? England manager demands fewer errors against Romania
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Martin Johnson has called on his England team to be "relentless" in their penultimate Pool B game against a weakened Romania side on Saturday. Bonus points and points difference could yet decide which two teams qualify for the knockout stages and Johnson wants to see a considerable improvement after the mistake-ridden wins over Argentina and Georgia.
Should Argentina beat Scotland in Wellington on Sunday, England could conceivably be edged out of the tournament should they lose to the Scots in Auckland next week. They cannot afford, therefore, to ease up against Romania beneath the fixed roof of the Otago Stadium if they want to finish top of the pool.
"We need to be relentless," Johnson said. "If you make the errors we made last week, you give the opposition the ball and territory. I thought that when we attacked last week we looked pretty dangerous ? we just need to give ourselves the best chance of doing that. We've got to go out and play at a certain level, whatever the opposition do. We've got to set our sights higher than we did last week."
No decision has yet been taken on Nick Easter's participation in the tournament, with Johnson preferring to wait until Sunday before making a final call. Easter missed the 41-10 victory over Georgia after suffering a lower back injury and Leicester's Thomas Waldrom is on standby in Dunedin to replace him as an official member of the squad.
"Nick's progressing. We'll see where we are after Saturday," Johnson said. "Nick's not had this injury before, it's just one of those where we're hoping he's going to be good to go next week. All the signs are he will be. He's desperate to get back and play but we'll see how it progresses over the next 48 hours. He would be a loss but James Haskell is playing very well in that position."
Waldrom could yet be added to the squad anyway as England have still not named a replacement for Andrew Sheridan, who was forced to return home because of injury last week. The decision will hinge on whether England, who move to Auckland on Sunday, pick up any more injuries against Romania.
The Oaks have made 11 personnel changes and three positional switches to the side well beaten by Argentina last week and appear to have one eye on their final pool game against Georgia next Wednesday. England's captain Lewis Moody insists his players will not concede as many silly penalties as they have done in their two previous games. "It's obviously something we've addressed," said Moody. "We all have a responsibility to stop that happening."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/sep/23/rugby-world-cup-england-martin-johnson
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