Wednesday, November 16, 2011

RUBY news 12bet update 11/16


Cooke wants England shake-up


Former England coach Geoff Cooke feels Martin Johnson will need to change his backroom staff if he remains as England team manager.

Johnson's future in charge of the national side is still very much up in the air after England's unsatisfactory performance at the World Cup in New Zealand, and the behaviour of some of his squad away from the action.

The 2003 World Cup winners never got out of second gear on the pitch, with lacklustre performances in the pool games before crashing out of the tournament to eventual finalists France at the quarter-final stage.

While their back-page exploits made disappointing reading, a few of the players were being plastered all over the front pages of the British tabloids for alleged unruly behaviour in bars, with Mike Tindall fined £25,000 for his part in the incidents.

Cooke was in charge of the England team while Will Carling was at the helm and guided the Red Rose to two Grand Slams during his tenure. He has now questioned whether Johnson would actually want to carry on in the job, given the amount of negative press coverage received over the past couple of months.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he decided he didn't want any more of it," he told the Yorkshire Post. "He's got to ask himself does he need the flak that he's been getting."


Johnson's passion for the game and for his country is unquestionable and he may want to stay on to try and right the wrongs of the World Cup, but Cooke feels that he and the England team cannot move forward until there are changes in the coaching set-up to try and shake-up what has become a predictable and ineffective style of playing.

"I wouldn't be unhappy if they decided to stick with Martin Johnson; after all, he's got the experience now," he added. "But he certainly needs a different team of coaches with him.

"The key decision is still Martin Johnson's. Everything depends on that, whether they decide to keep him on let him go or he decides to go himself." - http://www.setanta.com


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