Winning the only thing for England, says Johnson

AFP/London

Coach Martin Johnson insists England are under no illusions about the threat posed by Italy

England manager Martin Johnson insists England are under "no illusions” about the threat posed by Italy as they attempt to maintain their winning start to the Six Nations today.
The pre-tournament favourites opened their campaign with a 26-19 win over Wales in Cardiff last Friday and will be expected to build on that victory with a 17th straight defeat of the Azzurri at Twickenham.
Johnson however has warned that England will need to be at their best against an Italian side who came agonisingly close to upsetting Ireland last week before slipping to a last-gasp 13-11 defeat.
"We seem to have the same conversation whenever we play Italy, even going back to when we played them in the 1995 World Cup and the World Cup qualifier in 1998 - they are tough games,” Johnson said.
"They should have won last week. They can play. They keep hold of the ball and put you under pressure. They do that well and we are under no illusions that this is the toughest Test we can play this week.”
Johnson, a keen follower of American football, also evoked the spirit of Vince Lombardi this week, the legendary Green Pay Packers coach who famously stated: "Winning isn’t the everything; it’s the only thing.”
Reacting to suggestions that England were expected to put on a stylish performance against Italy, Johnson’s response was blunt.
"Number one is we win; number two is we don’t have any serious injuries; number three is it’s a good game, an exciting Test match,” Johnson said.
"If you start thinking about what it looks like, then you’re in trouble,” Johnson said.
While England have gradually moved towards a more expansive game plan in the past year, Johnson is adamant that his team must retain a pragmatic streak.
Under the closed roof of the Millennium Stadium last week, England ran the ball from the outset because "it was the right thing to do,” Johnson said.
"But if it’s pouring down with rain on Saturday it might not be the right thing to do,” Johnson said.
"Number one is we’re here to win Test matches—make no bones about that. We’ve got exciting players all over the field who can score and create damage and we want to use them. But number one is we want to win.”
Johnson’s no-nonsense approach was also evident in the England management’s decision to have a quiet word with Chris Ashton regarding the winger’s extravagant leaping try celebration against Wales last week.
"The key thing for our players to understand is there’s two things about scoring tries—one is to get the ball down safely; the other is to get it as close to the posts as possible,” England attack coach Brian Smith said.
"The situation with Chris was just an opportunity for us to reinforce those principles.”
England have named an unchanged side to start against Italy, with the only tweak to the 22-man squad coming on the bench, where openside flanker Hendre Fourie replaces Joe Worsley.
Italy meanwhile have made four changes to their side, with injured scrum-half Edoardo Gori and New Zealand-born flanker Josh Sole replaced by Pablo Canavosio and Valerio Bernabo respectively.
The other two switches see Australia-born fly-half Kris Burton drop to the bench with Luciano Orquera replacing him and South African-born lock Carlo Del Fava coming in for Santiago Dellape.
Prop Martin Castrogiovanni, who plays his club rugby in England with Leicester Tigers, insisted the Azzurri would not be overawed by Twickenham.
"We don’t go on the pitch thinking: they’re England, they’re a great team and we’re at Twickenham,” Castrogiovanni said. "We hope to play our game and give our best and if they’re better than us than so be it.
"We go on the pitch to win and we don’t respect anyone too much.”
England (15-1)
Ben Foden; Chris Ashton, Mike Tindall (capt), Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto; Toby Flood, Ben Youngs; Nick Easter, James Haskell, Tom Wood; Tom Palmer, Louis Deacon; Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley, Andrew Sheridan
Replacements: David Wilson, Henre Fourie, Danny Care, Jonny Wilkinson, Steve Thompson, Simon Shaw, Matt Banahan
Italy (15-1)
Luke McLean; Andrea Masi, Gonzalo Canale, Alberto Sgarbi, Mirco Bergamasco; Luciano Orquera, Pablo Canavosio; Sergio Parisse (capt), Alessandro Zanni, Valerio Bernabo; Quintin Geldenhuys, Carlo Del Fava; Martin Castrogiovanni, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Salvatore Perugini
Replacements: Fabio Ongaro, Andrea Lo Cicero, Santiago Dellape, Robert Barbieri, Fabio Semenzato, Kris Burton, Gonzalo Garcia
Referee: Craig Joubert (RSA)