The knives are now out for the head coach Stuart Lancaster and his England charges – which include Bath’s George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Sam Burgess, Anthony Watson, Rob Webber and David Wilson – following the crushing disappointment of the host nation’s exit from the Rugby World Cup.
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It’s certainly been a tough week to endure if you are a passionate England supporter like me following the humiliating defeat by Australia on Saturday on top of the previous week’s reverse to Wales.
Gatland’s name has cropped up during radio phone-ins analysing what happens next with England, while Sir Clive Woodward revealed he would have tried to land the Kiwi had he become RFU director of rugby.
There were carefully chosen words on Friday as the coaches of the 12 Premiership clubs launched the new season – while being grilled about England’s World Cup failure and the possibility of succeeding Stuart Lancaster as national team coach.
Media reports said there is CCTV footage from the tunnel where the alleged incident took place.
While All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says they are keeping a few tricks in the bag for their title defense, one can’t help notice the basic mistakes and aging players’ performances costing many scoring opportunities.
“It’s been nice the number of texts and emails of support I’ve had, running into the hundreds”, he said. “We all understand the pressures of professional sport and what you have to deal with”.
“It [converting to union] was pretty challenging in my first year of playing Super Rugby, but I feel like I managed to pick up the game”, Folau said.
He said: “Yeah, obviously I think I’ve got to”.
England take on Uruguay in their final game of the tournament in Manchester tomorrow.
But Ford said he has had to shelve plans to get him more involved in the lineouts.
“We’ve drawn with South Africa and we’ve beaten every other worldwide team along the way, but you get judged on the one thing (the World Cup)”. There was a “robust” discussion in the tunnel after referee Romain Poite penalised the English scrum three times in the first half, The Times newspaper reported. “We closed that game down, and were brilliant in the last 15 minutes against England, coming from behind and showing maturity to close that game down”.
“We have been impressed with Australia so far in this competition, and we know a step up is required at Twickenham this weekend”.
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“If they were genuinely interested and they approached me, of course I would be interested”.
