Sean Fitzpatrick believes that Martin Johnson can turn England around, but it won't start on Saturday!
Black clouds will lift says Fitzpatrick
Former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick believes that Martin Johnson can turn England around, but it won't start on Saturday!
England have been soundly beaten by Australia before world champions South Africa inflicted their heaviest ever defeat at Twickenham last Saturday. And it won't get any easier when they face a New Zealand side looking for their second Grand Slam in three years.
"I'd expect the All Blacks to win by 10-15 points," said Fitzpatrick, who will be part of the
Sky Sports analyst team.
"Being beaten 42-6 well it take a bit of getting up from that and from what I've seen the England scrum has struggled.
"For me that aspect of the game is critical. You need guys who can carry the ball but you also need people to hit rucks. They're not producing good second-phase ball."
Despite the losses, Fitzpatrick says that the RFU have got it right in putting Johnson in charge and compared the England class of 2008 to the All Black side of 1992.
"If I could have anyone leading England at the moment Martin would be the man, but he needs to be a dictator and take pressure away from Steve Borthwick," explained Fitzpatrick who captained the All Blacks 51 times in 92 Tests.
"If anyone was going to survive what England has to go through it would be Martin Johnson. He is held up in a special place and he is sending out the right messages. I am not sure if there are too many people in England who can handle the pressure.
"He did not have to take the job, he thought long and hard about the job. He may not have the coaching record, but in terms of people who could have done the job, well they are few and far between.
"I wrote an article harking back to 1992 when the All Blacks were going through a similar phase. All I can say is that when we rebuilt our team we had a coach by the name of Laurie Mains who basically stripped the All Black machine back to the basics. No-one was special in that team and he developed a team that went on to be a very good team indeed - especially in 1996 and 1997.
Stop the imports!
Sean Fitzpatrick also agrees with Graham Henry's comments that England's national side has been damaged by the number of Southern hemisphere players playing in the Guinness Premiership.
"I keep on saying the Heineken Cup and the Guinness Premiership are two of the best competitions in the world and maybe you have got to say that they have been enhanced by southern hemisphere players.
"Is that to the detriment of the quality of the national team? Well maybe it is."
Sean Fitzpatrick is an analyst for exclusive live coverage of England v New Zealand: Saturday, 2pm, Sky Sports 2/HD2
