England became the worst-performing host nation in World Cup history thanks to a record home defeat to the Wallabies, inspired by fly-half Bernard Foley.
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“From the day Lancaster came to my house and looked me in the eye and said I wouldn’t play for England because he wanted to go for a younger side, for three years since then I have been a big supporter of what he has done”.
“The past six weeks changed a few of my opinions, because for me I don’t think he picked the right selection”.
“I’m the head coach and we didn’t get out of the pool”.
“We are gutted as a team and as a coaching team to have not got the win against Australia that would have got us through to the quarter-finals”. “The responsibility and accountability lies with me”.
All that remains for England is to contest a dead rubber against Uruguay, amid what appears sure to be a flat atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium next weekend.
It was sweet payback for Australia’s scrum embarrassment at the 2007 World Cup, where England marched all over the Wallabies and bullied them out of the set-piece contest. “They gave us a really tough game”.
England will now face Uruguay at Old Trafford next Saturday, in what will prove an nearly completely futile exercise.
Lancaster and Ritchie addressed the media at a 10am briefing at the team’s Pennyhill Park base in Surrey.
But Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie said decisions could wait until after the World Cup.
Lancaster was clearly upset by the manner of England’s exit from the tournament, but he believes the future is bright given the relative inexperience of the side, even if he ends up not being in charge of it.
The simple truth is England are nowhere near as good as they thought they were.
“The score never reflected that”.
“You have to be consistent and yeah it went well tonight, but we have to do that again next week and again after that. The commitment was very good and we will improve on that going forward”.
Foley hailed the work of Australia’s back-row forwards Michael Hooper and Scott Fardy who, together with David Pocock, pillaged the ball and harried the English throughout the match.
On the eve of Sunday’s NRL decider against Brisbane, Green also revealed he has spoken to referees boss Tony Archer a couple of times to discuss a number of decisions during the finals series.
“And we scored four tries against Fiji, 22-12 up against Wales and couldn’t finish the job – so it’s a fair point”. But I wouldn’t think it would just be me. “Myself and the players feel like we have let the country down”.
Gatland had sympathy for England coach Stuart Lancaster after his team failed to qualify for the last eight.
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Lancaster dropped George Ford, England’s starting flyhalf for the past year and orchestrator of the team’s emboldened attacking game plan, for the crucial matches against Wales and Australia, and named his 18th different flyhalf-centers combination against the Wallabies.
