Johnson rues England's wasted chances

England manager Martin Johnson was still ruing his team's wastefulness in attack little more than 12 hours after they had lost 19-12 to France to crash out of Rugby World Cup 2011.

Despite scoring two tries through Ben Foden and Mark Cueto, Johnson had to look on as his team let slip a number of chances to cross the line as they tried to battle back from a 16-0 half-time deficit.

"They had chances to attack us and attack us and it led to penalties and to two scores," he said. "Added to which, we didn't take our chances when we created them.

"If we’d scored and it was a fantastic chance, especially at the end of the first half, it would have put us in a different place," Johnson told a press conference at the team hotel.

"You think yesterday we didn’t do enough to win the game and they had parts when they dominated the game and they scored two tries, but I think too often we contributed to our own downfall."

French form

France roared back into form following defeats by New Zealand and Tonga in their final two Pool A matches and set up a semi-final meeting with Wales at Eden Park on 15 October.

They controlled the match for a 20-minute period in the middle of the first half that allowed them to take an iron grip which England were unable to loosen despite a comeback after half-time.

During that time Dimitri Yachvili landed two penalties and Vincent Clerc and Maxime Médard crossed for tries.

"They played well, their kicking game was great and their chasing game was great," Johnson said. "I think they got on top with that side of the game and they won a few kicks we should have taken really as that is something we are usually good at.

"I think we lost some key battles early on. The aerial battle, set piece and kicking game put pressure back on us for a key 20-minute period.

Johnson's future

"Then there was a bit of weak defence, something that we have been good at, particularly good at against these guys. We haven’t conceded against them for two games and it put us in a hole and it is what cost us."

The spotlight will now fall on the future for Johnson whose contract finishes in November, but he remained tight-lipped as to whether he wanted to continue in the manager's role.

England's next match is away to Scotland on 4 February on the opening weekend of the Six Nations and if Johnson does move on the Rugby Football Union will be keen to have his replacement in place for the tournament.

"The key thing from my point of view is that we take the next four to six weeks with Martin and review what has gone on," rugby operations director Rob Andrew said.

"We said at the beginning that we would take this right through with Martin to the World Cup. Now that has happened we will look at what has gone on. The important thing is we reflect and make a decision going forward."