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England just want to get better and better

Article Published: Monday 21 June 2010

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England manager has hailed his team's win over Australia as "pretty special" and says that he had never considered quitting.

"I think we played pretty well," said Johnson after England's first win in Australia since their 2003 World Cup win.

"We still made mistakes and had to weather a few storms but that is Test rugby. We kept fighting back. " he said of England's first win over a Tri-Nations team for three years.

"It is really good for the players and coaches. It doesn't happen that often so to win one here is pretty special."

Under Johnson England have a pretty dismal away record but recent form shows that Johnson has England on the right course.

In 24 Tests under Johnson England have won just nine matches overall and this was only their second away win but Johnson says that he never considered quitting.

"I have said all week I don't worry about my record or my job, I worry about this team getting better," the World Cup-winning captain told the BBC.
 
"You judge yourself and I'm my harshest critic," Johnson said.
 
"My coaches will tell me if I'm doing things wrong and that's the way it should work."

"Today we showed we can play. We knew we could, we just had to go and do it.

"We have still got to be better and more consistent but we have won the Test match.

"A lot of things we didn't do well last week we improved on. Defensively we were sharper and we took our tries early on.

"We finished our opportunities with Ben (Youngs) and Chris (Ashton). We kept ourselves in the game when we were behind.

"We said at half-time the game would come down to work-rate and we stayed in there. It was a huge effort for the players to front up in the last game of the season.

"There has been a lot of negativity around them at times in terms of their ability. They have been mentally tough to come through that and play well."

Having drawn and then beaten the Australian Barbarians as well as beating Australia once and losing one match to Australia England will look at their tour positively even though they finish against the New Zealand Maori in Napier on Wednesday.

Johnson is hoping that the victory in Australia over Australia will be a springboard ahead of next year's World Cup.

"We had a chat to the players in the week about what happens at the end of the tour," he added.

"The less experienced players need to understand they need to get better and the players need to understand where to improve.

"The team improved from last week and plenty of young players will be better for the experience of the tour and the victory and the defeats, and coming here to play very good teams.

"(Scrum-half) Ben Youngs is a good example. He played very well. He is very level-headed. Hopefully he will be thinking 'if I work harder I can be better and we can have days like this again'."

The exuberant 20-year-old raised the tempo of England's game with his swift service from the base of the scrum on his first Test start.

"It is a great honour to play for England and when the boys play like that in a great stadium like this, it is magnificent," Youngs said.

"Last week (the 27-17 first Test defeat) we got it completely wrong and this week we got it completely right. We played some great rugby and thoroughly deserved to win."

England captain Lewis Moody felt a change of attitude since the first Test had brought its rewards.

"We let ourselves down in the first 40 minutes last week and from one to 22 we were fantastic tonight," he said. "This whole squad has come together this week.

"We've got some great talent and some guys that can really run and they showed what they can do."

Australia captain Rocky Elsom felt his side did not produce the intensity to match a much-improved England.

"They were a desperate side and they needed a win and we knew that," he said. "Our intensity was not where it should have been. We didn't expect them to be so hard on the ball."

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans added: "Our intensity tapered from last week, most evidently in the defensive line. We didn't force England to work hard enough for the points they scored in the first half."
 
Meanwhile England hooker Steve Thompson, who played in the World Cup winning side captained by Johnson, was delighted to be savouring another win over the Wallabies on Australian soil.
 
"It means everything to win and pull the England shirt on, it feels great to bounce back and prove people wrong," he said.
 
"I love doing that.
 
"Some people in certain areas have totally written us off this week, we went out there and showed we're not just one-paced."

 
 
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