Johnson content with first game at the helm of England

International / Geoffrey Riddle / 09 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

Geoffrey Riddle listens to England's new manager talk following England's Twickenham victory on Saturday.

Martin Johnson started his reign as England team manager with a solid 39-13 win over the Pacific Islanders at Twickenham, but it was his team selection that illustrated that there may be far more to come over the next few weeks.

The man-of-the-match accolade went to Delon Armitage, one of four new caps, and there were starring roles from the other greenhorns. London Irish team-mate Nick Kennedy was instrumental in the line-out, scoring from the set-piece in the 44th minute, and Riki Flutey and Ugo Monye put in the hard yards with panache.

Johnson was pretty happy with the result in the post-match press conference, highlighting his side's defensive performance.

"We won the game in difficult conditions. The game was stop start and we were a little bit tentative, which is understandable given that we haven't been together long, and five of the squad were getting their first caps," he said.

"I thought we defended pretty well - we conceded one try - which was a charge-down, so I'm pretty happy about that."

One combination that the England coaches felt worked particularly well was the back three. Assistant coach Brian Smith said afterwards: "I thought the back-three were outstanding. At times 9 (Danny Care) and 10 (Danny Cipriani) were good, sometimes they were bad, but they don't play together at club level, so that is fair."

One of the back-three, Paul Sackey, scored two tries, and his 14th-minute touchdown was the fifth time he had opened the try-scoring for his team in his 16-game career. Punters should look at him in detail over the next few weeks, particularly in the 'to score first for their team' market.

Another of the back-three who merited a mention was Delon Armitage, who scooped the man-of-the-match award. Johnson continued: "Delon has trained really well this week, and we just hoped he could perform at the highest level in his first test match, I thought he did."

Smith, who used to train Armitage at London Irish also lavished praise on the 24-year-old full-back. He said: "Basically you play the way you train, and he has trained very well this week."

In the build-up to this fixture, many saw the London Irish back as a bit of a leftfield choice, and they believed that he was surely only in the Red Rose XV due to the injuries to Bath's Nick Abendanon and Josh Lewsey's lack of form. Smith put the record straight, however.

"Delon wasn't in the original 64 [Elite player squad] because he was injured at the end of last season. I remember the selection meeting, and I said that this could be the best thing for him. Leave him out, and let him fight his way back in. He took that opportunity well."

Punters may also have noted that England scored the first points of the match yesterday, through Danny Cipriani's 14th minute penalty. They have done so now in nine of their last 11 performances at Twickenham. It could be a useful source of revenue over the next few weeks as England start to size up the Tri-Nations teams due to come to Twickenham.

"There's a lot of hoopla about my first game in charge, but I hope that is out of the way now," said Johnson.

"I think the guys understand that next week is going to be of a higher tempo, and more intense. I think it will be good for us to go out and play a team like Australia."

"It may be easier for us to play against the Wallabies because we know who they are, we know a bit more about them, and the intensity will be higher."