Autumn internationals 2010

This is getting serious. Under Martin Johnson, England have won just eight times in 19 matches, with only one of those conquests, in Rome, occurring on the road. Notable victories are rare.Johnson's honeymoon period ended some months ago.

This might be his first proper tour with a full-strength England squad, given that his top men were with the Lions in South Africa a year ago, but he has experienced two Six Nations tournaments as well as two full sets of autumn internationals. Autumn Internationals Hospitality Packages with the best prices available at Corporate Hospitality Group. We are covering in Autumn Internationals 2010 Hospitality and Tickets.

When England return home towards the end of June, Johnson will have nine more Tests, plus the odd warm-up match, before the World Cup starts in New Zealand in September 2011.

Autumn Internationals Hospitality

The in-tray is piling up. By my reckoning, England are vulnerable in three areas and clueless in another. Only at hooker, across the back three, at scrum-half and outside-half can Johnson legitimately point to strength in depth, to situations where he has a genuine choice between candidates of quality. In that sense, the performances of Danny Care, Charlie Hodgson, Chris Ashton, Ben Foden, Steve Thompson and Mark Cueto are of minor interest today.


Ben Youngs is pushing Care, Dylan Hartley is neck and neck with Thompson, Hodgson is on trial to see whether he can be trusted defensively to sit as third-choice play-maker behind Toby Flood and Jonny Wilkinson, and the intrigue among the back three is to see whether they can kick on from the promising entrance they made as a trio against France. The point here is that if they do not, there are plenty of other options left for Johnson to ponder.

The issues in the back row are different again. Johnson would love somehow to bolt a rugby brain on to the fantastic athlete that is James Haskell and perform the reverse procedure on Nick Easter, but with Lewis Moody, Tom Croft, Steffon Armitage, Joe Worsley and newcomer Hendre Fourie all in the mix, there is too much talent and experience for England to be anything other than highly competitive in this area.

Much to think about then this afternoon. At the end of any other season this Baa Baas fixture would be little more than a mild diversion. But with 15 months to go until the World Cup, and with plenty of questions still to answer, not least whether Johnson and his coaches know what they are doing, the contest is anything but.
Autumn Internationals Hospitality