Martin Johnson has praised his side's composure in the wake of their hard-fought win over Samoa at Twickenham.
England secured back-to-back wins in the autumn internationals for the first time since 2004 with a 26-13 victory on Saturday which owed more to hard work and pragmatism than creativity. But a smiling Johnson was obviously happy with the way his side responded to a committed Samoa side who more than held their own on a rare appearance at England's HQ.
"I got asked: 'Oh haven't you got to win in style?' These people don't understand what you are dealing with," said Johnson. "It's bloody competitive, bloody tough. They were strong in the breakdown, a couple of times up the middle of the field I wasn't comfortable in my seat. These guys can play. How many times do they have to do what they can do before people understand that?"
Despite domination in the scrums and enjoying the majority of possession, England struggled to control the match and had three tries rightly disallowed in their repeated attempts to breach the Samoa line.
"We couldn't buy a try at one point," said Johnson. "I wouldn't have complained if we had been brilliant throughout but life is not always what you want. I was frustrated but we had to keep our composure and find a way to win it. Going behind just after half-time wasn't great but in hindsight it didn't kill us.
"They chanced their arm a bit. It's not great when they come out with the ball on your 22 right under the posts. But [Toby] Flood and [Ben] Youngs handled the game pretty well. They were very composed at half-time. We had to build our way back into the game which we did and ultimately got ourselves well ahead."
Johnson was particularly pleased his side found a way to win to consolidate their progress this autumn, which has included a narrow defeat by New Zealand as well as that heady win against Australia.
"All these games are winnable and loseable, no matter what you have done the week before," he said. "Samoa were strong in the tackle. They put a lot of bodies in the breakdown, made that ball slow. We weren't as cohesive as we have been. Their pressure created some errors and after 25 minutes we didn't really feel we had played much rugby.
"But England showed composure, they understood what was going on and tried to fix it. We missed a line-out in the second half that they came off the back of and suddenly everyone was a bit edgy. The whole crowd was getting edgy, the scoreboard was too close for comfort and you have to deal with it. And we did okay.
"We let them get out of the corner a bit too easily. But we kept getting at them and we got there in the end. Some of the players were a little bit glum afterwards but that's what Test match rugby is, you find a way to win."
Scrum-half Ben Youngs was one of those shackled by an excellent defensive showing from Samoa but is determined to finish the autumn internationals on a high with a big performance against South Africa next weekend. "Hopefully I'm involved against South Africa and it will be another massive challenge," he said. "Everyone's psyched and it's a chance to lay down a marker."
It is hard to imagine it will be a more physical game than the one he came through on Saturday. "Not that there's a lack of commitment in international rugby, but the Samoans can hit a little bit harder than normal guys," he said. "New Zealand are amazing at the breakdown and when you are tackled you are really tackled, but when you are tackled by Samoa you are smashed.
"But that's what is great about rugby. You have the Aussies who play with flair and ambition and the Samoans who will hit you all day. It was a real banana skin potentially and we're happy with how it went.
"From what guys said I think when you play Samoa or Fiji they do things which aren't the norm. You're trying to run and there's somebody standing in the passing channel and another in front of you.
"It's quite unstructured and you really have to concentrate on trying to look after the ball. We wanted to play a similar game to the Australia one and we tried to, but Samoa did a good job. They slowed down our ball, got in the way and were making some good hits."