What does Martin Johnson do now?

Turn up at today's draw for the 2011 World Cup pools looking as cheerful as possible. Saturday's results pushed England down to sixth in the global rankings, so they must be in a pool with one of New Zealand, South Africa, Australia or Argentina. Then Johnson will sit down with his coaching staff and sift through the wreckage before naming his elite squad of 32 for the RBS Six Nations Championship.

He can make five changes to the existing squad, plus any further allowance for injury. This is his first test as team manager and selector. Does he think the back three work well as a unit? How have the half backs gone? What on earth can he do about the forwards? They have been outfought and out-thought by all three southern-hemisphere opponents and he must decide whether that is down to the quality of player available or the coaching - and he has already stated that he is not about to sack his coaches.

Graham Henry, the All Blacks coach, accused the English game of employing too many New Zealanders, but the Guinness Premiership contains too many overseas front-row forwards. France are suffering the same problem, but French, Italian and Pacific Islanders infest the Premiership as well as Kiwis, just when youngsters such as Nick Wood, Alex Corbisiero and Jack Forster should be showing whether there is another Jason Leonard out there.

Johnson will also scrutinise this month's Heineken Cup pool matches closely. Consider the starting XV he might have chosen if all his original elite-squad members had stayed fit: Tait; Sackey, Noon, Flood, Simpson-Daniel; Wilkinson, Care; Sheridan, Mears, Vickery, Borthwick, Palmer, Moody, Rees, Narraway.

Mathew Tait is still struggling with a hamstring injury, Lewis Moody and Luke Narraway are playing their way back to form, James Simpson-Daniel and Jonny Wilkinson will probably not be available, but Johnson will want reassurance that others are demanding attention.

Was the referee harsh on England?

No, three of the four yellow cards from Alain Rolland were justified and there could have been others. If it looked one-sided, that is because good teams always appear to get the rub of the green. They know how to play the referee, they know how to cheat better - and that is meant as a compliment to New Zealand.

Do the autumn results show England as a bad team or a raw one?

No one could put hand on heart and say the results would have been different had England opted for alternative playing personnel. The margins might have been different - the game management of Wilkinson would have been an improvement, but the loss of Andrew Sheridan to a neck injury was not significant.

If this series has shown anything, it is that Sheridan is not the thinking man's scrummager and that Tony Woodcock, the New Zealander, is the world's pre-eminent loose-head prop. But whether games are lost by three or 33 points, they are still lost. By choosing a team with so little experience, Johnson must have known this would happen, but he has gambled on the improvement that young players can make, and must make, if England are not to suffer in next year's Six Nations.

“My confidence is high,” Delon Armitage, the England full back, said on Saturday. “Getting into the squad was one thing, getting to play four games has lifted it massively. I'll take that back to the Premiership and do everything I do at a higher standard.” That is precisely the attitude that Johnson needs and he will want to see the pain his players have suffered channelled constructively so that they can take the Six Nations by surprise.

Do England have an issue with discipline?

You could be kind and describe their faults as naive enthusiasm and frustration. Or you could be cruel and say professional players should know better. Let's go for the latter. A penalty count of 19-10 against is a killing statistic, particularly against a goalkicker of Dan Carter's ability. England were heavily penalised against the Pacific Islanders, improved significantly against Australia and South Africa, then slipped badly on Saturday.

James Haskell trailing an elbow against Rodney So'oialo was stupid, ditto Care kicking the ball through from an offside position, then putting in a marginally late challenge on Conrad Smith when he knows how stringent the referee has been. Young the players may be, but this is the arena they are in, this is what they aspire to, and they have to adapt.

Surely England needed an easier autumn programme?

The fixture schedule is drawn up years in advance. Nor does rugby offer that many opponents of the right calibre. Scoring a hatful of points against relatively easy opponents may look good but can create bad habits and a false impression. At least England know exactly where they stand in the world pecking order and have a better understanding of what they need to do to improve.

Lions watch

Ian McGeechan likes players who have come from nowhere, so Delon Armitage's name will be in the Lions head coach's notebook. Few players have made so good a first impression in so demanding an arena and the good thing is that Armitage, returning to London Irish, knows that he has to become better. His ability to play wing and centre also gives him a utility value on a long tour.

Stephen Jones's form in Wales's matches against New Zealand and Australia has been a revelation. The introspective, diffident Jones has gone, to be replaced by a confident and assured Jones, commanding the stage, looking completely at home. He has played two of his best games for Wales.