England camp's reaction to Springboks defeat
Monday, 24 Nov 2008 13:07
Manager Martin Johnson faces a tough task to motivate a beleaguered England team
The 42-6 loss to South Africa last Saturday was the biggest margin of defeat ever suffered by an England team at Twickenham.
Former World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward called the match "humiliating"; former centre Jeremy Guscott described the current crop of England players as "not very good"; and countless other pundits have also referred to the distinct lack of talent in the ranks.
In the aftermath of the Springboks match, England's management and players offered their thoughts on the game, and where they go from here as they look ahead to the arrival of the world's top-ranked Test team - the All Blacks.
Team manager Martin Johnson
"Playing in these games will make them all better players. Our job is to keep them confident and help them move forward.
"These are our best players. There aren't any 50-plus cap cavalry out there coming over the hill.
"We could have scored a couple of tries in the second half that would have closed the gap. Sometimes you win games you don't deserve to and sometimes you take a beating, and that's what happened to us.
"We've had three tough games but we've taken steps along the way and this is part of what it takes to get where you want to be."
Captain Steve Borthwick (retained at lock for All Blacks match)
"We're tremendously disappointed. The changing room was a very quiet place [on Saturday].
"International rugby is all about fine margins and we made too many errors. Credit to South Africa: their work around the breakdown, their defensive work and the way they took their chances was a lesson to us.
"We want to be better and we want to improve. All we can do is work hard, study the tape of what happened and put it right next week."
Toby Flood (replaces Danny Cipriani at fly-half)
"We know we're not where we want to be at the moment. We had the chances to put scores on the board but we didn't take them and weren't clinical enough.
"The squad needs to hang tough, stay positive and realise that what we're building towards is attainable. We know we're not there yet.
"We know it wasn't good enough. This week we'll have to work extremely hard and go out and put things right."
Delon Armitage (retained at full-back)
"The game [against South Africa] is gone now. It's done. We can't dwell on it too much. We've just got to get back into it.
"Every individual player needs to step things up and do themselves justice for the crowd and for the shirt.
"We did go in at half time and said for the second half we had to go out and not leave anything on the field.
"We did try hard to push them but the disappointing thing is we didn't capitalise on the chances we had."
Danny Cipriani (dropped from fly-half to bench)
"It wasn't good enough. There will be a lot of negativity about the result and we understand that. We've got to go back, analyse what happened and move on. We've got enough quality players.
"South Africa brought their 'A' game and were very strong. We didn't step up our own game.
"It's very disappointing. Playing for England you don't imagine you could be on the end of a 40-point defeat.
"We need to come back from this and make sure that the whole squad sticks together."
Phil Vickery (retained at prop)
"We know we're playing probably the best team in the world in New Zealand and we have to get up quickly to face them. We have to make sure we do everything we can to be ready.
"There's really not a lot to say about [the South Africa game]. Everyone's so bitterly disappointed and devastated about the result. This week will be a big test of character."
Matt Stevens (retained on bench)
"We've got to get back on the horse very quickly. We've got to show a lot of character. We are obviously disappointed and it's a big loss on the scoreboard.
"There were a lot of mistakes made and we need to sort that out.
"We don't have chance to feel sorry for ourselves, we have just got to get back on it and prepare for New Zealand.
"It would be very easy to say 'this team is young and making mistakes' but we cannot make excuses."
Nick Easter (retained at number eight)
"We've got to dig in and learn our lessons quickly. It is about character and we are up against the best side in the world currently and that's the challenge you want.
"We know the flak is going to come flying and rightly so - we got beaten by nearly 40 points at home - but we have to stick together.
"Our pride has been dented by that scoreline."