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.”

The selection of Erinle at inside centre guarantees that, apart from a couple of inside passes to Cueto hitting the line from fullback, the ball is going to get to 12 and no further.

To be fair, despite Geraghty at 12, in the past couple of games the ball wasn’t exactly being fired out wide but here is England’s colours nailed firmly to the flagpole.

Where are the game breakers?

We have the cutlasses but wherefore art the rapiers?

Not to mention Richie McCaw and the rest of the All Black backrow who are going to have a field day playing against three blindsides.

P.S. In light of RWC 2011, are we going to gain more from Shaw playing who will be 38 then or might giving Courteney Lawes some game time have been a more prudent forward-looking policy?

Mike popped up on our post yesterday with this comment:

I was very disappointed with all the rugby served up this weekend.
As a Welshman I’m absolutely devastated with the way our game has gone after so much hope in 2008,
but I just think it is the way the game is going today.
Teams are scared of running and so we see all this aimless kicking which is killing our game.
What do you think the future is?

Well, it’s a comfort that England are not the only guilty ones.

This is a real blot on the rugby landscape at the moment.

Sure, good tactical kicking has it’s place.

But, boy is it overused and poorly executed at the moment.

Some teams are worse than others but none more so than England.

To some extent, the now-defunct ELVs had a bad influence in further encouraging this behaviour.

But it’s time to take action.

My preferred remedy is for a scrum to be awardable to the opposition if they cleanly receive a kick on the full, valid from the 22 up to the 10 yard line or even the halfway.

Other options include:

• Extending the mark ability up to the 10 yard line or halfway
• Allowing the opposition, when cleanly taking a kick, to kick to touch and have the throw in
• A variation on the scrum solution whereby the opposition get a scrum from where the ball was kicked

But here’s the rub. We don’t want to rein in kicking completely. A huge raking touchfinder can be a thing of beauty. And no-one wants to remove the thrill of a succession of Garryowen’s raining down on opposition full-backs in a swirling wind at Lansdowne Road.

Here are some thoughts from others:

Peter Bills in the Irish Independent

Robert Kitson in the Guardian

Dave Stewart’s thoughts over at SA Rugby Referees

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.