From http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/8391643.stm:

Andrew said there were widespread worries in the game
Rob Andrew has warned fans could be turned off by the way the laws of the game are being interpreted.

The Rugby Football Union’s director of elite rugby believes the way the laws are being applied is reducing entertainment for spectators.

Is he having a laugh?

The way the England teams is being coached is reducing entertainment. FULL STOP.

Sure, the law should take some blame but it’s not the be all and end all.

Other teams have managed to play attractive rugby at times recently.

Is this England’s only excuse for the tripe regularly served up?

England could finish anywhere.

With a whole big pot of luck, they could win it.

With an average run of luck and injuries, they could finish somewhere between third and fifth.

With a poor run, they could conceivably finish last.

Wales, Ireland and France have all got to be favourites in their clashes against England, regardless of location – on recent form, they have to be.

The Scots are almost resurgent under Andy Robinson – a man who knows all too well the stale England gameplan and the inept team of coaches.

Even Italy are a team who must surely one day claim the scalp of this once great team.

Three or four defeats out of five is by no means out of the question.

After his review with the delusional Rob Andew, the BBC reports what can only be a lack of either honesty or judgement from the England hierarchy.

The former England fly-half claimed that Martin Johnson's side were far better than the one "hammered" 28-14 by Australia and 32-6 against New Zealand a year ago.

Was he watching the same games? For us, the trio of autumn internationals at best revisited the depths plumbed in previous autumns for the past three or four years.

Whilst the majority of the media leapt upon the fact that, against NZ, Jonny Wilkinson made a couple of crappy runs rather than even crappier kicks, the more balanced view from Joe Rugby Public was that the horrid day had taken brought more of a balance to this uneven match.

Even that previous stalwart of judgement and honesty Martin Johnson has erred badly under pressure:

Johnson, England’s 2003 World Cup-winning captain, has hit out at the “almost hysterical” criticism of his team and coaches John Wells and Mike Ford.

We think, after four years of stagnation and rising ticket prices in the face of declining quality, the public has every right to be hysterical while a succession of talented seconds-in-command of failed to deliver under pressure whilst the same backroom boys continue to steer a ship towards the abyss, totally neglectful in their ability to provide a framework for success.

In our opinion, the public and the media have been very restrained and remarkably analytical in their reaction to the continued lack of both entertainment and results, identifying Wells, Ford and Callard as the most likely architects of doom in conjunction with the abysmal law changes.

Johnson was elected for honesty but he has been tarnished by the in situ hierarchy above and below.

Rob Andrew must go. We are sick to death of this non-entity with his glib, valueless delusions and his utter lack of impact and judgement.

Ian McGeechan is the man who must be installed as hands-on head coach to bring the enjoyment back to the English game with Martin Johnson to continue in the MANAGER role in which he was appointed.

Only Clive Woodward has the strength of character to step into the Andrew role and bring a new broom to this tired and stale institution and implement the fresh ideas that McGeechan will bring.

Lukewarm on the heels of the famously delusional England head coach Andy Robinson (a la England cricket coach David “we flippin’ murdered ‘em” Lloyd), Rob Andrew is the latest to fall into a delusion, this time of alleged improvement and competitiveness.

"We have closed the gap considerably when you look at what happened last autumn, when we were outplayed in both games against them," he said.

Hmmmm. Maybe.

Or….

Maybe it was a combination of a) law changes and b) bad weather.

Thanks for coming in Rob.

Just reading Ian McGeechan’s autobiography Lion Man.

I recommend it.

McGeechan is so renowed for his coaching that it’s easy to overlook what a good player he was (and he stopped playing before I can remember watching much rugby).

However, there’s one passage where he describes his coaching philosphy:

"I believe that when you put new players in or a relatively new team together, you've got to be pretty direct in your coaching; you have to give them a framework, and a thinking and an understanding, because if you haven't got one mind, and one overall idea of what you are trying to do, that's when you fall between two stools. Once you've got that base right, once you've got all the basics, you can do anything; you can mix and match and that's where the decision-making and the talent shows, and then bring the best out of each other... 

And when all else fails, what's the plan? Go forward, and win the contact. If you do that, you will probably win."

Now how relevant is that to the past six years of England rugby?

As Graham says, it should be coaching bread and butter (shame Graham doesn’t write more articles for the blog).

The pressure on the England coaching regime is getting serious. England legend Josh Lewsey has waded in with a scathing attack to match his famous Matt Rogers tackle: “Mike Ford didn’t win anything, while John Wells never played international rugby. Wells’s achievements as a coach are terrible – what justifies these people keeping their jobs?”
What indeed. The coaches meanwhile have hit back. Brian Smith says there is no problem between his ideas and those of John Wells: “We’re a united ship on a common path. There are no issues there whatsoever.”
Really Brian? You sound like a bit like the lookout on the Titanic. Jonno must shoulder a lot of the blame for this worsening fiasco. He agreed to this coaching team. Meanwhile, supremo Rob Andrew is silent, although apparently he will be holding another of his famous reviews at the end of this misguided campaign. Watch out Jonno, the head man might be expendable but the trusty Lieutenents are bullet proof!

After the latest team announcement, all I now need is for the RFU to sell the naming rights to Twickenham and my misery will be complete.

“And a warm welcome this afternoon to the Nike Rugby @ Twickenham Stadium to watch England vs the All Blacks.”

I really enjoyed the game on Saturday.

Why?

Because my money was on Argentina. With the weather forecast looming and knowledge of England’s poor out of hand kicking, I viewed the 5/1 on offer as fair game and well it proved. I laid off mid-game at 5/2, job done.

And thank goodness because without the added financial incentive, the game was utterly depressing from an England perspective.

Matt and I were at the game three years ago when we lost to Argentina at Twickenham under the gloom of the Andy Robinson years. Gloom that was perceived then as short-lived. However, except for a brief run in the RWC 2007 (very brief, mind, who can forget the depths of the pool games), this England team have gone nowhere, done nothing.

The list of complaints continues. It’s tempting not to reiterate as they’ve nearly all been said before but:

• Where’s the joy and spirit which should come with pulling on the white jersey?
• Where’s the white jersey?
• The continued poor kicking out of hand?
• Whither the rolling maul?
• On-field leadership?
• Steve Borthwick?
• Louis Deacon?
• All forwards other than Lewis Moody?
• The backs?
• Wings playing full-back?
• Quick ball?
• Playing the game as you see it?
• Looking to the bench for instructions? WTF?
• Do they practice any backs moves?
• Ford?
• Wells?
• Callard?
• Rowntree?

There is something rotten in the state of English rugby.

How hasty have we been with the likes of Ashton and Robinson? Good second-in-commands who should not have stepped up to the position of first receiver. (How ironic would it be for Andy Robinson’s Scotland to claim an English scalp in the coming Six Nations?)

No-one doubts having Martin Johnson in the picture, but he should not be head coach. We called for the heads of the two above, we called for MJ to be installed. A man who would cut to the chase. Are his hands tied? Does he know what is wrong?

We now call for action again.

The three amigos have to go – Ford, Wells & Callard. Maybe more.

Again, we have to ask the question where does Rob Andrew fit into all this? We question the whole hierarchy. The entire RFU.

If their role is to create a conveyor belt of young talent, what good if the conveyor belt dumps them into the pit of joylessness which seems to be international rugby with England.

This has to stop or an entire generation will be lost.

For the first 10 minutes of yesterday’s match, it was as if we had been set into a time machine, back six years. Here was Jonny Wilkinson, dropping a goal, kicking a penalty, ticking the scoreboard over, giving England an early lead, a lead from which they would press on and suffocate the opposition. But then, Jonny lined up a long range penalty from over halfway. This for 9-0. It sets sail, its on target! It hits the post. It misses. Suddenly, the spell is broken. We wake up. Australia wake up. They realise they are not playing England of 2003, but of 2009. Safe in that knowledge, they go down the field and score a try. They then dominate the entire second half and win comfortably, despite blowing at least three “open goal” try chances. And we England fans are left to scratch our heads and wonder just what the result means, and just where it leaves us. Was it a reasonable effort from a hastily assembled side and something to build on? Or was it a muddled catastrophe to rank alongside something from the Andy Robinson era? At first I thought it the former, but after watching the match again, I am leaning towards the latter.
Aside from the first 15 minutes, when England ruled the lineout, bossed the breakdown and had something like 65% possession, it was all Australia. England’s front five faded visibly with every minute the match went on, and hence there was no platform for the backs. If not for the heroic tackling of Moody and Wilkinson, the score would have been embarrassing.
England looked absolutely impotent in attack. Not once did we look like scoring a try. Not once. Australia on the other hand looked like arch wizards every time they had ball in hand.
Shane Geraghty had a shocking match. I think he deserves another go but I am now starting to fear that he is cut from the same cloth as Charlie Hodgson and that the biggest stage is a step too far for him. Matt Banahan looked totally lost and was unable to impose his size on proceedings, one tap back from a cross kick apart, and Ugo Monye had one of those games that make you think that maybe he is just someone very fit and very fast, but not actually any good at rugby.
Perhaps it is unfair to be harsh on these guys though, when in truth they had almost no quality ball to work with. The lack of snap and continuity from the forwards just heightens the doubts about John Wells as forwards coach. These doubts are now starting to be raised ever more loudly in the press, and for the first time, a major journalist has said that Martin Johnson should go. Over the top criticism? Maybe, but it is nothing compared to what will happen if England lose to the Pumas next week then ship another 30-40 points to the All Blacks the week after that. It is as if Andy Robinson/Brian Ashton had never left. Players have come and gone, Jonno might find to his cost that head coaches have as well, but somehow the Mike Ford/John Wells duo survive.
Perhaps we just have to accept what England are, a second division team fuelled by past glories to unrealistic expectations. And yet is it unrealistic to expect progress and competitiveness from the best funded team on the planet? There lies the problem for Jonno and the mysterious Rob Andrew. All the plans of the EPS, the acadamies, the long form agreement, mean nothing if the end result is clueless defeat like yesterday.

Very rarely do newspaper articles about rugby make me angry, there are after all far more important things in life to worry about, but this little beauty had me tutting and chuntering like a middle Englander reading a Daily Mail editorial.

Rob Andrew rejected the view that supporters were disenchanted following the calamitous sequence of results over the past three weeks

Reading this I wondered if Rob Andrew had taken some kind of powerful hallucinogen or had transmogrified into Walter Mitty or perhaps had taken PR lessons from Comical Ali.

If it was not so appalling it would be funny. If that is what the man really believes then England are in deeper trouble than the already deep trouble that the Autumn series suggested. Firstly his comments are an affront to the intelligence of England fans. Secondly, they are untrue.

Rob Andrew is on thin ice with most England fans as it is.  Let’s not forget he has presided over the Andy Robinson fiasco, the shameful Brian Ashton hiring and firing and now an all time record home defeat. He might be more slippery than a new Teflon pan from Mattalan, but sooner or later some doodoo is going to stick to this man. His reputed salary of £400K grates even more during the current economic climate at a time when the average fan has to wonder whether 80 quid for a top whack ticket and 4 quid for an insipid lager is really value to watch a rubbish team get spanked in a soulless new concrete block of a stadium.

My advice to England fans who do not agree with Mr. Andrew would be to boycott buying tickets to the forthcoming Six Nations matches. I intend to. And I am someone who has supported and travelled to watch England through thick and thin for the best part of 30 years.