Martin Johnson defends England regime as reports are leaked

Former England rugby coach Martin Johnson has defended England’s World Cup tactics as reports are leaked into their failure.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) are currently appointing an independent investigator to look into who leaked the reports describing it as a ‘serious breach of confidentiality.’

The reports are based on interviews from the England players who according to this ‘evidence’ were ‘more focused on money than getting the rugby right.’

The document also uncovered that senior players were disputing the amount of money they were getting paid for the tournament bringing Martin Johnson and his coaching team under scrutiny.

The reports were never meant to be published and although all quotes are anonymous there seems to be a lot of tension and concern as to who has let the information leak.

Johnson said the players he had spoken to were ‘horrified’ by what has happened with the way their feedback has been reported, and urges that it isn’t a true reflection of the squad and their efforts during the World Cup.

He did admit that the antics off the pitch were damaging to the integrity of the team; ‘certain actions by certain players did let the group down and led us to be portrayed as something we weren’t...’

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say he isn’t too far wrong there. But is this controversy ever going to end?

In the space of a week we have seen the ‘retirement’ of Martin Johnson, the ongoing appeal of Mike Tindall, who has been fined £25,000 for his outrageous behaviour off the pitch, and now there is damning reports into the failure of the England players during the World Cup. 

It all just seems a little strange to me how everything has revolved around this tournament and how much damage it has actually caused.

Johnson has made the point that he believes England has hit ‘rock bottom.’ He added; ‘If I had my time again I’d do things slightly differently but I know why I did what I did.’

The investigation will be going ahead shortly and I’m sure the England team will be hoping it will be dealt with quickly before anything else gets out that could possibly damage the pride and respect of the team anymore than everything else already has.