THE HERALD REPORTS

Martin Johnson, the England manager, is looking forward to facing Scotland in the group stages of the 2011 Rugby World Cup but refuses to buy into the theory that England had escaped lightly by avoiding Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, who all enjoyed convincing victories at Twickenham last month.

England beat Scotland 9-6 in their only previous World Cup encounter - the 1991 semi-final at Murrayfield that Johnson, then aged 21, watched in a bar having played for Leicester against Sale earlier in the day.

Johnson played in England's only World Cup meeting with Argentina, when two drop goals and six penalties from Rob Andrew secured a hard-fought 24-18 victory in the pool stages of the 1995 tournament in South Africa.


Johnson said: "Playing Scotland in the World Cup will be a hell of a game, with huge passion. We haven't played them in a World Cup since 1991. That was a tight game.

"Scotland were quarter-finalists last year, we finished second and Argentina their other group opponents in 2011 finished third. There are a lot of tough groups.

"Argentina have been successful. They went to the World Cup in 2007 and came through the toughest pool of all and they could have got to the final."

England's potential quarter-final opponents come from Pool A and are likely to be either New Zealand or France. "If you want to get to the last week of the World Cup you need to be good enough to beat the best in the world," said Johnson. "Whoever we got in the pool doesn't change anything in that regard.

"There are some pretty tough groups there. Scotland and Fiji were in the third band and they both reached the quarter-finals at the last World Cup.

"There will be some awesome games before the quarter-finals - England v Scotland, England v Argentina, New Zealand v France, Ireland v Australia, Wales v South Africa."

If the World Cup was today, England supporters would fear their side's chances of even qualifying from a group containing Scotland and Argentina. Johnson said significant strides need to be taken if England are to head to New Zealand as potential challengers.

"The World Cup is so huge now that everything builds up to it. If there wasn't a World Cup in three years would it change anything? No. We want to improve as a team. It is nice to be here and think of three years time - but we have to get better as a team.

The Argentina coach, Santiago Phelan, and captain Felipe Contepomi agree the draw has thrown up a difficult pool for them.

"The group will be very tough, as both England and Scotland are two first-class teams," said Phelan. "Fortunately, we'll have the opportunity to play both of them next year. Anyway, there is a long road before the World Cup and circumstances will be different in the championship."

Phelan was also relieved to avoid reigning champions South Africa, New Zealand and Australia: "We knew any options in the draw would be very difficult. Keeping the fourth place in the ranking was very important because we were seeded in the draw and avoided the teams from the southern hemisphere. They are superior in comparison with the rest."

Contepomi, the Leinster centre and fly-half, agreed with Phelan: "Playing them next year is very good for us. It will mean a measure about how we are. The more we know ourselves, the better. We, Scotland and England are living a formation process. The team to do the job better prior to the World Cup will be the team with the best chance of qualifying."

"All the teams are quite even. This time, we will not have to play the opening match nor meet the host nation in the group stage. We already beat the two teams we've been drawn with, but they will be very difficult to pass."

This article was posted on 2-Dec-2008, 08:37 by Hugh Barrow.