“Martin Johnson has to act, and act with haste, because there is no doubt that players representing England are receiving worse coaching and preparation than they are used to with their clubs. Quite what men like James Haskell and Tom Rees make of the step down from club to country would make for painful reading if the Union ever had the courage to admit a few hard facts.

Elite coaching has lost the book, let alone the plot, and although we can palm the criticism of the latest tour off by complaining about the lack of time with players, this excuse is soon to be made redundant (on July 1 to be exact), and England must then address the real reasons for the structural collapse of the national team from 2003 onwards.

Hard as this advice might be for Martin he needs to do two things immediately; one, get himself in a tracksuit, and two, allow the attack coach to have the final say on all tactical issues. The manager must pick the team but this side is crying out for an inventive attack coach who can change the way England think (when they allow themselves to ponder anything bar a defensive obsession so savagely exposed by the All Blacks).

If it is to be the London Irish coach Brian Smith, he must be given overriding responsibility for recalibrating rugby brains that have lost the capacity for clear thinking. After the second Test the players frequently utilised the word ‘continuity’. I don’t know exactly where it gets you and nor do they; it is a way to keep the ball alive but to what purpose, and for how long can a team maintain possession before Richie McCaw steals the ball?

I looked in on the England training sessions before yesterday’s Test match and noticed the standards of excellence from the Clive Woodward era have disappeared. Brian Ashton received some flak for the state of his training, but this is far worse. It is sloppy and obsessed with defence to the extent that the side went into the Test match without any strike moves. On Friday Mike Tindall was asked about England’s attitude towards such moves. He said, ‘It is hard to get the balance. The forwards spend hours on lineouts but with back moves you can take up hours and only get three chances to use them, so no, we have not worked over the top on them.’

In contrast, New Zealand work over the top on just such strategies and have, in the course of this series, shredded Mike Ford’s defensive line, which is simply unaware of such a threat in the northern hemisphere, where we are more interested in that vague term, ‘continuity’. Of course defending is important, but on this trip it was too much the be-all and end-all, and England still leaked nine tries to a team that ‘wastes’ hours on the small detail of the set-piece move.

I say that Johnson should wear a tracksuit from day one because the manager of this tour, admittedly hamstrung by his day job, was the key presence in selection but not in training, and frankly, there was no direction I could see. It is nothing like this with Gloucester and Bath, and several members of the squad were frankly disaffected.

Martin must demand more impact at contact from his forwards to enable the attack coach to secure the quick ball necessary to rekindle any kind of imaginative offensive play. His former Leicester coach, John Wells, is technically good but lacks the broad vision required of the next attack coach. Tough decisions are not an option. I hear Toby Booth is doing a splendid job with the Saxons and while it would infuriate London Irish, the idea of a low-profile ideas man working under Johnson with the forwards appeals.

If England want to beat the best Mike Ford is another coach who might have to take a backwards step. Someone who comes up with the black-and-white stuff he spoke before yesterday’s game has to be a worry. Can you believe this? ‘We [the coaching team] put down what is important now – whether a kicking game and variety in attack comes before defence, probably not?’ It is not a matter of a or b, but the creation of a united totality. It might upset the management, but this thinking lacks big vision.

The elite players must have the best coaching available and not just what is available at the academy at cost. Dave Alred might be linked with the Woodward era and I am certainly no advocate of Sir Clive, but he is one of the best, if not the best, kicking coach in the world. Watching England’s unstructured drills and thinking back five years is distressing. I should know how good Alred is. I worked under him. If Martin wants him back he should demand that his line boss gives him what he needs, otherwise England are only playing at pursuing excellence.

On this tour the players were not as good as their counterparts but the fundamental problem was management, which was inferior from top to bottom. Martin must be brave and make some tough decisions. Brian Ashton didn’t force the issue and it cost him his job. For all sorts of reasons Johnson is not going to be discarded like the last coach but if he is anything but decisive with the current regime the best club players are soon going to follow the example of Roy Keane, who quit his country because the standards and ambitions were amateur in comparison with those of his club.

Sub-standard thinking and coaching was the main problem in New Zealand. Consider the return of personnel such as Danny Cipriani (if fit), Harry Ellis, Paul Sackey and James Simpson-Daniel; these are all performers who can sway the highest standard game – if offered the right platform. New Zealand revealed the depth of their own talent in debutants like Richard Kahui, but these talents are being accentuated by the speed and sophistication of their playing style.

Kahui has been an interesting case study. He was all doe-eyed excitement three days before the Test. ‘You think Super 14 is professional, but the gap between that and New Zealand is huge. Aside from the quality of training the whole All Black machine is so slick, so well done.’ And well done to him too. He slipped into Conrad Smith’s boots and gavea veteran’s display.

New Zealand are not a great team and without a vintage display from Dan Carter are likely to be pasted in South Africa but, World Cup insanity apart, they are an intelligent and coherent entity. If England are to do likewise and maximize their talent Johnson has to be the main man, but not the main coach. As for me, I’ll settle for the suit.”