Geoff Cooke: Martin Johnson's huge status means he will succeed

Geoff Cooke, England's double Grand Slam winning team manager, believes the "gamble" in appointing Martin Johnson can pay off. The former captain, 38, was named team manager by the Rugby Football Union yesterday despite never having coached or managed.

However, Cooke thinks the player he brought into Test rugby in 1993 can still be a success.

Cooke, who sits alongside Johnson on the Professional Game Board that now runs elite rugby in England, said: "You would have to say this is a gamble because Martin has no previous experience. However, when Andy Robinson was appointed he was a European Cup winner and proven coach with England and the Lions but the role didn't suit him.

"What Martin brings to the job is credibility and you have to hope that his knowledge of the game will carry him through."

While the arrival of England's World Cup winning captain in the top job appears to signal a bright new start for the national squad, he is facing the same problems that dogged Robinson and Brian Ashton. Both of those experienced coaches inherited management teams set up by their predecessors.

In Robinson's case it was the big back-room staff which helped win the 2003 World Cup, while Ashton had forwards coach John Wells and defence expert Mike Ford already in place when he took the job.

Now, Johnson, who takes over on 1 July, will have to work with assistant coaches Wells and Ford.

Given that Johnson has a blank piece of paper to work from, he is either totally happy with Wells and Ford or else they are merely being given longer before he makes wholesale changes.

Johnson's vision of how the England team will be run is going to be revealed tomorrow at Twickenham, although he prefers to give little away under the media glare. He needs to appoint a backs coach, with Mike Catt of London Irish and Northampton's Jim Mallender the front-runners. It will be an uncomfortable grilling for elite rugby director Rob Andrew, the man who had to tell Ashton he was out.