CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN

In the words of that famous Scouser, English rugby fans and media need to calm down and take stock before taking drastic action and sacking anyone. I have read the weekend papers and the emotion and frustration is understandable, but England need to stay focussed as they still have to play Uruguay this Saturday, and if they lose, will have to play the likes of Belgium to qualify for RWC 2019 in four years time.

The Belgium Rugby Team

There are some bizarre stories circulating as the blame game gets underway, ranging from rumours that many players disagreed with Burgess being selected ahead of Burrell, to Mike Catt criticising Cipriani in a post selection training session (why ask rejected players to be tackle bags?), to Vern Cotter of Scotland being suggested as a possible replacement for Stuart Lancaster (he did beat Japan), and some ex Scottish player's plans to slip into the Olympic Stadium to prevent the retractable seating from working (apparently his company has not been paid by stadium owners for work completed - hey chum, try Trading Standards or Small Claims, don't wreck a world event).

Clearly, the Lancaster gameplan did not work, but he had an average bunch of players (some talented but young), and an inexperienced international coaching team, to support him. Yes, he selected both, and is directly accountable, but they have to shoulder some of the burden of responsibility for losing two of their three pool games.

Okay, off the fence, time to express my feelings:

- having Farrell Sr and Jr in the squad was always going to come unstuck (Ford should have been no.1 fly half for the tournament, without the noise of his nemesis);

- not selecting overseas based players was a flawed strategy, and smacks of overbearing club interference (who don't want to lose their best players to France). Who knows whether Armitage would have had an influence on the Australia result, but it prevented England from fielding the best players available to the country, and gave their two biggest group rivals an advantage;

- for a country with the most registered professional players in the world (alongside NZ), the English system of developing them into international adult standard is not good enough. How can England field 3-4 teams at U18 level against most countries one, and then not be dominant at adult level. The problem is rooted in the continued school dominance of rugby in England, which means no adequate system of monitoring player development from school to university to club academy (private schools don't care about player welfare beyond age of 18 - why should they?). Surely, if all players had to be attached to a community club, this would provide a better support network, help them transition from Youth to Adult rugby, and prevent some from exiting the sport altogether post school. The Regional, County and School of Rugby system also needs reviewing;

- last, but not least, stop the obsession with converting rugby league players. Only such talents as Jason Robinson and Alan Tait (and he came from Union) have been a success amongst the hundreds that have tried (including Farrell Sr), so the chances of Sam Burgess excelling as an international centre (after six months) were always going to be slim. Matt Giteau and Conrad Smith have been the best two centres in world rugby over the past four years, based, not on their size, physicality or defensive abilities, but more on their understanding of the game, distribution skills and decision making,