Rugby fans losing patience with England

London: A year ago England were thrashed at Twickenham by Australia, South Africa and New Zealand on successive weekends in Martin Johnson's first stint as manager and barely an eyebrow was lifted.

A year on, with precious little signs of progress, England fans are starting to lose patience.

Having lost to Australia last week and with the All Blacks in town next, Saturday's 16-9 victory over Argentina at least ensured no repeat of the hat-trick.

But the fans demand more and the unusual sound of booing, jeering and slow hand-clapping sent a clear message that the desperate product they had paid £70 (Dh433) to sit through was not fit for purpose.

Matt Banahan's late try secured the win after a 9-9 draw began to look inevitable in the wake of Jonny Wilkinson missing three successive second-half penalties but even the ever-pragmatic Johnson accepted that it was a below-par performance.

"The players are happy with the win but disappointed with what they did," he said.

"I think we probably deserved it (the booing). Errors really hurt us. We had far too many. At times we could have kept the ball in hand but didn't. We kicked poorly, we didn't chase well and they put the pressure back on us."

Johnson said he shared the fans' frustration but claimed that most of the near-80,000 in attendance had "stuck with us".

If they did, it was surely out of loyalty to a man held in the highest regard because they were certainly not enjoying the rugby.

Results

Saturday's internationals

New Zealand 20 Italy 6

England 16 Argentina 9

Scotland 23 Fiji 10

United States 27 Uruguay 22