Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Flood: England have woken up


Toby Flood believes England's laboured victory over Georgiav could prove to be a watershed moment in their Rugby World Cup campaign.

England eventually ran in six tries for a 41-10 victory over the Lelos but they made hard work of it, prompting a changing-room tirade from manager Martin Johnson.

Four years ago, England held a summit meeting which turned their World Cup around and Flood hopes that another post-match review session will do something similar.

"I think it might work in our favour, it might be quite a nice kick up the arse," said Flood.

"It might be a scenario of saying 'OK, this is time for the squad to really pull together and say gone are the days of us getting away with this'.

"I think we'll have a pretty open-air review meeting and it will be interesting to really pull out some points. We'll get better and we'll learn from this. It's about time we took some of these shots on the chin.

"It's hopefully going to be a wake-up call for us."

The big difference between now and 2007 is that England remain unbeaten after two matches, whereas at this stage four years ago they had just been humbled 36-0 by South Africa.

But England recognise they got themselves out of jail against both Argentina and Georgia.

The Pumas missed six penalty shots at goal and Georgia five as they failed to punish England's woeful discipline. Scotland's sharp-shooter Chris Paterson is unlikely to be so generous.

Johnson blasted England as "sloppy" and warned they will fail to reach their stated minimum target of the semi-finals without an immediate improvement in standards.

"I'd rather be in the situation we're - two from two - than having lost the first and then chasing our tails," said Flood.

"But, yes, there is massive room for improvement and that was said by countless people (after the game).

"We're disappointed with what's happened. As a squad we've got to drive standards on and off the field and drive standards when we're training to get better.

"We are going to have to raise our game massively to get to where you want to get to in this tournament. We're all fully aware of that."

England conceded 11 penalties in the first half which led to them being unable to escape from their own territory.

By the interval, Johnson's men had graced the Georgian 22 for just 19 seconds compared to nearly nine minutes spent defending their own line.

Georgia's wayward kicking and two Shontayne Hape tries helped England lead 17-10 at the turnaround.

As the game opened up in the second half, England then became too loose and infuriated Johnson and attack coach Brian Smith by forcing off-loads in a bid to make something happen.

Afterwards, James Haskell raged: "People have got to start pointing some fingers. This is not acceptable. We are letting ourselves down."

But as frank as England have been, both Haskell and Flood insisted the corrective process cannot be allowed to affect their confidence.

England tackle Romania in Dunedin next Saturday followed by Scotland in the decisive pool clash on October 1

"You don't want to go out and be frightened to make a mistake," said Haskell.

Flood added: "I wouldn't be here if I didn't think we could win it (the World Cup).

"I don't think anybody would have got on that plane if they didn't think we could win the tournament.

"We realise how difficult it would be to win it. It's a massive, massive test for us and we have a huge group to get out of.

"Romania and Scotland are two massive tests for us, especially Scotland. If they beat Argentina that could be a massive test for us.

"We realise how difficult it's going to be but if there is anybody who thinks that then they might as well join Andrew Sheridan (who is injured) and go home.

"Because that is what we're here for."

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