Johnno on World Cup WAGs

Welcome to my latest blog which is all about WAGs.

I know they became a thorny issue at the football and cricket World Cups, with claims that the wives and girlfriends had a negative effect on the England camps.

But when you’re away from home for a long time playing sport, it seems very normal to have your wife and/or children with you.

At the 2003 rugby World Cup some of the wives and girlfriends were there throughout the tournament, while others came out later on.

It was all fine. They knew when they could or couldn’t be around. And the guys knew the same thing – when it was work time, and when it was time to be with the family.

One of the keys of being successful is to have that balance. When it’s work time you’re really focussed on working, and when it’s relax time you need to get your mind off things.

We were fortunate in 2003 because we had an experienced group of players who knew exactly what was required of us.

The wives and girlfriends were fantastic because at World Cup time there’s always a fair bit of media speculation, though not so much in rugby as in soccer with the likes of Wayne Rooney and David Beckham.

But the girls were happy to be out there in Australia – they got on with enjoying themselves, having a good time without getting involved in any of the media speculation.

My wife Kay certainly enjoyed being out there, though she found watching the final a bit nerve-racking, especially in extra time.

It all turned out fine in the end though - and everyone had a great time.

Johnno on Wales' chances

Here’s an exclusive for you - I’m definitely not coming out of retirement to play for Wales. Yes, that’s what Wales fan Rich asked me to do in response to an earlier blog.

Thanks for that Rich, but I think I’ll pass on that one, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I know Wales were thrashed by England in their World Cup warm-up game, but I thought they played well in the first half of their 27-20 win over Argentina, and they weren’t disgraced against France.

The Welsh second row looked pretty good against Argentina, and I thought Ian Gough and Alun Wyn Jones did well.

Going back to the England game, if you’re done by 60 points or more you rightly get some flak, but if Wales play well in the World Cup people won’t remember that game, will they?

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Gareth Jenkins’ side play against Australia in their Pool B game on 15 September.

I’d like to see them really take the Australians on and try to play their kind of rugby – handle the ball a lot, keep the ball alive at the right times, and run at teams.

Wales have good attacking players, and they’ve got forwards who can run with the ball. You’ve got to take a team like Australia on across the board and run with it.

Most of all they’ve got to believe in themselves. If you look at the last 20 minutes of Wales’ game against Argentina compared with the last 20 minutes of England’s second game against France, the intensity and pace of the two games were completely different.

So you’ve got to be able to go for a full 80 minutes against a good team like Australia, and you’ve got to be able to trust in your defence without giving penalties away.

If the Wales back row starts to give away penalties rather than defend properly, they’re going to lose. Top teams like Australia will punish mistakes.

Going back to England's defeat to France in Marseille, England fan Skelly responded to my earlier blog with a question about Simon Shaw being sent to the sin bin. Was it a fair call by the ref? I don't think so. It was a bit of a high tackle at worst, and that was it.

A home-town decision in my view - the crowd got on to it and the referee put Shaw in the bin.

Frank Lampard on... England v Germany

Hi! Frank here, welcome to my latest blog!

It might seem odd to people watching but, as a player, one minute you can be getting stuck in against an opponent in the Premiership and the next he's your international team-mate.

But that's just the way it goes in football and there's never any hard feelings. In fact, I'm really looking forward to the build-up to the Germany game - it's always good to see all the England guys.

Obviously I'm used to the club mentality at Chelsea but that type of approach has brushed off on England a bit - it's more club-like in terms of the camaraderie than it's ever been before.

I genuinely get on with everyone in the England set-up - they're a cracking bunch of lads and Steve McClaren ensures a good atmosphere throughout training.

Obviously I look forward to seeing the likes of Rio Ferdinand as he's still a close pal and we go way back from our West Ham days. He's one of the real characters in the squad but sometimes it's wise to avoid him and Wayne Rooney. They're the real mickey takers of the squad - a bit of a double act. You basically don't want to mess up in front of them or else you'll never hear the end of it.

Rio even tried to catch me out on one of his TV wind-ups. He'd got my girlfriend Elen in on it and the plan was for me to be shown up in a restaurant. She'd agreed to go along with it no problem and some guy was going to give me hassle but, thankfully for me, the restaurant wouldn't let them in and I escaped ok. Knowing Rio, though, there'll be other wind-ups. He's a good laugh.

Going back to England and Wednesday's game, pulling on an England shirt is the greatest honour there is for me as a player. It's a truly unbelievable feeling.

Added to that, it gives me the chance to play at Wembley again. I've already done that twice and it's a truly awesome stadium - there's few places to match it in the world right now.

The match might only be a friendly but it's all about getting us ready for the next Euro qualifiers. There's a lot of confidence in the England camp and we all still genuinely believe we'll making it through to the European Championships.

Steve's very thorough and he's pushed us hard in training, which is a good thing. I'm a big admirer of Steve, as I was of Sven, and the spirit right now is as good as I've ever known it. That's important when it comes to the crunch Euro qualifiers.

To get through and qualify for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland, we know what's needed. We know what we need to do and we need to be mentally strong as individuals and as a team. But I think we've got what it takes.

Frank

Martin Johnson's verdict on England

OK so England have come in for a lot of stick after losing 22-9 to France in Marseille. But in my latest World Cup blog I want to give a different slant on their final warm-up game.

I thought it was a really good Test match - tense and tough. Yes England came off second-best in terms of territory, and certainly with the referee in terms of penalties. That really cost them.

England went in 12-3 down at half time and they lost a guy for 10 minutes in the sin bin - and France scored another seven points in that period. That was a long way to come back from.

But I think there are quite a lot of positives to come out of the game for England. The intensity of their defence was pretty good in what was a really physical encounter.

After failing to score a try in their two warm-up games against France, they need to create a few more try-scoring opportunities. But they were playing France who've got an excellent defence, and the game was in Marseille, which is probably one of the hardest places to play in world rugby, believe me.

It was one of the most intense matches that England have played in for a while, and that's got to be a good thing. It's far better to play two tough Test matches against France and lose than to score 60 points or more against half-cock teams.

I think they'll be better as a team. They've gone to Marseille, a real cauldron, and they stood up to the test physically. They've now got three weeks to work hard and work on a few things to get a better understanding.

After the game Simon Shaw admitted that England were too one-dimensional, with no interplay between forwards and backs. There's some truth in that comment. They did miss the opportunity to pass the ball on occasions and just took it on when there were numbers outside. I wouldn't say they're one-dimensional but they could be a bit more organised behind the scrum.

There were times when Andy Farrell and Jonny Wilkinson got a bit mixed up, but that's going to happen. Farrell's only played four or five internationals so they're still working on how best to play together.

As for Danny Hipkiss, he'd played just one international, and to go and play your second Test match in Marseille against a pretty decent France team is a big ask. But I thought he did OK.

Tom Rees did some good work. The French back row played well but Rees and the England back row held up well. And Lawrence Dallaglio still looks like an international player - I thought he played well when he came on.

Work at the breakdown and organisation of England's attack are the two big things for Brian Ashton to work on before the World Cup starts. And he'll be doing some more detailed work on assessing the opposition's strengths and weaknesses.

First up are the USA, followed by South Africa. I can't wait. In the meantime feel free to give your verdict on my verdict on England's warm-up displays via the link below.

Frank Lampard on the ones to watch

Hello and welcome to my latest blog as the new season is up and running.

Every time I've opened the papers or put on Sky Sports news this summer, it's been about another top player coming to the Premiership. And there's been some amazing signings.

Obviously, I like the look of the guys we've signed - a lot of them might have come on free transfers but that doesn't make them any less impressive than other signings, just better value.

But people have asked me a lot who I'm most excited about playing against next season, and the one I want to watch most of all is Fernando Torres.

I've only played against him once before - for England in the friendly against Spain in February. And for me, he's the complete striker. His movement is incredible, he reads the game so well and his speed and finishing are all spot on. He's a truly world-class player but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a Premiership player and it'll be interesting to see how he adapts.

He's a top player who seems to be able to do everything and I personally love playing against those sort of guys week in, week out in the Premiership.

Then there's the guys Man Utd have signed. I've been really impressed by Nani and Anderson, although I'm not sure we'll see loads of them this season - they're ones for the future. Then of course there's Carlos Tevez. He's a different player to Torres, more Rooney-like and that obviously makes Man Utd a potent threat.

There's also been some good English players moving around in the summer. The biggest move has to be Darren Bent and people think that £16m is a big fee for an English player but I'm not so sure.

If he repeats the performances he put in week in, week out that he did for Charlton, he's going to easily repay Martin Jol's faith and people want be complaining about the money paid for him.

I could go on about other new players but I'm also interested by the managerial changes over the summer and I'm really pleased to see Sven-Goran Eriksson back at the top of the game.

I haven't got a bad word to say about Sven - he was very good to me and good for England, and he deserves another chance at club management. I think he'll do well for Manchester City.

In terms of the players he's signed, I've got to be honest - I've not really heard of a lot of them but that's not bad thing. Sven's showed at the various clubs he's managed he's good at bringing players through and he's got a great knowledge of players across Europe.

Some people have criticised him for not buying English players but that's not his fault. There was a shortage of them by the time he entered the transfer market.

Anyway, it'll be good to see him and come face to face with even more world-class footballers this season. It's what the Premiership's all about.

Martin Johnson…..It’s time to get smart

So the England squad of 30 has been announced and the real World Cup countdown has begun.

The ways teams prepare have changed a lot since I played in my first World Cup in 1995.

Back then it was an amateur game so all the guys were working as well as playing rugby, and there wasn’t really a proper training schedule.

And the World Cup in ’95 was in May/June, so you finished the English season and virtually got your bag packed and went straight down to South Africa, which was tough.

So much has changed since then. It helps a lot with the tournament being where it is now in the calendar, at the start of September/October, because it’s the beginning of the season so the players get the off-season.

Looking back on the 1999 World Cup, we probably worked harder running up to the tournament than when we won it in 2003.

But in 2003 we worked smarter. To put it simply, we knew more of what we had to do, and what we needed to work on.

In 1999 we’d only been playing together as a unit for two or three years. We were still learning a great deal about the most effective ways to train and to prepare, and the team wasn’t quite as settled as it was four years later.

In the final few weeks running up to the tournament, you need to work hard and to keep up the momentum, without overdoing it. That’s what Brian Ashton’s squad – and all the other squads - will be trying to do: working hard, but working smart.

Martin Johnson...on the World Cup squad

Hello it's me again, giving my verdict on Brian Ashton's England squad for the World Cup.

Some people might be surprised that Mike Tindall and Charlie Hodgson aren't included. But I'm not.

Time has simply run out for Mike and Charlie. They haven't had enough match practice since coming back from serious injuries and it would have been too much of a risk at this stage to include them. You can't go into a World Cup when you're not fully match fit.

And I'm not surprised by the inclusion of Andy Farrell and Lawrence Dallaglio. They're two experienced guys with a lot to offer.

The man who I think is unlucky to miss out is James Haskell. He's an excellent player who's impressed a lot of people. And young Toby Flood is also unlucky, but his time will come.

Brian has an experienced group of players, with 12 of the guys who were in the 2003 squad. His job now is to get the best out of them in the next few weeks.

There isn't a specialist full-back but I don't think that should be a problem with Mark Cueto, Josh Lewsey and Jason Robinson all having played at 15.

I'm sure Brian Ashton will have some fine-tuning to do in the final warm-up matches, and he probably still has to decide what his best starting line-up will be. But there are plenty of decent players in the squad who can do a good job for England.

Ready for new season

Hello, it's Frank again

The clock's ticking to the start of the Premiership and I'm really looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my holidays and really needed a break but it's left me feeling more ready for a season than ever before.

Basically we at Chelsea want our league back. Manchester United took it from us last season and rightly so, so all credit to them. But from the very outset, that's the main thing for me. The Premiership's where I started and, don't get me wrong, I love the Champions League and would love to win it but it's the league title first and foremost.

Everyone's been chatting about Manchester United and all their signings. I don't know a lot about Nani and Anderson but they seem to be good players, and I know Carlos Tevez is a handful - we saw that for ourselves twice last season when we played West Ham.

But everyone's looking at us wondering why we've not spent big in the summer. I don't think we needed to and I don't look at Man Utd's signings and worry about the quality of them. In fact, I relish the challenge and think we've added to our squad really well.

Florent Malouda's stood out both in training and in the Community Shield. It was a cracking goal, he's technically very good and fast, and showed he's got a good strike on him. I've been really impressed by him.

Then there's Steve Sidwell, who we got on a free from Reading. He's a very different player but has made just as much of an impact. I love players with a strong fighting spirit - he's definitely got that and he's got this great English mentality which Chelsea will certainly benefit from. He's not afraid to get stuck in - we saw that against Reading last season and he's the sort of hard-working player I really like.

It's probably wrong of me to single out just those guys as all the new signings have made a real mark already. Chelsea's a real family club from top to bottom, and all the guys have slotted in like they've been there for a couple of seasons.

Obviously there'll be no Arjen Robben and that's a shame - he's a quality player and a really good friend of mine. But the move was right for him and this stuff goes on in football all the time. It would have been great if he'd stayed but sadly it wasn't to be.

Going back to the imminent start of the season, my goal is to win everything. That's not to say we're going to go out there and win the quadruple - no team has ever done that and no one can go out making those sort of statements. It's just that's the mentality at the Bridge - we just want to win everything every time.

There's been a lot of talk about us playing more attractive football and that's what we want but the manager's blueprint, quite rightly, is to win. We really like to pass the ball around the park and we want to go out there playing attractive football but that's not always possible. Sometimtes you really need to fight for those wins and, with the injuries we have, we might have to do that from the start of the season.

I'm not that worried about the injuries. The big guys like John Terry and Didier Drogba aren't out for a long time and anyway we've got plenty of cover and we have to be confident we can cope without the injured players.

Everyone in the club's got the desire and everyone has got the message that it's all about winning the league. I only have to think back to our previous Premiership title wins to realise how much it means. It's for those sort of moments that you train so hard all year round.

I've read in the papers Jose Mourinho saying he's mellowed but he's always been a pretty mellow guy to me. Whenever I've had one on ones with him, he's already very calm, as he is in training. The only time he every gets particularly excitable is, say, at half-time when we're not playing our best.

But I don't expect him to be much different this season. He's got the same aims as everyone - to win everything, and that starts on Saturday.

Frank Lampard on...Frank TV

Hello, it’s Frank again.

I’m back from my summer holiday and I’m really looking forward to the new season. While I’ve been away I’ve been filming for my new mobile tv show, Frank tv, which we're launching today on Orange World.

You can get a sneak preview below, or if you can get mobile TV on your phone visit the sport page on Orange World and download it for free. Here's the preview:

Thanks for all your posts over the summer, keep them coming

Frank