the game.

Johnson said: “I didn’t want them to be happy with the comeback and happy to be near.

“If you want to get better you don’t go around being satisfied. There was lots of good stuff but let’s not pat ourselves on the back, that’s what we expect.”

The truth is England were caught cold, allowing the All Blacks to take a 17-3 ahead with tries from Hosea Gear and Kieran Read.

The second one, in particular, infuriated Johnson with Read coming off the back of a maul and beingdriven over by his team-mates.

“It was a disappointing try to concede at this level,” said Johnson.

“They got round the corner quicker than us and Kieran Read got in, that’s just too easy.

“We know that and that’s part of being a bit rusty.

“But we had five players making their debut at Twickenham and I thought Shontayne played very well.

“Floody (Toby Flood) ran the game well, (Ben) Youngs is very assured. There were lots of positives. But it’s about taking chances in the heat of the battle. They’ve got some real experienced campaigners coming off 10 Tests on the trot.

“They are a smoother machine than we are right now and that showed.”