Johnson: Untroubled by political in-fighting

The RFU has gone into meltdown in the wake of John Steele's sacking, with chairman Martyn Thomas forced to stand down in the aftermath.

But Johnson insists the ongoings in the halls of power at Twickenham will make no difference to England's World Cup hopes in New Zealand.

"If it was 18 months ago and we were wanting to make big decisions, maybe it would have," he told the Evening Standard.

"Two years ago would have been harder because we may have been looking for some new players. But everything's in place in terms of our preparation. We're set up here.

"The last four weeks have just flown by. Next week is the last of our training camp and then we're into warm-up games.

"We're off in five weeks. We'll be on the plane before we know it.

"It is really far removed from the players, it doesn't affect them.

"It's not going on at their club, to whom they're contracted. They come and play for England, so they're just getting on with what they do.

"They want to get in the World Cup squad, they want to get better as players. Their concerns are: what am I doing today, what's the training, what's for dinner?

"I doubt if there's been any huge discussions about it. It would have been the same in any team I've played in."