Johnson dismisses 'lucky' jibes
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:25
England manager Martin Johnson insisted his team had not been dealt a lucky hand after avoiding all the Tri-Nations teams in the pool draw for the 2011 World Cup.
England, who in the past three weeks have conceded 102 points during 14-28, 6-42 and 6-32 defeats at Twickenham against Australia, world champions South Africa and New Zealand respectively, escaped an early World Cup clash with any of the southern hemisphere 'big three'.
Instead they have been drawn alongside old rivals Scotland and Argentina, who finished third at last year's World Cup in France, where England reached the Final before losing to the Springboks.
"If you want to get to the last week of the World Cup you need to be good enough to beat the best in the world," Johnson, England's World Cup-winning captain in 2003, said after Monday's draw.
"Whoever we got in the pool doesn't change anything in that regard.
"There are some pretty tough groups there. Scotland and Fiji were in the third band and they both reached the quarterfinals at the last World Cup."
With only the top two from each of the four pools of five going through to the quarterfinals, Pool B seems set to offer a series of hard-fought clashes when the next World Cup takes place in New Zealand.
The only time England and Scotland have met at the World Cup was in the 1991 semifinals, a match that England won 9-6 at Murrayfield.
Their previous World Cup clash with the Pumas was in a 1995 pool clash in South Africa, which England won 9-6 - a match Johnson, who captained England to World Cup glory in 2003 played in.
"Playing Scotland in the World Cup will be a hell of a game, with huge passion. We haven't played them in a World Cup since 1991. That was a tight game," said Johnson.
"Scotland were quarterfinalists last year, we finished second and Argentina finished third. There are a lot of tough groups," said Johnson, whose team face a potential quarterfinal against New Zealand or France.
"Argentina have been successful. They went to the World Cup in 2007 and came through the toughest pool of all and they could have got to the Final."
But the former lock conceded England would need to make major improvements if they were to head to New Zealand in three years' time with a realistic chance of taking the title.
"The World Cup is so huge now in the world of rugby that everything builds up to it. If there wasn't a World Cup in three years would it change anything? No. We want to improve as a team," said Johnson.
"We have to get better," Johnson, the only man to captain the British and Irish Lions on two tours added.
"We will meet this week as coaches with the emotion of it gone. We need to put our plans in place for the Six Nations and the squad.
"We are not picking a team to win in three years, we are picking a team to win now but of course we will have an eye on who will be there.
"When you look at teams that have won it, the last three have all been pretty experienced and the three England teams to have reached finals [in 1991, 2003 and 2007] have all been very experienced."
England will face Scotland and Argentina three times between now and the 2011 World Cup, starting with the March 21 Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham - while England will also undertake a two-Test tour of Argentina.
AFP
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