England's manager, Martin Johnson, has criticised his players following their 27-17 defeat by Australia in Perth, insisting they should be "angry" about the standard of their performance. The ex-England captain was particularly upset by the side's first-half display and complained they had made it "too easy" for the Wallabies.
Never before in the history of Test rugby has any side matched England's two penalty tries against another leading nation but they were unable to capitalise on their overwhelming scrum domination. "I thought we started very poorly," said Johnson. "We were off the pace in the first half and really put ourselves in a lot of trouble. We've got to be better next Saturday because we won't get two penalty tries every week. I said to the players we should be pretty angry with ourselves. They're good players but we aided them too much."
"You've got to be bloody good to win down here and we didn't help ourselves. It's disappointing. We had good preparation time but it's about going out and doing it. At times we didn't kick well, at times we didn't chase well. It's about accuracy and execution and doing what we say we're going to do. Maybe in club rugby you'll get away with it, here you get exposed. We were fortunate they dropped a few balls. We have to react very quickly and be better next week."
Steve Thompson, England's hooker, said he and his team-mates had made the mistake of getting fixated with their scrum superiority against a team badly hit by front-row injuries. "It felt like the 'Rumble in the Jungle' when you punch yourself out," he said, comparing the contest to Muhammad Ali's famous "rope-a-dope" tactics against George Foreman. His captain, Lewis Moody, who turned 32 yesterday, was similarly downcast. "We're bitterly frustrated because the opportunity was there. We were just poor in the first half. We felt good going into the game but we just weren't at the races. If we'd started the way we did in the second half, it would have been a different game."
Australia's coach, Robbie Deans, preferred to praise his team's defence and the mental resilience of his young props under huge pressure. "It's fair to say our group will be a lot better for that experience. It's their first taste at this level and they'll come out with a much better understanding." England have now played a total of 16 Tests in Australia and lost 14 of them.
Johnson's day soon got worse. Shortly after the match it emerged that his wing Mark Cueto had been cited for a dangerous tackle on Berrick Barnes early in the game. The case will be heard on Monday morning, and could result in Cueto's suspension for the second and final Test, in Sydney on Saturday.
Match report, page 2-3
