Jason Robinson says it is time to draw a line under England's World Cup shambles and start again.
Former England star sick of finger-pointing fallout from World Cup
World Cup winner Jason Robinson is fed up of the continued finger-pointing from England's failings in New Zealand, and says it's time to start again at the RFU.
A
leaked report has added further humiliation to England's latest World Cup campaign, with comments slamming both players and coaches for their on and off-field exploits.
Robinson says it is time for the recriminations to stop and for the changes to start as England look to replace Martin Johnson as manager.
"We had a very disappointing World Cup campaign and we knew we had to have reviews and this has brought up all sorts of things - there's a lot of bullets flying around now," Robinson told
Sky Sports News Radio. "It is strange, players saying there's no game-plan, no vision from the coaches.
"It's just disappointing because England rugby just needs to get this sorted out, it's been going on for too long now, every other day there's something coming out about what happened out there in New Zealand and I think everyone's just fed up with it.
"We just want to move on, to get people in place who can make decisions, get a new manager in there and start to turn things around but at the moment it's just getting worse and worse."
Attitude
The attitude of senior players has been slammed by the report, while they in turn blasted the lack of coaching strategy, all of which made hard reading for Robinson, who knows so many of the individuals involved.
"I'd be very, very surprised if that was the attitude of the senior players, I know these players," he added. "And yes at the end of the day rugby is a business and they will want to make sure they get whatever they're due, but ultimately the focus must be on playing games and because England were so poor on the field it just made everything else seem so much bigger.
"As a player it's alright pointing the finger and saying the coaching methods were poor, but if players thought there was no game-plan you'd go to your senior players who would liaise with management to get that sorted out. So some of it is just pointing the finger.
"Now all this has come out, now we can move forward, people just need to be honest so that the whole system can just move forward. It's terrible for the game, I'm sick of hearing what went on in the World Cup.
"The coaches would have planned meticulously but again it's who do you point the finger at - they're talking about Lewis Moody's captainship, but you talk to the players and they love Lewis Moody so who do you believe?
"I don't think all these reports are true, I think there's a few that have been made to seem a lot bigger than they are, but decisions have to be made, so if Martin Johnson was too soft than he has to take responsibility for that. But players go out and play the game."
Performance
Robinson says the entire set-up at the RFU needs to be looked at, including Rob Andrew's position, and the time is now right to clear the decks.
"Martin Johnson's come back and decided he's not the right man for England, but unfortunately we don't know who the right man is right now and until that structure is put in at the highest level then I can't see coaches wanting to put their hand up.
"At the moment there's a lot of confusion about who's making the calls and how we move forward. I don't particularly know what Rob Andrew does, if he's the best man for the job then by all means let's get behind him and support him, but if he's not then we need to look at it.
"Just like these reports have pointed out flaws and failings in players and coaches, if there are flaws and failings higher up they need to be looked at. It's better probably to get this all out now, the game can't go any lower at the moment so it's better to get it all out now and have a clean sweep and start again in my view.
"There's lots of talk about Jim Mallinder from Northampton at the moment, he's well respected and I think he would be a good candidate for it - there are people who have put their hand up already and said I don't want it - like Graham Henry.
"Ideally for me, I'd love to see an English coach, but what we need is somebody who will move things forward. So we can all have our comments about who should come in but until we get things sorted at the very top of the RFU it's hard to put in any other pieces."
