Rugby Union News

Johnson warns England

Author: Charlie Coffey
Posted on: 18 November 2008 - 1:53 PM
Category: Rugby Union
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Martin Johnson has warned his young England stars they must learn to eradicate careless errors from their game if they are to inflict a rare defeat on world champions South Africa.The England boss was disappointed with his team's failure to see off Australia last weekend but is remaining optimistic ahead of the clash with the Springboks.Johnson has made just one change to the team beaten 28-14 by Australia with Wasps flanker James Haskell replacing Tom Croft.

But he has urged his players to be more careful in possession after giving away eight penalties against the Wallabies last time out.

"It's great we can choose between two very young and exciting players in James and Tom," said Johnson. "We want to get some consistency in the team. They are aware of the mistakes we made - but they have the opportunity to correct them.

"The defeat rankles. We are still growing into the way we are playing. It only takes a momentary lapse, a few guys going off script in the heat of battle, for things to break down in that area.

"We gave away eight kickable penalties. We need to cut out mistakes, cut out penalties and put ourselves in a position in the last 20 minutes to win the game.

"The great thing from our point of view is that there are lots of opportunities out there - we just have to see them and exploit them."

Johnson has also quashed claims by South Africa coach Peter de Villiers that the visitors are suffering from fatigue and are running on empty ahead of the game.

"I think they will definitely be up for it. They won't have any problems with that," he added. "They will want to finish the season off on a high and beat us at Twickenham.

"It's a big thing for opposition teams to come here and win, as you saw with the Australians' reaction when they won on here on Saturday. They play with huge intensity, passion and physicality."

"Things like that that can be fixed very quickly. It's about guys knowing their roles, getting details right and getting the points on the board.