A penny for Martin Johnson's thoughts

BY TOBY ROBSON IN LONDON

England coach Martin Johnson could have said he had just finished a fox hunt and nobody would have blinked an eye.

In fact, Johnson and the England rugby squad looked almost out of place in their training kit as they fielded questions in the plush five-star Pennyhill Park Hotel.

The driveway to a country retreat, which first appeared in 1609, winds past the playing fields, the shooting lodge, the archery area and the 18-hole golf course before hitting a palatial mansion fit for kings.

England's training base is in Bagshot, Surrey, about a 40-minute drive out of London. It has scrum machines, rugby posts and gyms.

It also has a 45,000-square-foot spa, but the neo-Tudor-style hallways and artwork seem an unlikely hangout for a rugby team.

A hotel brochure reads: "from salsa classes and black tie dinner dances to quad bike safaris, carol singers and clay pigeon shooting with steaming mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows".

It sounds smashing!

There are 123 luxury rooms at about NZ$790 a night and guests have included a cast of celebrities including recent guests Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, Lewis Hamilton and Russell Crowe.

Painfully, for Australians at least, it is the same base where Clive Woodward's side camped out in the build up to the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2003.

The All Blacks have used the facilities too and still rave about them. Yesterday Pennyhill played host to the England team naming for Sunday's test at Twickenham.

The print media packed into the Stuart Room and took their places on the kingly wooden chairs.

Johnson and his forwards coach, John Wells, took their places in front of the marble fireplace. It was all so cosy till the inquisition began.

England's rugby press smell blood and they have seized on a sloppy 16-9 win as the catalyst for a week-long assault on the England coaching staff.

This week former international Josh Lewsey threw fuel on the fire when he said the coaches were unfit for their jobs.

The campaign has clearly begun to rile Johnson, who several times referred to England's loss to Argentina, before correcting himself, `oh, sorry, we won didn't we'.

The message was clear, but the tranquil surrounds did not stop the engrossing to and fro.

"Sure I still believe I'm up to it, we're all up to it," Johnson responded. "Criticism comes with the job and we critique everything we do. If you don't perform, you get criticised.

"We have a united group of players who are determined. They know they have to play better. We had a bad performance but let's not forget we won the game.

"I think that's been lost amid the reaction."

To Johnson's credit, he held his poise throughout.

He knows an England win will quickly change the tone of the local press and restore his previous status as a man who could do no wrong.

A loss and somebody else might be enjoying the tranquil pleasures of Pennyhill for the four years of England rugby's contract to stay there.

- © Fairfax NZ News