Martin Johnson and Rob Andrew renewed their plea for patience today, insisting English rugby's current problems can be solved by evolution rather than reaching for the guillotine. Johnson is also adamant England are "good enough to compete with all the teams in the Six Nations" but even he has finally conceded that morale within his squad has taken a heavy pounding over the past month.
Alongside him Andrew could be heard insisting that Twickenham fans are not "disenchanted" and backing Johnson to remain in charge until 2011. He also emphasised that there are no plans to tweak the assistant coaching staff.
"Martin is in charge of the coaching team he wants," insisted Andrew. "I think the supporters understand what the team's going through and what Martin has been handed. I'm not sure anybody said things were going to turn around quickly. We said right from the word go that this is a three-year project. We all know there is a lot of work to do."
Johnson could not entirely hide a sense of disquiet at recent events and there were raised voices on both sides at today's end-of-autumn discussions with the media. If the former England captain did not realise in advance the scale of the task he has taken on, he does now. "I didn't expect to lose by the margins we did," he acknowledged. "We felt we could be competitive but losing by a big scoreline is a blow for us as a team. It hits their confidence and their morale."
It is his unenviable job, along with Andrew, to lift all concerned between now and the new year when England are allowed to make five changes to their 32-man elite player squad. If Johnson feels restricted by that clause in the agreement between the Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby he is not saying so publicly.
"We don't want to make vast changes. They are our best players. A lot of our squad are aged between 21 and 24. Their progression will happen naturally over the next three years. Are they good enough to go out and compete with all the teams in the Six Nations? Yes they are."
International sport, however, is a brutally unforgiving environment and the pressure on Andrew, in particular, is increasing. Today he was forced to admit the former England assistant coach Dave Alred is being paid by the RFU to work with Danny Cipriani in Test match weeks, a slightly bizarre situation given that Alred was among those sacked by the RFU in 2006. He also had to acknowledge that Eddie Jones's criticisms of the way young English players are developed are close to the mark.
"A lot of what Eddie Jones says is right," said Andrew. "We do have an issue with game-time for players over 20, particularly the tight five - the Nathan Catts, the Alex Corbisieros of this world. We probably had the best front row at age grade level in the world last year. We are addressing it with Premier Rugby. I am really pleased Eddie is making these points because we need him and the Premiership to help us develop a much stronger A-league. One of the things we have been discussing is to make next year's Anglo-Welsh Cup an Under-25 English-only compeititon. We have a gap we need to fill and we need the Premiership to help us achieve that."
Andrew is fully aware the national side will remain vulnerable for the foreseeable future. "A huge amount of experience has disappeared. I can name 10 players from the World Cup final starting XV who are effectively gone from the starting XV. There isn't any other side in the world which has had that to deal with. We haven't got the old guard to go back to, as we did at the World Cup. We have 29 or 30 Tests between now and the 2011 World Cup but you can't give guys that experience in three weeks. It's a fact of life."
Even so, Johnson received an interesting tip today from the All Black captain, Richie McCaw, who plays for the Barbarians against Australia in front of an expected 50,000 crowd at Wembley on Wednesday night. "Talking to guys like Chris Jack they feel they don't need to be as fit to play up here," revealed McCaw. Softer grounds are a factor but England, it seems, are off the pace in several areas.
