Johnson rues dashed Six Nations hopes - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Johnson rues dashed Six Nations hopes

By Angus MacKinnon 14/03/2010 05:13:41 PM Comments (0)

England manager Martin Johnson has summed up the draw with Scotland that effectively ended his side's hopes of winning this year's Six Nations as "a tale of missed chances".

A scrappy Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield on Saturday evening ended in a 15-15 stalemate with neither side managing to score a try, and left England relying on Italy beating France on Sunday to give them something to play for in their final match, against France in Paris next weekend.

"The team are frustrated with life, with themselves," Johnson said.

"As a collective I think we are just gutted."

Toby Flood, on as a replacement for a dazed Jonny Wilkinson, missed a long-range penalty which could have secured a narrow win for England three minutes from time, but Scotland enjoyed the lion's share of possession and dominated territorially.

"We could have won but I am not going to say we should have won," Johnson added.

"As a team we have to find a way to win."

Australian-born flyhalf Dan Parks kicked all of Scotland's points and saw two further penalties come back off the post.

"It wasn't a great game to watch," Johnson added. "There were a lot of penalties down to the interpretation at the breakdown and it kept us in our half for most of the first half.

"I thought when we had the ball in the first half we looked good but we gave it back so cheaply. We did some very good things and did some silly things.

"These games get tighter and tighter as the clock runs down. Ultimately it is a tale of missed chances."

England will travel to Paris expecting to face a French side gunning for a Grand Slam and Johnson faces a tough task in getting his troops motivated as he seeks to head off the criticism that will inevitably come his way in the end of another unconvincing display.

Meanwhile, Ireland marked Brian O'Driscoll's 100th cap for his country with a 27-12 Six Nations victory against Wales at Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday.

Victory saw champions Ireland keep alive their hopes of a successful title defence and stay on course for a Triple Crown when they play Scotland at the same venue in next week's final round of fixtures.

But Wales' third defeat in four matches left them in danger of finishing bottom of the table.

Ireland scored three tries, two from left wing Keith Earls and one from scrum-half Tomas O'Leary, while all Wales had to show for their efforts were four Stephen Jones penalties.

The match turned in the 25th minute when Wales full-back Lee Byrne was sin-binned for killing the ball and, soon afterwards, Ireland capitalised on their man advantage to score the game's first two tries.

O'Driscoll ran out to a standing ovation from a Croke Park crowd of over 81,000.

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