Former England rugby coach Martin Johnson has defended his reign at team manager, in particular his role in England’s controversial World Cup campaign.
Led by Johnson, England were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by France, but as those over at CasinosOnline.com will tell you this was just one of the problems with the tournament in South Africa.
There were a number of off the field controversies with regards to player behaviour and then to top everything off, controversial documents were leaked this week which criticised England coaching staff and the attitude of the players.
The documents were meant to be part of a private review into what went wrong in South Africa, but have turned into a public attack on Johnson, his coaching staff and English rugby in general.
Speaking for the first time since the documents were leaked, Johnson said: “It is not a true reflection of the squad. They are opinions, certainly not truths. They were written in an emotive time for everyone post-tournament.”
“The way they have been leaked is detrimental to the game. The way it has been reported, the imbalance, is one of the worst things.”
As for his own thoughts on the campaign, including the off the field incidents, Johnson admitted that they affected the team’s performances and overall focus.
He continued: “Certain actions by certain players did let the group down and led us to be portrayed as something we weren't and something they aren't but we didn't help that at the time so of course there were frustrations.”
"How much that affected things on the field, it's difficult to judge.I know it probably affected certain individuals and would have had an effect on the team and eroded a little bit of trust.”
“But, as a coaching group, we didn't feel it was having a huge effect on us as we went through to the final games. Some players were clearly frustrated early in the trip and that was dealt with.”
“I spoke with them after the Queenstown incident and left them in no uncertain terms as to where I thought they were at that point and after that there wasn't an issue until the end of the tournament.”
“If I had my time again I'd do things slightly differently but I know why I did what I did."
"I'm disappointed because we could have gone a lot further in the tournament but what's been reported is nowhere near the truth of it. That is a fact. That's not what happened.”
The future is now unclear for English rugby and indeed for Johnson. He has stepped down from the role of team manager of course and it remains to be seen what his next move will be.
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