Does Shaun have a point?

Johnson has management mettle, but chemistry with Ashton?

Any euphoria over Martin Johnson's return must be tempered with understanding that management and coaching are very different beasts

Shaun Edwards
March 28, 2008 12:30 AM

Can he do it? Absolutely. It obviously matters that Martin Johnson hasn't managed a side before. A little experience is always helpful. But if you had to pick a man to lead England - not coach them - then I see no problem.
Managing and coaching are different. No matter how good a player you were, you go straight down to the bottom rung again when you choose to coach. The learning process starts all over again, so it's best to be humble, stick to what you know and pick up the bits and pieces as you go along.
Coaches never stop learning. Being with Wales has made me a better coach, no doubt about it. Test rugby is a hot-house environment, but ideas come from many sources. In the early days guys like Brian Ashton and Clive Griffiths were incredibly helpful and I owe them a lot, but one of the best ideas I've heard about rucking and counter-rucking came from a bright young coach involved in junior rugby.
Management is different. Part is about putting things in place to ensure that the team have the best possible chance of success.
Depending on the budget, it's about finding the best medic, physio, kit man, masseur, media guru and chef, and putting them alongside savvy coaches - forwards, back, defence, set-piece fitness, however you want to carve it up - assistant coaches and video analysts. And Johnson had a good teacher in Sir Clive Woodward. England's squad of 30 for the 2003 World Cup - 31 when Simon Shaw was added - were supported by another 18 backroom staff, including a visual awareness coach in Sherylle Calder, a South African who went on to work with Jake White's World Cup-winning Springboks in France last year.
Johnson hasn't been away from rugby that long. In fact he seems to have spent the last couple of years in the international rugby orbit, so he will know the right people. But it's also about setting the right tone and getting the chemistry right.
I've only met Johnson socially, so I've never experienced the man at work. Those that have say he has an uncluttered mind, speaks directly and without the mumbo jumbo that too often confuses messages. In the heat of battle a brooding look often seemed enough and I know a journalist who insists that a Johnson scowl was enough to cut short any idea of asking whether he intended to prolong his international career after 2003.
But go back to the chemistry thing. I've been lucky since I moved into coaching after rugby league. My first boss was Nigel Melville, who knew his way around, had been in place at Wasps since the start of the professional era and was prepared to give me a chance.
Under Nigel I developed my own ideas, but it was not until he brought in Warren Gatland, before leaving for Gloucester, that I had someone to bounce them off and found that we were in agreement about things like the blitz defence and keeping the ball in play longer.
The chemistry was so good that when we independently drew up lists of what needed to be done at Wasps they were frighteningly similar. They were put into action and the result was three league championships and one Heineken Cup before Warren went off to Waikato, to be replaced by Ian McGeechan, very much my rock when Warren got the Wales job and asked me to help.
Ian, above everyone else, understood why I wanted to do it, argued my corner when necessary and had the faith to believe that Wasps would benefit. Chemistry.
That's why you can feel for Ashton. He - and Andy Robinson before him - has struggled with a structure that probably hasn't been right since Woodward resigned. Both men asked in vain for a manager to work with them on matters beyond their obvious skill sets.
Can Ashton now work with Johnson? They did so successfully with England eight years ago, but that was a player-coach relationship. Whether a new manager who has total control can work with a coach who got to the World Cup final only five months ago is something else.
If Johnson's England go one better in New Zealand in 2011 you can bet on one thing: that his first piece of management will have been to get the right men around him.