SPORTS> World Events
|
SPORTS> World Events
|
|
Johnson angry over more England indiscipline
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-02 10:37 DUBLIN: England manager Martin Johnson was angered by his side's indiscipline after they notched a 10th yellow card in four games in Saturday's 14-13 Six Nations defeat by Ireland at Croke Park.
They gave away 16 penalties compared to Ireland's eight and suffered two sin binnings, losing prop Phil Vickery early in the second half at 6-3 down and replacement scrumhalf Danny Care later on, allowing the home side to stretch their lead to 14-6. "All you can do is keep hammering away," the manager told a news conference after grunting in agreement that perhaps the players were failing to listen to the message he is sending out. "It's all the more frustrating because we don't need to give away penalties. We've got to believe in ourselves more ... We let them off the hook today." England had four players sin binned in November's 32-6 defeat by New Zealand and two in their opening two Six Nations games - James Haskell and Shane Geraghty went in the victory over Italy and Mike Tindall and Andy Goode in defeat by Wales. "I'm angry for them, not for me," Johnson continued, adding he had no complaints about South African referee Craig Joubert. "The penalty that really changed the game was Danny's. We went 14-6 down and had to play 10 minutes without a scrumhalf. I told him afterwards, when you're down on the penalty count that much, the referee will be looking at you." Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll, who scored his third try of the tournament and added a lengthy drop goal, denied Johnson's suggestions that England's indiscipline had cost them the match. "That's not really for us to comment on because that's his prerogative and they're his words. All we're concerned about is how we performed," O'Driscoll said. "I suppose it didn't help, it's difficult to play with 14," he added. "But then they scored their try at the end with 14 so you can look at it whatever way you want." Ireland coach Declan Kidney credited England's resilience and praised his own team for holding on to end the third weekend of matches as the only unbeaten side in the championship. "England are not an easy team to pull away from. I think that's the third try they've conceded this year and they only conceded two in last year's Six Nations. You need to start giving a little bit of credit to how hard they are to break down," Kidney said. "You're never going to stay in a game for 80 minutes. Every team is going to have a good 10 minutes, I just think the boys did well to stay as patient and resilient as they did and didn't panic at any stage." Agencies |
