KEY POINTS:
These are still embryonic days for the man whose job it is to dig for victories as the head of the new England rugby union machine. Martin Johnson may yet come up smelling of red roses.
He might even come up smiling, from beneath the darkened brow that was furrowed by 28 Australian points at Twickenham a fortnight ago and deepened to a trench by 42 Springbok points at the old southwest London cabbage patch last weekend.
For that smile to have the golden glint of the Webb Ellis Cup about it in New Zealand in 2011, though, the England team manager of five months would need to break new ground.
No national manager or head coach has ever succeeded in building a Rugby World Cup-winning side without having served a coaching apprenticeship somewhere closer to the grass roots of the game.
All six Rugby World Cup-winning coaches - Jake White (South Africa, 2008), Clive Woodward (England, 2003), Rod Macqueen (Australia, 1999), Kitch Christie (South Africa, 1995), Bob Dwyer (Australia, 1991) and Brian Lochore (New Zealand, 1987) - learned their trade at club level before taking charge of their national teams.
As Sir Clive himself remarked before his one-time captain's debut in the manager's seat at Twickenham: "I think we'd all be a little bit more confident if he had spent three or four years coaching at Leicester or somewhere and was coming in with a proven record of being a chess player. He's a warrior; we're about to find out whether he can play chess."
Only time will tell. Johnson has been no Bobby Fischer in his autumn baptism.
There are two more autumn series plus a trio of Six Nations' Championships before the judgment days arrive for the Johnno regime at the next World Cup. That is assuming that the powers that be at Twickenham keep backing their man.
Sporting wisdom has it that thoroughbreds like Johnson do not tend to have the required stock for staying the course when they straddle the fence from playing to coaching-cum-managing.
- INDEPENDENT
