16 April 2008 Appointed England team manager, replacing Brian Ashton.

1 July 2008 Starts his reign, having opted not to go on the summer tour of New Zealand, where Mike Brown and Topsy Ojo are found guilty of misconduct and fined. England lose both Tests heavily.

8 November 2008 First match in charge ends with a 39-13 win over Pacific Islanders, Danny Cipriani scoring 19 of England's 39 points.

29 November 2008 England lose their third straight autumn international, 32-6 to New Zealand, having been defeated heavily by South Africa and by a 14-point margin by Australia. The way England played represented the country's "most dispiriting autumn series of the modern era", writes Robert Kitson in the Guardian.

28 February 2009 England are defeated 14-13 in Dublin, following a 23-15 defeat in Cardiff two weeks earlier, to start the Six Nations with two defeats. Johnson reacts furiously to Danny Care being sin-binned in the 70th minute for an unnecessary shoulder barge to deny England any hope of an historic win at Croke Park. The offence makes it 10 yellow cards in the last four fixtures.

15 March 2009 France are taken apart at Twickenham, England leading 29-0 after the first half with Riki Flutey scoring two tries. The final score is 34-10 and Johnson says: "We executed our chances very well – all the work that [attack coach] Brian Smith has put in on our attacking game really paid off."

21 March 2009 England finish second in the Six Nations after a 26-12 win over Scotland.

13 June 2009 The summer finishes with a 24-22 defeat in Argentina, with Steve Borthwick saying: "We didn't sustain pressure on the opposition because the error count was too high."

21 Nov 2009 England end the autumn internationals with two defeats (Australia and New Zealand) and one win (Argentina) but there is a worrying lack of progress, especially going forward. The post-mortem focuses on the fact that England scored only one try in the three Tests.

6 February 2010 A fourth consecutive Six Nations defeat against Wales is avoided with England winning 30-17 at Twickenham. England play with renewed vigour but the match is level before Alun Wyn Jones is sent to the sin-bin. "England have finally got that touch of arrogance back," says the former England international Ben Kay after Toby Flood and Ben Youngs impress.

27 February 2010 A pattern has emerged as England are criticised for being "innately conservative" as they lose 20-16 to Ireland at home. Lewis Moody is dropped for the next game, against Scotland, which ends in a draw (15-15).

19 June 2010 Australia are beaten 21-20 in Sydney in a rare highlight of Johnson's reign. "There was just a completely different feel," says Chris Ashton. "We just said we were going to run it if we could. You do get sick of hearing the same old things when you're losing but we knew it would click at some point."

13 November 2010 Beat Australia 35-18 at Twickenham and this was as good as it got for Johnson. England were superb and Ashton scored a wonder try. "The most potent attacking team in the world were for the most part outrun, outthought, outpaced and outclassed," writes Paul Rees in the Observer.

12 February 2011 Ashton becomes the first player to score four tries for England since 19-14 as Italy are hammered 59-13.

19 March 2011 Hopes of a Six Nations grand slam are dashed by Ireland in Dublin but it is still England's first tournament win since 2003. Ben Foden and Chris Ashton give England hope of a bright future, with the latter scoring two tries in a 26-19 win over Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

27 August 2011 Ireland are beaten 20-9 at the Aviva Stadium. England score two tries, Ireland none and Martin Johnson's defence looks unbreachable

31 August 2011 England arrive in New Zealand for the World Cup with injury concerns over the captain Lewis Moody and the question of whether Toby Flood or Jonny Wilkinson will start at No10.

World Cup

10 September 2011 England scrape past Argentina 13-9 in their World Cup opener, Johnson's side having been 9-3 down with 13 minutes left. Ben Youngs saves the day with a late try.

15 September 2011 Martin Johnson is forced to come out in defence of his players following a night out in Queenstown. Mike Tindall, Chris Ashton and Dylan Hartley are among the players pictured at the Altitude bar, which was holding a "Mad Midget Weekender". Johnson also has to defend the decision to allow some players to go bungee jumping.

18 September 2011 Shontayne Hape (2), Ashton (2), Delon Armitage and Manu Tuilagi score the tries as England beat Georgia 41-10 but it is a stuttering performance and the eastern Europeans dominate the breakdown.

24 September 2011 Romania are beaten 67-3 to give Johnson and the rest of the squad some breathing space.

29 September 2011 The Rugby Football Union suspends the assistant coach Dave Alred and the fitness coach Paul Stridgeon from the World Cup game against Scotland after the pair were found to have illegally changed balls during the victory against Romania.

1 October 2011 Wilkinson has a torrid night but his dropped goal and penalty bring England back into contention against Scotland, a game they finally win 16–12 to secure a place in the quarter-finals.

3 October 2011 Johnson admits to being "angry" with Ashton, Hartley and James Haskell for alleged inappropriate harassment of a female hotel employee at the Scenic Southern Cross hotel.

8 October 2011 England crash out of the World Cup with a 19-12 defeat against a French team that had been in disarray earlier in the tournament. It is an uninspiring defeat that goes a long way to sealing Johnson's fate.

9 October 2011 Tuilagi is detained by Auckland police after jumping from a ferry as it was about to berth. The 20-year-old is given a pre-charge warning for disorderly behaviour before being released back to the England team management, which fines him £3,000. Chris Ashton criticises Johnson's approach during the World Cup. "We played this whole tournament in a different way from the way we played in the Six Nations and I don't really know why we did that," he says. "The way we played at the start of the Six Nations is the best way for us to maximise the talent we have in the squad, without a doubt. But we didn't do that. We didn't use what we've got and I don't see any point in that at all."

11 November 2011 Tindall is fined £25,000 and removed from England's elite player squad following events in Queenstown, while Haskell and Ashton were given £5,000 suspended fines following an incident in Dunedin. Hartley is cleared.

16 November 2011 Johnson resigns.