England v France, Six Nations Championship, March 15
Johnson enjoys vital victory
Scrum.com
March 15, 2009
England wing Mark Cueto salutes the crowd after scoring England's opening try, England v France, Six Nations Championship, Twickenham, England, March 15, 2009
Mark Cueto celebrates giving England an early lead at Twickenham © Getty Images
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Players/Officials: Martin Johnson | Marc Lievremont
Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations
Teams: England | France

England manager Martin Johnson was delighted with his side's performance as they defeated France 34-10 at Twickenham. With his side crossing for five tries he praised their precision in attack and their ruthless streak.

"When we do what we did today we look like a good team," said Johnson. "That was great. I don't think our intensity level was higher. Our precision level was better - guys saw opportunities and took them.

"I am very happy for the guys and there's a good feeling of satisfaction in the changing room. When you lose you are going to get criticised - you know that - and defeat is a very realistic possibility when you are playing France, so it's great."

Johnson also praised skipper Steve Borthwick, who put in a much improved individual performance and saw his side hit top gear for the first time.

"I don't think he has to answer criticism, but I am happy for him that all the heartache he has had has paid off," said Johnson. "It just showed that when we executed what we wanted to do we could open them up and score tries. The guys have confidence in what we are doing and to turn them into clinical tries was great. The coaching staff have put a lot of work in.

"There are still lots of improvements to make, but in the heat of the game there are always going to be mistakes and it's minimising them. It will be a tough, tough test. Scotland are very competitive and if they'd taken their chances against Wales it could have been very different. This championship has been fantastic and we will enjoy tonight."

Tom Croft rewarded his selection with a superb all-round display, while Johnson was also full of praise for Riki Flutey and Mike Tindall.

"He had an important line-out role and he handled their physicality around the fringes," said Johnson. "Centres Mike Tindall and Riki Flutey are getting better and better. Mike brings that leadership and his defence work is solid, while Riki even ripped the ball off Chabal for one of his tries."

France coach Marc Lievremont will be in for a great deal of criticism after his side categorically failed to live up to the barnstorming performance that ended Wales' Grand Slam hopes in Paris two weeks ago.

"We wanted to follow up what we did against Wales, but there was no game today," said Lievremont. "Every coach knows the difficulties of playing at Twickenham, but I'm a bit disappointed. The start of the game was terrible for us. We had a lot of turnovers, lost the ball in the contact, didn't contest on the floor and England got confident."

Skipper Lionel Nallet was equally disappointed, ruing their lack of discipline.

"We never really got into the game," he said. "We started playing individually, not organised together and we gave a lot of confidence to England. Our loss of discipline cost us a lot of points."

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