English Rugby Has ‘Hit an All Time Low’

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Thomas Rooney

There has been a lot of recent confusion and turmoil for the English rugby team.

After the abysmal Rugby World Cup campaign, English rugby has hit ‘rock bottom’ according to the Rugby Football Union’s elite rugby director Rob Andrew.

Not only did England get knocked out at the quarter-final stage, but there were issues with player behaviour too, something which has been highlighted once again by leaked documents.

Those over at rugbyboots.net note how a confidential report – reviewing the team’s performances and general World Cup campaign – fell into the hands of a newspaper this week and has now been published for the world to see.

It has been a very embarrassing couple of days for English rugby, with the coaching staff and players receiving criticism for their role in a poor campaign in South Africa.

Describing the fall-out, Andrew said: “I am absolutely shattered by what is going on both on and off the field.”

“The RFU has to sort itself out. This is rock bottom, the lowest of the low, and it can’t be allowed to continue.”

“The reality of my job is that I’m not the England team manager. I’m the elite rugby director and I run a big department.”

“But I absolutely accept responsibility for what is going on here. Does it mean I’m going to resign? No I’m not. Does it mean it’s all broken? No it doesn’t.”

“I am part of the RFU and people have to judge the department on how it is being run. The [RFU management] board will judge me.”

“There are some big decisions to make over the next few weeks. We need a new chief executive, and a new head coach.”

Part of the leaked information was direct criticism to England attack coach Brian Smith, who has since resigned. There were also suggestions that players were more concerned about the money they were making than the performances on the pitch.

Overall it has been a dark few days in the history of English Rugby Union and things must improve now that the reputation of the sport has been given a significant hit.

England need to re-group, get a new manager in place and get a few fresh faces into the playing squad too. Then, they might be in some position to compete in the Six Nations next year.