International / Ralph Ellis / 28 November 2008 / Leave a comment

After the drubbing received at the hands of South Africa last week, England need to bounce back against New Zealand this weekend, and Ralph Ellis believes they need to stop concentrating on the Referee and start focussing on improving their own performance if they are to stand a chance of a seemingly unlikely victory.

I thought the idea of the FA's Respect campaign was to make football more like Rugby Union, where the word of the official is final and nobody argues. Instead it seems this morning that rugby is the new football - because according to England's captain Steve Borthwick his team's record Twickenham defeat last week was partly down to the referee.

It's an interesting switch. Having a moan about the referee is just about the oldest trick in professional sport - or amateur sport too, for that matter. Sir Alex Ferguson is the master of that particular dark art. Notice how he grumbles about the official almost every time United don't win. It moves the debate away from his own team's mistakes.

Jose Mourinho is one of the best at it, and Arsene Wenger tried to hide behind the officials too after his team got wiped away without putting up a fight at Stoke. Joe Kinnear got stuck with an FA charge yesterday for labelling Martin Bodenham "Mickey Mouse", when the real issue in a defeat at Fulham was that his strikers had played more like Minnie Mouse.

Borthwick's complaint was that Welsh referee Nigel Owens allowed the Springbocks to get away with repeatedly lying on, around and over the ball during last week's rout. And his argument has been backed up in today's papers by forwards coach John Wells who reckons our Guinness Premiership referees have stopped English players learning how to operate on the edge of the laws.

"I had one skill as a player," says the former Leicester flanker who never won an international cap. "I knew how to cheat and cheat well because I could get away with it in my day, but the game has changed. The referees of today don't let players in this country learn those arts, and much as we would like to kick away the guys who are laying on the ball we can't because we would get sent to the sin bin or sent off. We lacked the nous in that respect."

England's aim is no doubt to get a message through to Irish referee Alain Rolland to keep a watch on exactly how New Zealand's pack operate at the breakdown. But you can't help feeling they would be better off concentrating on their own performances in that area.

The forwards simply didn't feed enough good, early possession back to the pretty boys last week and unless they find a way to do the same this time there's no hope for anything other than another hiding. And the fact that the focus is on looking at the ref rather than their own performance doesn't bode well.

It's early days for Martin Johnson, of course, and he's clearly experimenting with his team. That's been behind all the chopping and changing which has seen Danny Cipriani dropped a couple of weeks after being hailed as the brightest star of the future.

But you can't help feeling that there's another heavy defeat in store, and New Zealand to win by more than 19.5 points at [1.99] this morning looks a pretty secure bet. I'm even more tempted by the [4.1] on offer for the All Blacks to be more than 33.5 points up at the final whistle and so wipe away South Africa's record after just a week.

Five things you might not know about John Wells

1.Born in Driffield, Yorkshire in 1963 he studied sports science and recreation management at Loughborough University

2.While there he started playing rugby for nearby Leicester Tigers, and ended up making 360 appearances

3.He played for England at Under 16, Under 18, Under 23 and 'A' level but never won a full cap - although he did play in a non cap international against Italy

4.He became Leicester's forwards coach, and moved up to be head coach after the sacking of Dean Richards in 2004

5.Since joining Martin Johnson's staff he's criticised the lack of experienced players coming through the England ranks and said the country has to take time to blood the youngsters