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Impressive: England's Ayoola
Erinle against the All Blacks
Photo: Michael Paler |
RFU chairman Martyn Thomas has
given his full backing to England manager Martin Johnson
despite England losing two of their three home
internationals during November.
“He will lead us into
the 2011 World Cup for sure,” said Thomas after underlining
he felt Johnson was the “outstanding man” for the job.
Johnson has come in for
some heated criticism during the past month, especially
concerning England’s perceived lack of attacking cohesion
and flair. They managed just one try (from Matt Banahan)
during the three games against Australia, Argentina and New
Zealand, with all the team’s remaining points coming from
the boot of Toulon fly-half Jonny Wilkinson.
The England No 10
kicked two penalties in England’s latest reverse, a 6-19
defeat against the All Blacks on Saturday. Former Perpignan
fly-half Dan Carter replied with four penalties and a
conversion for New Zealand, with Jimmy Cowan grabbing the
game’s only try.
England’s performance
was generally accepted to have been an improvement on their
recent showing against Australia and Argentina, with
Biarritz centre Ayoola Erinle doing well on his first
start for the national team. They managed to hold the
visitors 6-6 at half-time before falling off the pace a bit
in the second period.
Carter’s 14 points took
him past Andrew Mehrtens – currently playing with
Racing-Métro 92 – as the All Blacks’ leading scorer of all
time. He will now turn his attention to France, with the two
teams set for a fascinating showdown in Marseille on
Saturday as the November international season draws to a
climactic close.
England sevens captain Ollie Phillips, meanwhile, is
not in the squad for the opening two tournaments of the
2009/10 IRB World Sevens Series.
The Stade Francais
winger has been in fine form for his club of late and it
appears his Paris paymasters have now claimed first dibs on
the former Newcastle player as they seek to climb into Top
14 play-off berths.
This season’s WSS kicks
off in Dubai over the weekend of December 4/5, with the
second leg in George, South Africa, a week later.
England coach Ben Ryan
retained seven players from the squad which reached the
finals of four tournaments last season – Dubai, Wellington,
San Diego and London – but Phillips is a notable omission.
Phillips previously told
frenchrugbyclub.com
that he wanted to carry on playing for England, but that
ultimately it would have to be Stade's call. “As far as I am
concerned I am involved,” he said.
“It’s more of a case of a compromise between England and
Stade and I leave that discussion to those two parties,
because as a player you don’t want to get involved in that
and be seen to be taking sides.
“I love playing for
England and I love playing for Stade. From my perspective as
England captain that obviously comes with a certain
responsibility to play, but at the same time I’ve signed for
Stade, they are my employers and I also want to get into the
full England side. The way I’m going to do that is by
playing for Stade and playing well with Stade.
“So, fundamentally, my
priority has to be with Stade in the short term, but sevens
has given me so much in terms of my rugby that I would
always want to go and play for England at any opportunity. I
hope that there is an accord struck so that I can go for
whether it be all the tournaments or some of the major
tournaments – whatever they decide together. They’re talking
at the moment,” he said.
