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Johnson blasts England for missed opportunity

Article Published: Sunday 13 June 2010

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England's manager Martin Johnson has lashed out at his players and insisted that they should be "angry" with their performance against Australia.

The former England world cup winning captain was particularly angry at his team's first half performance and said that they had made it "easy" for Australia.

England were awarded two penalty tries after they outclassed Australia's scrum overwhelmingly.

"I thought we started very poorly," Johnson told the Guardian.

"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."

England captain Lewis Moody, who turned 32 yesterday was also disappointed by the loss and said, "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 wing Mark Cueto had been cited for a dangerous tackle on Berrick Barnes. The case will be head on Monday.

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