Johnson wants a do-or-die approach
It certainly will be for Scotland. After losing 13-12 to Argentina, Andy Robinson’s men have to beat the ‘auld enemy’ at Eden Park to stand any chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
England can afford to lose the game providing they stay within seven points to earn a bonus point — but Johnson has punctured any notion of a safety cushion. The England manager, who has recalled Delon Armitage, Courtney Lawes and Matt Stevens into the starting line-up, insisted his men approach the game as a do-or-die encounter. Victory will ensure England top Pool B and face a probable quarter-final against France, rather than hosts and favourites New Zealand.
“It’s knockout rugby. They’re fighting for their lives and so are we,” Johnson said. “They have still got to win this week and the same for us. It’s a huge game. If we get it wrong, it could be a boarding pass on Sunday night.”
Neither Scotland nor England have ever failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup. “You’ve got to have that (fear). When you are playing at this level, if you get it wrong you are going to get beaten,” Johnson added. “We know that, we have that realism. This is a full-on contest. Don’t start worrying about ‘if we get this and they get that’, just go and win the Test match.
“It’s going to be tense, it’s going to be nervy, there’s going to be anxiety, it’s going to be enjoyable. If I want a quiet life I can sit at home and watch it on TV.”
Meanwhile two key members of Johnson’s senior management team have been suspended by the RFU after England found themselves embroiled in another World Cup cheat storm. Jonny Wilkinson’s mentor Dave Alred and fitness specialist Paul Stridgeon were found to have illegally switched balls during England’s 67-3 victory over Romania last Saturday.
Both Alred, the kicking coach, and Stridgeon have been banned from entering Eden Park for tomorrow’s game. The RFU were forced to act after England became the subject of a misconduct investigation by Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL). Alred and Stridgeon were found to have switched the ball Wilkinson was due to kick with on a number of occasions, without requesting permission from referee Romain Poite.
An RFU statement read: “Those team management members took it upon themselves to substitute balls during the match in contravention of both the laws of the game and the spirit of the game. The RFU fully accepts that the action of those team management members was incorrect and detrimental to the image of the tournament, the game and to English rugby.”
ENGLAND (v Scotland, Saturday, 8.30am): B Foden (Northampton Saints); C Ashton (do.), M Tuilagi (Leicester), M Tindall (Gloucester), D Armitage (London Irish); J Wilkinson (Toulon), B Youngs (Leicester); M Stevens (Saracens), S Thompson (London Wasps), D Cole (Leicester), L Deacon (do.), C Lawes (Northampton), T Croft (Leicester), L Moody (Bath, capt), J Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams).
SCOTLAND: C Paterson (Edinburgh); M Evans (Castres), J Ansbro (London Irish), S Lamont (Scarlets), S Danielli (Ulster); R Jackson (Glasgow), M Blair (Edinburgh); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (do.), E Murray (Newcastle Falcons), R Gray (Glasgow), A Kellock (do., capt), A Strokosch (Gloucester), J Barclay (Glasgow), R Vernon (Sale).
Replacements: S Lawson (Gloucester), A Dickinson (Sale), N Hines (Clermont Auvergne), R Rennie (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Glasgow), D Parks (Cardiff Blues), N De Luca (Edinburgh).
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