Stuart Barnes says the RFU were made to pay for the appointment of Stuart Lancaster
Tuesday 29 December 2015 19:03, UK
Sky Sports' Stuart Barnes branded 2015 a terrible year for the RFU, but lauded a 'spectacular' World Cup.
The pundit told Sky Sports News that the RFU were made to pay for employing Stuart Lancaster, and that Chris Robshaw's poor decision-making should have been identified earlier.
Lancaster has since left his post at the RFU, and the future of Robshaw as England captain is unsure.
"It was a terrible year for the RFU because Lancaster was the wrong appointment four years ago so it is four years of failure that came home and bit them horribly in that World Cup," said Barnes. "For Lancaster it will be a terrible time because the bloke worked so hard.
"Everyone assumed that England as the hosts of the World Cup would be inspired by that, I certainly thought that would be the case.
"What happened was the exact opposite - England didn't handle the pressure."
"The reality is - good, solid international player Chris Robshaw is - he is not the sort of Richie McCaw-type captain and England had four years to work that out - they got it wrong."
Barnes says the pressure of winning forced Lancaster to employ a strategy that was different from the way England had been playing up to then.
"The nearer we got to the World Cup the stranger some of England selections became.
"We had the whole thing with Sam Burgess who hadn't done enough playing club rugby to be sent into the team.
"We had England playing a brilliant brand of rugby in the Six Nations - brave, exciting and then suddenly they tightened up in the World Cup.
"This was a young team and they had to forge a way to play the game and when it came to the crunch against Wales they actually turned away from what they had been doing in the last year and a half and they had no chance.
"The Australia game was almost a coup de gras and it was very sad.
"We all say what a terrible World Cup... for England, yes but for Rugby Union it was spectacular. Despite the hosts' demise."
During England's pool match against Wales in the World Cup, the hosts were awarded a penalty late in the game. Instead of asking Owen Farrell to kick for goal to try draw the match, captain Chris Robshaw opted for a lineout to attempt to win the game.
At the ensuing set piece, however, the forwards were driven out with the ball and Wales held out for the win.
It was a decision that haunted England as they crashed out of the World Cup, but Barnes says it was not the first time decision-making had cost England.
"Chris Robshaw did have a history of making the big calls wrong; when he should have gone for goal he went for touch, when he should have gone for touch he went for goal. He was doing that in autumn internationals a couple of years earlier.
"We came to the moment against Wales when a draw would have been enough to give England the very good chance of going through because Australia were so good and Robshaw has recently admitted he got it wrong.
"Unfortunately, neither Robshaw nor the management were set up to make the right decisions.
"The reality is - good, solid international player Chris Robshaw is - he is not the sort of Richie McCaw-type captain and England had four years to work that out - they got it wrong."
The former England fly-half is convinced the RFU have made the right decision to appoint Eddie Jones as England's new head coach.
"Eddie Jones has so much experience - that's going to help England because this team never felt like an experienced team because it wasn't an experienced management team.
"Eddie Jones is extremely shrewd. He managed Australia one way when he got a team that was underpowered against England to the World Cup final in 2003.
"He managed Japan in a completely different radical way. He knew Japan could not beat South Africa by playing orthodox rugby - they spent four months preparing to beat South Africa by playing a different way. They played fast, their scrum was different, and their line-out was different.
"He understood what he had and he built a team around it and I think he'll do the same with England but it will be a very different Eddie Jones and different team because, unlike Japan, England are potentially a massive team and he will use that."
"He will take the pragmatic things out of the England game and then he will try to add the magic of Anthony Watson and just get a little more out of them that way.
"I'm pretty optimistic; Jones did wonders for Japan but he has done some brilliant things before then. England needed a really experienced coach and an ambitious man and I think in Eddie Jones they have got it."
