Johnson stands up for Wilkinson

[Gavin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

England manager Martin Johnson has launched a vigorous defence of Jonny Wilkinson and blasted critics for working to their own agenda.





Wilkinson's position at fly-half has come under scrutiny following England's uninspiring 17-12 victory over Italy on Sunday.

England's World Cup-winning scrum-half Matt Dawson claimed Wilkinson's inability to manage a game and react to situations off the cuff is being exposed without experienced decision makers around him.

Johnson insisted that no player is undroppable but said the whole team must take responsibility for England's disappointing performance.

"I don't agree with the criticism. Jonny missed a few kicks and suddenly everyone is calling for his head, which I find pretty disappointing and surprising," said Johnson.

"No-one is undroppable, no-one ever has been. But is it Jonny's fault we didn't convert our line breaks? No, it's a team thing.

"It has become the vogue to have a pop at Jonny. It is not always right or fair and I think some people are using it for their own agenda but that is the world we live in."

Wilkinson, 30, has only ever been dropped twice by England, for Paul Grayson in the 1999 World Cup and Danny Cipriani in the 2008 Six Nations.

And despite stating that no player is guaranteed his England place, Johnson gave no indication he is planning a change at fly-half.

Wilkinson's understudy Toby Flood is set to be released to play for Leicester this weekend, having been the only unused replacement against Italy in a game crying out for an injection of fresh ideas.

Whatever perceived weaknesses there may be in Wilkinson's game, Johnson insisted selection for any player has to be based on the whole package he brings to the team.

Wilkinson, who has won 75 caps for England, is the leading points scorer in the history of world rugby and his defence is arguably the best of any fly-half.

"You have players who are not in the team who are potentially better at some areas of the game than guys that are in the team. You have to weigh up that overall impact," Johnson added.

"I think Toby has been playing well. We have good depth in that position. We are lucky to have two world-class players at 10."

The chief criticism aimed at England after the Italy game was centred on a lack of ambition as they became embroiled in tedious bouts of aerial ping-pong.

"This match highlighted again that he (Wilkinson) is not comfortable with the responsibility of being the team's playmaker," Dawson wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.

"He can play in the way that has been planned on a flip chart in team meetings but if it comes down to him to work out on the hoof what options to take, more often than not he will kick and miss opportunities to attack.

"Jonny needs players around him, guys like Mike Catt, Will Greenwood, myself or Kyran Bracken, to take decisions, then he will execute them brilliantly."

When asked last week, Wilkinson did not reject the view that he is at his most comfortable playing with a general on his shoulder, barking orders and helping to guide the team around the field.

When England dominated world rugby under Johnson's captaincy, Wilkinson took the plaudits but always deflected the praise towards Will Greenwood or Mike Catt.

Johnson acknowledged England must improve their communication in that area ahead of the Ireland game a week on Saturday, a demand aimed specifically at inside centre Riki Flutey and scrum-half Danny Care.

"We are not playing in isolation out there and that is something we will stress," said Johnson.

"Danny Care is improving all the time in that position and Riki was back for his first game at this level in six or seven months. We can only get better there."

[/b][url]http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3820_5956037,00.html[/url]

Martin Johnson is a complete fool. I enjoyed his statement <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

No-one is undroppable, no-one ever has been[/b]

Does that include Borthwick?

 

[mohamed_ali12]

Why doesn't Johnson just address the problems of his team rather than giving them full support. They act as if its all happy and the team is together and they're building but its just complete bullshit. I'm sure Wilkinson has taken criticism in the past and can take it again. Why is there this silence where everyone is forced to say the same things. Players are paid enough to be able to take criticism and there doesn't need to be this 'don't be mean to my little dumplings' approach from Johnno and Borthwick.

These players have problems with their games, which have never been addresed publicly and most probably in training either.

Payne
Borthwick
Care
Wilkinson
Monye

Grow some f***ing balls, Johnno

 

[Olyy]

Bleargh, he should just play Flood already.
Wilkinsons been unimpressive in all the games he's started recently, he's been a good tackler, and a consistent penalty/conversion kicker, but then that was suspect in the Italy game.
I'm not saying drop him completely, but at least give someone else a chance

 

[Bullitt]

Danny Care is actually the best man for the job - Look at how he works for Quins alongside Evans. However he is hindered for England by a pathetic gameplan (including this belt-and-braces approach to securing the ball, thus slow presentation) and a fly-half that stands 20m directly behind the fullback.

Sadly we cannot blame the rest of the backs for these faults. However we can note that Monye is blowing hot and cold like menopausal heroin addict while Armitage has developed/regressed the common sense (and temperament) of Joey Barton.

 

[mohamed_ali12]

I'm not saying these players shouldn't be in the squad (except for Payne) but they have aspects which have shown no sign of improvement.

i.e.
Care - too long to pass, as he always steps towards his man
Wilkinson - doesn't stand on the gainline, cant kick for ****
Monye - carries the ball under his arm (Lions tour), no thoughts for support runners (Italy, New Zealand)

 

[iWin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ali12 @ Feb 17 2010, 06:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Why doesn't Johnson just address the problems of his team rather than giving them full support. They act as if its all happy and the team is together and they're building but its just complete bullshit. I'm sure Wilkinson has taken criticism in the past and can take it again. Why is there this silence where everyone is forced to say the same things. Players are paid enough to be able to take criticism and there doesn't need to be this 'don't be mean to my little dumplings' approach from Johnno and Borthwick.

These players have problems with their games, which have never been addresed publicly and most probably in training either.

Payne
Borthwick
Care
Wilkinson
Monye

Grow some f***ing balls, Johnno[/b]

With my Quins blinkers on, I'd say that Care definitely, and possibly Monye are fine for the job.
Care's been great in this 6 nations so far, and I'd like to see him stay if he keeps playing well.
Monye is learning to carry the ball in the right hand. While I'd still like to see Ashton instead, I don't think his last two performances warrant dropping him.

However, the others are perfectly valid targets. Also, I'd like to add Armitage to that list. He's done nothing since coming back to deserve his spot ahead of Foden.

I don't understand where Johnson has been these last 7 years, but Wilko has been nowhere near his best since that world cup.
He doesn't kick well out of hand any more, and he never passes, as well as standing too deep. While the place kicking was just an off day, Flood's place kicking isn't so bad that we'll miss Wilko for it.
I'd rather score 3 tries and miss a couple of penalties than the other way round...

 

[mohamed_ali12]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (iWin @ Feb 17 2010, 07:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ali12 @ Feb 17 2010, 06:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why doesn't Johnson just address the problems of his team rather than giving them full support. They act as if its all happy and the team is together and they're building but its just complete bullshit. I'm sure Wilkinson has taken criticism in the past and can take it again. Why is there this silence where everyone is forced to say the same things. Players are paid enough to be able to take criticism and there doesn't need to be this 'don't be mean to my little dumplings' approach from Johnno and Borthwick.

These players have problems with their games, which have never been addresed publicly and most probably in training either.

Payne
Borthwick
Care
Wilkinson
Monye

Grow some f***ing balls, Johnno[/b]

With my Quins blinkers on, I'd say that Care definitely, and possibly Monye are fine for the job.
Care's been great in this 6 nations so far, and I'd like to see him stay if he keeps playing well.
Monye is learning to carry the ball in the right hand. While I'd still like to see Ashton instead, I don't think his last two performances warrant dropping him.

However, the others are perfectly valid targets. Also, I'd like to add Armitage to that list. He's done nothing since coming back to deserve his spot ahead of Foden.

I don't understand where Johnson has been these last 7 years, but Wilko has been nowhere near his best since that world cup.
He doesn't kick well out of hand any more, and he never passes, as well as standing too deep. While the place kicking was just an off day, Flood's place kicking isn't so bad that we'll miss Wilko for it.
I'd rather score 3 tries and miss a couple of penalties than the other way round...
[/b][/quote]

so would i, but i'd just like to see some signs of improvement. I'm not saying drop them.

 

[gingergenius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

But is it Jonny's fault we didn't convert our line breaks? No, it's a team thing.

Jonny missed a few kicks and suddenly everyone is calling for his head[/b]

You get the impression that they're deluding themselves. No one who criticises Wilkinson is criticising him for the fact that we had 3 or 4 breaks that we failed to score from. This isn't a big problem. Neither is the fact that he missed some kicks, because we know that he is a world class goal kicker usually.

What people are criticising him for, and criticising Johnson and anyone involved in England, is the gameplan.

Making 3 or 4 breaks against Italy is not impressive; the Irish never got out of 2nd gear and still killed the game off early. With players like Flutey, Tait and Armitage coming into the line, this should be normal. But breaks are usually converted into points when they happen in opposition territory, closer to the 22 than halfway, and you need territory for this to happen. Wilkinson is not the type of fly half who will ever think about creating something in his own half - he is the sort who needs to control the game with his boot and therefore with him in the team, we should expect a lot of territory.

So when every one of Wilkinson's kicks goes straight down the throat of an Italian, of course he's going to be criticised. He is a key cog in the gameplan, and if he's not working, it falls to pieces.

After his kicks go astray, we had the back 3, Wilkinson and Tait waiting back to field the returning kick. Now, from here, all of them besides Tait kicked very poorly from hand. Here is the 2nd flaw in the plan.

The 3rd flaw is the team as a whole having a complete inability to adjust. All it required was 10 mins of massive 100% effort from the forwards - and Castro being binned was the perfect oppurtunity. Almost every time I saw the back 3 catch the ball, there were a number of chasing Italians, and no English near them. If they took it into contact, they'd get turned over or pinged for holding on - and in the meantime, the forwards were literally walking around in midfield, as if they new for certain it was going to be kicked back. If they bust a gut to get back and support, then maybe the back 3 would be more inclined to run it back.

What I suspect, however, is that they were told to kick everything and keep playing the territory game.

England's big failure on Sunday was Johnson's determination to bully victory out of the Italians, which was never possible when half the pack and the fly half were playing so poorly.

Their subsequent failure to adapt, and then admit their errors following the game, is very worrying.

It's time for Flood. His kicking from hand is certainly not worse, his goalkicking and defence decent, and his attacking game infinitely better. Johnson will never see this.