"Well, Eddie, as I see it Burgess should have tried a little chip over the top in the second stanza against Wales"

"Well Sam isn't to blame for the loss against Wales. It's because the coach didn't get the message out not to give away any silly penalties!"

The majority of this fiasco is down to Lancaster. It baffles me how he got the England job in the first place.
He had virtually no experience of coaching at the highest level.
England's only hope is to appoint Woodward as director of rugby, he will select a coaching team that should do justice to what seems a decent squad of players.

Perhaps my use of Eddie & Stevo as "experts" was a little overstretching it!

"My wife will be furious when I get back to the sheds at half time"

Well they need to do something, if exiting their own Workd Cup at the group stage doesn't kick them up he backside nothing will.

Woodward is right, they are arrogant. They've gone along living off that success in 2003. Hell since then they've only won 1 of the next 12 Six Nations, that's pitiful for a team that is hyped like it is. Wales and France have won 4 each in that time and Ireland 3, all managing at least one or more Grand Slams in that time. In comparison England won 3 of the previous 4 Six Nations tournaments before that 2003 WC win.

They got battered by South Africa in the group stages of the 2007 WC and somehow by hook or by crook they dragged themselves into the final and it papered over the cracks. The 2011 WC was a disaster both on and off the field and they promised change yet when they got to 2015 they produced more embarrassment both on and off the field.

Their campaign and current status is very much similar to the cricketers. Both entered a World Cup in 2015, both were shown up to be playing an old school outdated style of the game that looked even more ridiclous compared to the attacking exciting style of its opposition. Questionable selection calls and a coach who whilst bigged up was massively lacking come crunch time.

One thing that doesn't add up in this for me.

It's being reported that Burgess is marrying his fiancée in Sydney next month. Has anybody seen Bath's fixture list for December, big Premiership games, huge European games. And this was a guy who wanted to force his way into the 6 Nations squad as a forward. How they hell would arranging a wedding on the other side of the world during your club sides trickiest period tie in with someone who saw his future in RU post World Cup, whatever the outcome of that tournament? Was he ever really going to stick around?

nope. He stole the headlines and took a nice year out while playing in the WC which i believed all along when he went, and still do, he was assured of playing some part in. He goes back to South Sydney in no worse a position he left 12 months ago, and can always say he gave the other code crack and played in a huge home WC. He still has his prime years ahead of him and his bank balance is unaffected.Win-Win Sam Burgess, RFU well and truly duped. It's hilarious, good for him i say

I do not think his role or style is to pass on rumours or hearsay before things were resolved, that is for places like this forum. Now that Burgess has left he can share some of his information with us which IMO makes this source more credible.

While I would suggest quite the opposite. (see above)

His role is in the media, exactly the role that he'd mention the rumour if he believed in it. Media guys don't sit on a story for 3 weeks.

Like I said on another thread the RFU were so focussed on the "brand" they forgot the primary objective was to win big rugby games.
Giving Lancaster a 4 year extension to his contract before the WC was even more self congratulatory. Nothing wrong here, all how we like it.
And still if that hopeless decision maker of a captain had let Owen Farrell kick that last penalty against Wales then a draw would have seen England through the group stage and we would have been faced with Lancaster and Farrell to prepare us for the next WC in Japan.

The whole house of cards on the field is built on the foundation of a captain who gets to be captain because he's a jolly good bloke and plays for the right club.

Robshaw is maybe the third best English open-side at a push, certainly behind Steffon Armitage and Matt Kvesic. How can he be expected to lead a team, most of whom are smart enough to know that he's lucky to even be in the XV to start with?

If they'd beaten Wales then they may have been crowned as world beaters and Burgess may still have been at Bath.

No Chance. They were never going to beat South Africa - New Zealand - Australia

They should have made the quarters mind, but that would likely still have been end of the road.

Ironically if you watched Robshaw in his earlier years at Quins he was a great ball handler and offloader. When Quins and Saracens were competing for the title they were total opposites in style, Quins threw the ball around and played fast and off the cuff, Saracens had Farrell punting the ball in the air to kick and chase and played tight, forward based rugby. Effective at times but utterly boring to watch. Sound familiar ?