Six Nations 09
Somewhat surprisingly England find themselves as narrow favourites to win back next years Six Nations Championships. According to online bookies, Blue Square, the Welsh and the French both have strong chances going into the tournament.
England’s low odds are probably a combination of two factors. Firstly, it is probably slightly inflated by the fact that the majority of people voting will be voting for England out of a sense of patriotism and therefore keeping the odds relatively low saves possibly having to pay out more money in the long term. Secondly, the arrival of Martin Johnson as England manager will have given the entire set up new life.
Johnson is a brave pick as England head coach, or whatever it is that the person in charge of the England set up is called these days. He was a fantastic leader on the pitch, and even as a pundit clearly still kept the passion, during one particular match he was asked what his half time team talk would be and the response was a remarkable incite into the leadership skills of the man. Whether he will be that great a coach, though, is hard to say.
England have chosen to follow the model set by Germany and Holland in the footballing world. Both have enjoyed success by picking legendary players to manage their national sides, but men who had absolutely no experience when it came to management apart from what they had learnt from the men who managed them during their illustrious careers. Like Klinsmann and Van Basten, both of whom were managed by some exceptional managers, Johnson has had experience working under some of the very best and will take a lot of ideas from them into his new role.
The establishment of an elite squad and a Saxons squad is a good step, providing he sticks with these players for at least a season and gives them the opportunity to show what they can do. There are sixty-four men across those two squads, if England can’t put out a winning fifteen from those sixty-four, bringing other players in from outside will do no good.
There are a few surprise decisions, dropping Tindall from the elite squad, and dropping Hodgson altogether was unexpected, but Johnson has his ideas and will be backed by the men that selected him. When asked about Hodgson his reply was quite simple, the player has some obvious weaknesses that opponents know about and we need to give him the help and incentive to improve that. It’s difficult to argue with such an approach.
So the challenge now is to stick with the same squads, to find the right combination of players and bring them to a consistently high level. There has to be a team that get used to playing together, that can work on set plays over time and develop new ideas and a solid awareness of how each other play. In short, England need to get back to the consistency of selection that saw them win the World Cup under Johnson’s captaincy.
Picking Martin Johnson as England coach is something of a gamble, but if I were into sports betting I would put money on it being a gamble that pays off.
Football Betting Odds provided by Blue Square.
