Martin Johnson so loose as manager
When Martin Johnson was captain of England and the Lions, he was a fearsome character. A huge man, a hard man – he didn’t suffer fools gladly. He was committed to the point of appearing insane. He upheld the highest personal standards off the field without appearing to be dull or without a fun side. But no doubt he was intense, professional and disciplined and expected the same of his teammates.
When he was asked to be England coach in 2008, just four years after he’d retired, it was because the higher ups wanted him to bring all those same standards as coach. They wanted him to build a team in the same culture as the one he imposed as captain. They wanted discipline, commitment and passion from the players and Johnson, they thought was the man to instil it.
Except it all went wrong and the team culture he built was not the one anyone expected. The wheels properly came off at the 2011 World Cup when an infamous night out early in the tournament got out of hand. Those involved never got round to telling the full truth and after England were knocked out in the quarter- final, the full extent of things came to light. A review was ordered which found that senior players were obsessed with money and mocked those who wanted to train hard.
Some of the anonymous comments from the review were leaked: “There was a culture where it was not cool to train hard.” one player said.
“To hear one senior player in the changing room say straight after the quarter- final defeat ‘ There’s £ 35k just gone down the toilet’ made me feel sick. Money shouldn’t even come into a player’s mind.”
Johnson, who had been iron fist captain, was the velvet glove coach and he duly resigned shortly after the review.