Johnno on... how England can win

Hello again. So how can England beat France? Easy - they need to do exactly what they did against Australia.

England must stay close to them on the scoreboard, put them under pressure and make them feel nervous in the last 20 minutes. The French and their fans won’t like a close last quarter. It’s anyone’s game then as we’ve seen with Fiji-Wales, England-Australia and France-New Zealand.

Australia didn’t have an edge to their game last week, but we got on top of them psychologically and physically. Any team, if you let them play, will look class and they’ll kill you. We’ve just got to be on top of them. If you let them attack you and gain momentum, the crowd will be in the game and before you know it you will be facing waves of attackers. If we slow the breakdown and turn them over, France will get frustrated.

I think some people look at England games and see that Jonny Wilkinson has kicked the goals and assume he’s won us the game. But last week each guy contributed massively to the win. When we made a mistake, we scrambled back and made sure it didn’t become points that often. When you’re playing good players you know that they will make breaks and turn you over, but you’ve just got to make sure they don’t really hurt you.

I'll be back tomorrow with more thoughts on the big game.

Comments

[Rita-Marie Lawlor]

Oh! this is going to be one hell of a match and I'm going to rush to see it tomorrow! My background are French (mother!) so I will be up for the boys in blue but I did support England against Australia (Honestly I really did). I've said it from the start - whoever can beat the spearblacks truly deserves to win the whole thing! However, considering England's performance against South Africa they have really turned the tables and fair play to them, this match can go either way and it makes it all the more exciting. Can England really do it twice in a row?.....Realistically to me....
Yes they can. Final SA/ENG/FRA

ENG/SA?......ENG winners?.....
hmmm, time can only tell.
Enjoy the match Johnno!.
:0)