England 35-26 Barbarians, Twickenham, May 30
Johnson demands England raise their game
Scrum.com
May 30, 2010
England manager Martin Johnson watches his side in action, England v Barbarians, England v Barbarians, Twickenham, England, May 30, 2010
England captain Nick Easter lifts the silverware following his side's victory over the Barbarians at Twickenham © Getty Images
Enlarge

Martin Johnson admitted England must smarten up their act after suffering a second-half collapse in their 35-26 victory over the Barbarians.

Tries from James Haskell, Shontayne Hape, Ben Foden and Mike Tindall helped England into a 32-7 lead shortly after the interval as they capitalised on some woeful defending. But the Barbarians struck back with tries from David Smith, Census Johnston and Paul Sackey in the last half hour to set up a tense finish.

"The game became loose at times and there's a danger that you'll get sucked into that and loose shape, which is exactly what the Barbarians want," said Johnson. "The Barbarians chanced their arm at the breakdown and I'm not sure it would come off in a Test match - the referee obviously saw the game differently.

"We have got to be smarter and shouldn't have gone into some of the areas that we did. There were some very good things in the first half and we got away from them a few times. I said to the players these can be difficult games sometimes, there's occasionally space there when you don't expect and you end up throwing a few balls that you wouldn't normally throw.

"In the second half we certainly came off second best on the penalty count and we'll need to look at that. The Barbarians were always going to be dangerous, particularly when they had nothing to lose."

Sale fly-half Charlie Hodgson left the pitch in the first half after suffering a bang to his face while Newcastle prop Jon Golding sustained a rib injury. "Charlie was cut and his match was over. He's a bit shaken up but he'll be OK," said Johnson, who hailed the performance of debutant David Attwood as "outstanding". "Golding is being assessed now. He's pretty sore so we'll see what happens."

Barbarians coach Philippe Saint-Andre revealed his side's social commitments this week contributed to their abysmal display before coming alive in the final half hour.

"It was a very good second half. In the first half we were still in the discotheque." said Saint-Andre. "We had a lot of players from European winners Cardiff and Toulouse who have been celebrating and they weren't quite there in the warm-up. In the end we played a good game of rugby and played like the Barbarians. England face a tough tour but they will have taken confidence from winning this game."

Saint-Andre, the Toulon coach, revealed Jonny Wilkinson should be available for the first Test against Australia on Saturday week after recovering from a rib injury. "Jonny will need one week's rest but he will be fine for the opening Test," he said.

© Scrum.com

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.