One game at a time for Johnson



England manager keeping quiet over Grand Slam talk

Martin Johnson, the England team manager, has said he and his team are taking nothing for granted about the prospects of a possible Grand Slam despite his side's impressive victory over France, the champions, on Saturday.

The 17-9 win at Twickenham has left the English in pole position to take the Six Nations and also claim a first Grand Slam since 2003.

But Johnson said: "No one has mentioned those words [Grand Slam] in my presence.

"That's crazy. If you are trying to win anything, you concentrate on what you need to do to win games, otherwise you are setting yourself up for a fall."

Next up for England are Scotland on Saturday, March 12, before they finish off their campaign against Ireland in Dublin on March 19, and James Haskell, the flanker, said he was wary of their next opponents, even if they have lost all three of their games to date in the tournament and have lost their last 10 games at Twickenham.

"We have won three games. Everyone knows Scotland would love nothing more than to put us back in our box," Haskell said.

"Everyone is looking at the next two big games. We have two massive obstacles in our way and what a shame it would be to let it go with a bit of complacency."

Ben Youngs, the scrum-half, added that despite beating the French, he and a number of his teammates had been frustrated with their display.

"Some guys are disappointed with their personal performances, me included," he said. "We demand high standards.

"There were a lot of us frustrated at half time and getting a bit angry with each other. I gave the forwards a bit of a rollicking."

England have wins against Wales, Italy and France to their name and they will be strong favourites against a Scottish side, who were beaten 21-18 by Ireland to go with their earlier setbacks against France and Wales.

Alastair Kellock, the Scotland captain, said he had been encouraged by his team's showing against Ireland, and is hopeful they can raise their game against England.

"It's disappointing to lose matches, but it was a far better performance than two weeks ago [the 24-6 loss to Wales]," he said.

"It's about moving forward now, going down to Twickenham and putting in a better performance - because it will have to be."

* Agencies

 

 

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Commission caps

For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:

• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term). 

• On the protection component, there is a cap  of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated. 

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Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.

“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”

Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.

Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.

“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.

Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.


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