England focused on Rugby World Cup: Johnson

Martin Johnson has said that the political situation within the Rugby Football Union has had no bearing on England’s Rugby World Cup preparations.

The RFU Board is falling apart after the controversial sacking of John Steele and Martyn Thomas being forced to stand down.

England manager Martin Johnson has however insisted that whatever happens at HQ will have no bearing on how the England team perform at the Rugby world cup.

“If it was 18 months ago and we were wanting to make big decisions, maybe it would have,” he told the Evening Standard.

“Two years ago would have been harder because we may have been looking for some new players. “

“But everything’s in place in terms of our preparation. We’re set up here.”

“The last four weeks have just flown by. Next week is the last of our training camp and then we’re into warm-up games.”

“We’re off in five weeks. We’ll be on the plane before we know it.”

“It is really far removed from the players, it doesn’t affect them.”

“It’s not going on at their club, to whom they’re contracted. They come and play for England, so they’re just getting on with what they do.”

“They want to get in the World Cup squad, they want to get better as players. Their concerns are: what am I doing today, what’s the training, what’s for dinner?”

“I doubt if there’s been any huge discussions about it. It would have been the same in any team I’ve played in.”