English rugby has some issues, off the pitch the administration of the game is a mess with real issues regarding leadership. On-field issues are the subject of this blog particularly a world cup campaign that never got going.
England have always had tremendous expectations in the rugby world cup, a young side was going down under, they were just starting to come into form. Exciting backs such as Chris Ashton and Ben Foden were starting to lead the back line well. The forwards were developing into a tough unit with young players such as Dan Cole and Courtney Laws combining well with the older players such as Steve Thompson and Andrew Sheridan.
What happened in New Zealand was a disaster England never performed well and expectations were dashed. As so often rugby us a simple game that starts in the forwards. England's forward effort never got going. In the first game against Argentina it could be thought that England were on the way up. However off field antics were endemic of the form on the field. I think Martin Johnson was expecting men of the calibre he played with in 2003 and all the way through his Leicester career. Men such as Neil Back, Will Greenwood and Richard Hill. Instead he got a group of children who could not understand the limits of a good behaviour. The fact that they were not willing to accept that the behaviour off the pitch was not good enough showed on the field, People were hiding on the field, when it required somebody to take a lead when times were hard nobody stepped up.
England now have a major soul searching exercise to carry out. It stars with the coach and filters down. Everybody involved with the world cup has to consider what went wrong and whether they can take an active part in fixing the situation.
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