Martin Johnson Unhappy With 'Sloppy' Performance

Martin Johnson believes that England need to improve if they have aspirations of going deep into the World Cup tournament.

England were back in action yesterday in the second of the group matches against Georgia - and while England ran out 41 - 10 winner it was not a pretty victory from the former champions.

They scored six tries during the match but Georgia controlled a huge chunk of the play before half time. When the half time whistle went England were only seven points ahead of their opponents at 17-10.

Despite their spirited fight in the first half England were too much in the second as Georgia failed to add to their points tally.

Delon Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton all bagged tries in the second half as England asserted their authority and looked much the better team.

It it was England's sloppy play in the opening forty minutes that Johnson admits that he was not happy with.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the match Johnson said: "I am a bit annoyed. We were sloppy at times today. It is a simple game and at times we made it more difficult and it was sloppy. It just annoys me. I don't want to be that type of team.

"If I am happy with those standards then we will go home quite early - and if we are happy with those standards we will go home early. We have to be tough on ourselves.

"We were way behind in the penalty count early on and that kept them in our territory and gave them shots. We can't do that, it's not good enough.

"If ever we needed to understand what the game is about at this level, the big game of the weekend - Ireland v Australia - indicated what it is about.

"The bigger the game you play, the more simple it is - maintain possession, don't give away penalties, build pressure in all aspects of the game and you will give yourself a chance. We need to be rehearsing that."

England now top Group B on nine points along with Scotland - both sides having won two matches out of two.

England will be back in action against Romania next weekend.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw