Johnno lashes out at ‘sloppy’ England

ANGRY Martin Johnson blasted England for being “sloppy” and warned they will be dumped out of the Rugby World Cup early unless there is an immediate improvement.

The England manager ripped into his squad after they trooped into the changing room having made hard work of beating a Georgia side playing their second game in four days.

“We got the win, so you would think he’d be happy — but he was spewing in there,” revealed Shontayne Hape.

England eventually prevailed 41-10, running in six tries to claim a bonus point and move top of Pool B, but they struggled for long spells in the face of a spirited Georgian assault.

Johnson raged in the coach’s box as England’s ill-discipline let them down, with 11 first-half penalties helping Georgia boss the opening 40 minutes.

The Lelos scored a deserved try through number eight Dimitri Basilaia but they could not punish England as fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed five shots at goal.

England led 17-10 at the interval courtesy of two Hape tries and then pulled away with second-half scores from Delon Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and two from Chris Ashton.

“It is a simple game and at times we made it more difficult and it was sloppy. It just annoys me,” said Johnson.

Hape expected Johnson to be happy with the result — but the 2003 captain was less than impressed.

“We were pleased to get six tries and a bonus-point win but it wasn’t like that in (Johnson’s) eyes,” said Hape.

“We thought we might at least get a smile out of him, but you know what he’s like — he was actually yelling and screaming. A couple of times when Ashton did some stupid off-loads I looked up at the screen and I could see Johnno kicking the sides of the box.

“He didn’t look like he was a very happy chappy. It’s lucky Ashton scored at the end to make up for it!”

Scorers for England: Tries: Hape 2, Armitage, Tuilagi, Ashton 2. Cons: Flood 4. Pens: Flood.

Scorers for Georgia: Tries: Basilaia. Cons: Kvirikashvili. Pens: Kvirikashvili.

ENGLAND: Foden, Ashton, Tuilagi, Hape, Armitage, Flood, Youngs, Stevens, Hartley, Cole, Shaw, Palmer, Wood, Moody, Easter.

Replacements: Banahan for Tuilagi (67), Simpson for Youngs (67), Corbisiero for Cole (65), Thompson for Wood (40), Croft for Moody (57).

GEORGIA: Gigauri, Machkhaneli, Kacharava, Zibzibadze, Todua, Kvirikashvili, Abuseridze, Khinchagashvili, Bregvadze, Kubriashvili, Zedginidze, Maisuradze, Sutiashvili, Gorgodze, Basilaia.

Replacements: Khmaladze for Machkhaneli (42), Samkharadze for Abuseridze (63), Zirakashvili for Kubriashvili (24), Datunashvili for Zedginidze (5), Chkhaidze for Sutiashvili (31), Berishvili for Basilaia (60).

Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa)

Picture: England's James Haskell breaks through the Georgia tackles. Picture: PA