“World Rugby is investigating an alleged breach by the England coaching team of the match-day communications protocol between match officials and team members or union officials”, said a World Rugby statement.
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(Alastair Grant/AP) Australia have Michael Hooper and David Pocock in the same back-row, world champions New Zealand boast the magnificent Richie McCaw, Wales can field Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric – England have nothing in comparison.
An emotional Stuart Lancaster has revealed England’s failure in the Rugby World Cup will sit with him forever and he will never come to terms with it.
“Lessons will be learnt in a calm and thorough manner in the fullness of time, post-tournament”.
England’s Welsh nightmare last week may have caused many fans sleepless nights but Saracens centre Brad Barritt insists the chance to right those wrongs against Australia has ensured the players haven’t been down in the dumps.
“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”. Yeah, ok, that went well for us tonight. “We still have another week to go but, as I said during the week, the responsibility and accountability rests with me”.
“We knew there would be a lot of pain being in England’s backyard, and the atmosphere was outrageously loud, and that’s not an easy thing to deal with when you’re in the minority like that”.
It is Wales and Australia who will progress from the toughest group in tournament history – they meet for first place in Pool A at Twickenham on Saturday – while the hosts face an inglorious climax against Uruguay in Manchester.
“World Cup agony as England crash out of the World Cup at Twickenham”, said the headline.
That led to a stinging rebuke from Ritchie, who earlier this year said: “I don’t think that is acceptable at all. Myself and the other players, we feel we let a lot of people down today, let the country down”, Robshaw said.
“There was a period there from about the 50th to 70th minute where they came at us and we had to hold pretty strong, hold our nerve”, Giteau said. I would like to say we were in a fight to the death at the end, but we were clutching at straws.
Lancaster has a contract until 2020, but when he was asked whether he would now be considering his position he replied: “Yeah, obviously I think I’ve got to”.
“But there are a few good players in this squad and I hope the nation stays behind them”.
THE Wallabies are applying the same cautious strategy to their World Cup campaign as the one that helped them build reputation as a scrummaging force inside a year: don’t get cocky. Their integrity is not questionable and they will work together to get the best result. They also lost 28-25 to Wales.
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“We make no excuses and will take the criticism given to us. It is a decision about what is best for English rugby and what will allow us to win games”, Carling told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.
