Martin Johnson has stepped down as England’s rugby union coach. It’s not too surprising; I think the only reason Capello survived leading a disappointing World Cup campaign was that he had a lot of time left on his contract. Johnson didn’t, though it was he who decided to go; the RFU did not sack him. It’s probably a good decision for England to be able to start afresh, though I think Johnson would have had a better time of it in four years. It’ll be interesting now to see how England’s starting XV at Murrayfield in February looks; I think we might actually see fewer changes. Johnson said that he was more disappointed in the players than the coaching staff, so I wonder if he might have made more wholesale changes than his successor will.
I don’t really know enough about the possible choices to replace him to form an opinion on the best one, but whoever it is will at least have a few months to get set into the job before the Six Nations.
Defensive Indifference 