The RFU has named the five man panel that will conduct the review into England’s disastrous World Cup campaign.
The full panel is as follows:
– Ian Ritchie, RFU CEO and Panel Chairman
– Ian Metcalfe (Professional Game Board Chairman)
– Ben Kay MBE – (former England International & World Cup Winner)
– Ian Watmore (ER2015 Board member, former Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office, former FA CEO and former Accenture Managing Director)
– Sir Ian McGeechan OBE (former British & Irish Lions and Scotland Coach)
Unconfirmed rumours suggest Ben Kay was called up after the RFU decided they needed someone who isn’t called Ian.
The panel’s remit is as follows:
– To review the preparations for and performances in the Rugby World Cup.
– To review the effectiveness of the coaching, management and support team.
– To consider all feedback given by relevant stakeholders.
RFU CEO Ian Ritchie said: “While the RFU will be focussing on continuing to deliver a fantastic tournament over the next two weeks, it is hugely disappointing not to have progressed through to the knockout stages.
“With that in mind, we have begun to review the senior team’s campaign to ensure that we learn and improve from this experience in order to be consistently successful. There will be extensive input from players, coaches and management staff, as well as an external perspective gathered. The details of this feedback will remain confidential, with recommendations then made to the RFU Board.”
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
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Of all the World Cup Winners, they choose the one who dropped the ball on his way to the try line?! Says it all really.
Yes, because that’s the only thing he did in his entire England career.
I was being sarcastic Geat,didn’t mean it as a personal slight against Kay.
Did anyone hear WHITEWASH?
So 2 of the panel directly involved/ responsible for picking SL (Geech and Ritchie ) no conflict there.
One was responsible for picking Ritchie who in turn picked SL, partial conflict there.
And finally they pick a member who was a team mate with 3 members of the coaching panel (Rowntree with Tigers and England: Catt and Farrell with England). Now I know the team mate angle would apply to most of the WC winners (except for SCW of course), but in Kay that have picked the only high profile figure who has been most supportive of SL.
Shall we move on now? I see 3 options, in order of liklihood:
1) No changes to the set up. England unlucky to be in tough group, young side will get better and some meaningless bile about culture.
2) SL retained, new support staff. SL’s already tarnished image (after leaving the likes of Ford and Robshaw to carry the can, non selection of Slade/ Burrell etc ) goes even lower as he is tacitly seen to shift the blame from him to his coaches.
3) New head coach brought in. Most likely someone least qualified to do the job. Maybe White, or someone like Callard or Grayson.
I too feel pessimistic about this, a couple of businessmen and then a few Lancaster supporters.
I’m not pro witch hunt for the sake of it but a review is needed and surely this needed to be done by impartial people outside of the current failings.
Falling that they should have implemented an extra man policy, whose role is to disagree with whatever the others say and try to prove the opposite.
This was a chance for positive change but instead it looks like it will be an exercise in shifting the blame.
I’m a little worried for robshaw- regardless of my thoughts on him- I can see the blame being shifted to him for his decision against Wales, everyone else stays but he gets hung out to dry
What about………………………
Matthew Hopkin as Witchfinder General?
Tomás de Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor in Chief?
Sebastián de Olmedo as official report writer and minute taker?
Confess…..confess and all the pain will end???
Why not employ Alex C++tbutt as a neutered ARSE-ESER to give a rank outsider’s opinion?
He needs a new challenge and will almost certainly need another job/income from somewhere very soon.
Cuthbert is a very wealthy man after “operation inside job” derailed Wales’ RWC campaign. It was clever of the RFU to arrange his brace v England in 2013 to win the hearts of the Welsh people (critical to the plan as how else would they trust a Gloucester man who almost became a professional showjumper?), and then he slowly started to introduce clangers than had a big impact in Wales’ matches, culminating in the one that sealed their exit.
Totally unfair. No pro athlete ever deliberately makes mistakes and the fact that his form has been poor is no reason to abuse him. He is only human like the rest of us.
I was replying in kind to a tongue-in-cheek comment.
If I said what I really think I’d be banned from this site permanently.
Interestingly ,Dallaglio and Ben Clarke have thrown their hats into the SCW ring so it’s no surprise they are not on this particular bandwagon.
Having watched the events of the weekend,I was reminded of Teflon Rob’s comment that this Wc was four years too soon but come 2019 we would be bang on course for lifting the WWE trophy again.
Well Rob,my old mate, If we fanny around like we have done since 03,talking a lot but saying nothing,fiddling while English rugby crashes and burns then four years from now we will in effect be eight years behind teams like Argentina who played rugby from a different planet to the dross SL has served up. England aren’t running to standstill,they are walking and hoping to catch up.
Perm any one from the four suggestions made by Benjit.
I’m off for a lie down.
** SORRY,three suggestions!
It is core to this whole bloody mess Ritchie’s role should be scrutinised.By seizing the Chair he’s made sure his job is safe and Stu started his job retention campaign 4 days after the Oz humiliation.As for Ben Kay a tv pundit??Why not Barnsey who’s been at it longer!These people have no idea of what needs to be done.This is a damage limitation exercise and an insult to those who understand this is a crisis.Currently 10th in the world.Stu’s goal was 2nd this year.I remain deeply angry.If SL keeps his job I will not visit hq again or spend another penny with rfu.
Sadly I think they may keep SL with some nonsense about learning from mistakes and culture. Followed by something about this young team growing over the next 4 years.
Really hope I’m wrong.
I supported SL for much of his reign, and genuinely thought we were going in the right direction. But when it mattered most, he reverted to type and picked defensively – which knocked us out the WC.
As a Welshman I fully approve of this panel. I foresee the following outcomes
– A new head of HR
– A new quinoa supplier
– A change from Garibaldi’s to Bourbon’s in the committee rooms.
– A pat on the back for SL and lots of references to how one coach once won the world cup after being given a second chance in totally different circumstances
– A pay rise for Rob Andrews
And here in Brighty’s glib and possibly tongue in cheek comment is the nub of the issue in the NH. We’re happy for domestic success to come due to the weaknesses of our opponents. A weak England and France is great for Irish and Welsh hopes in the 6n. They then fail to understand why this doesn’t translate into consistently successful AIs or summer tours. The injustice, the poor luck or the injuries they wail, when in fact if the 6n was packed with quality teams they would be more successful on the world stage.
It’s the same in the Aviva Premiership. English clubs are happy to pick big lumbering packs to milk penalties and then wail at the injustice of the salary cap as a reason for failing in Europe (and conveniently ignoring recent Irish successes).
This beggar thy neighbour attitude is all that is wrong with NH. And I freely admit I am as guilty of it as anyone, so this isn’t a dig at Brighty or anyone else, just a depressing realisation that things will not improve for any of us, until we start appreciating the bigger picture.
Fair comment Benjit. You are right, it was meant to be tongue in cheek but you are also right it has more behind it.
If you dig behind a lot of the “hey, isn’t it great England suck at rugby coaching” jokes/jibes from the Welsh you’ll find a sort of back handed compliment – imagine what it could be like if England get this right. The richest rugby union in the world, with the most players, suddenly aligned to a coaching and development regime that rivals NZ. Terrifying for the game in Wales if I’m honest – because what happened the last time England got it together was bad for Wales. Instead of this spurring the other countries on (it did somewhat) being the main outcome, the actual outcome was the threat to leave the six nations (as there wasn’t enough competition in it), the attempt to make Eng v Fra the permanent final fixture (as it was always the decider anyway), the haggling over TV money splits (Eng/Fra are the real quality and the real draw so why an equal split of money?( and the constant attempts to make the AIs into England’s real championship that year, perhaps play dev teams in the 6Ns. All of these would confine the rest of us to financial oblivion as we need a strong 6Ns to stay alive. So until England show a solid commitment to growing/sustaining the European game rather than chasing the pound above all else we’ll need to ensure they stay within reach.
I’ll also take your “weak” England with a pinch of salt or we’ll be back into “it was a weak 6Ns” argument. England are strong enough, and were in this years 6Ns, to provide stern comp. However, that was with a side that SL didn’t actually want to pick when the chips were down.
The chips weren’t even down, we’d just got a TBP v Fiji. Lancaster (or Farrell if you believe the rumours) bottled it.
Which is further why if he keeps his job it’s a joke. And if he gets moved to some senior position it’s just moving the deckchairs around and hamstringing a new man before he even starts. The only sensible outcome is a new coach and he appoints his own team. Wales did it after 07 – it can be done when targets are missed so badly. It’s not being nasty to SL, it’s just the way the job works.
“because what happened the last time England got it together was bad for Wales”
For me I don’t see the correlation. Wales weren’t bad because England were good, Wales were bad because of poor administration. Now I know it’s not perfect now but you have a great coaching set up and if England were anywhere near their potential, sure you might have fewer championships, but you’d still be contenders, winners for sure (albeit less often) but more importantly standards would he raised and we would better compete with the SH.
Maybe I’ve had an epiphany but Argentina’s progress has really opened my eyes. Compare their development to Italy’s.
Really appreciate your response though. Was worried it might trigger a negative reaction, which wasn’t my intent. I really feel change needs to happen, across the board for all our sakes.
I’m with Harlequin.This bullshit never seems to end and I won’t be putting any of my money or support the RFU’s way.We are nearing crisis point and all we get is this.
I’ve just been reminded Sir Ian has already clearly expressed the view in the Telegraph as a journo that SL and the coaches should be retained.So he already has decided how he will vote before he has heard the evidence.I cannot get my head around what a bloody farce the rfu is.You couldn’t make it up.The world are pissing themselves with laughter
I think Ben Kay is a good choice.
He doesn’t hold back and will speak his mind.
Him and I had a review of the 2011 campaign whilst going for a slash at Welford Road, the day England went out.
The obvious solution is to move SL upstairs in a development post. Bring in an overseas head coach (if anybody is prepared to take the job). As for the team of coaches really is time for a change. I would like to see Dean Richards have a role with the forwards. Expect no changes.
depressing beyond belief! am I the only one here who thinks that Geech has lost his marbles with the tripe he spouts on the DT? his twinkly eyed approval of the worst midfield ever against Wales for example? saying how shrewd it was and how great it would be to have cement head and feet Barritt defending the wide channels! recently, he said that they were all great coaches and should be retained and it kind of beggars belief that someone who made those remarks is on the review panel. plus, he was part of the group who put SL there in the first place. whitest of whitewashes now in action…..
WTF!
Firstly, we are hosting a RWC and therefore currently stewards of the global game. There should not be any announcements of review, panels, post mortems until the competition is over. I find this quite disrespectful to the 4 excellent and worthy teams that remain.
Secondly, the remit. What this actually translates as “if we look hard enough we will find some semi-plausible excuses that demonstrate we did everything right, but were just a bit unlucky”.
Seriously, the only question that should be asked is “is our coaching setup one of the top 5 in world rugby?”, answer clearly no (I don’t think it’s a stretch to say you could find at least 50 more experienced and qualified candidates than Lancaster). We need a new coaching setup, fix that first then let the new team conduct a review to get the learning points.
I had a lot of respect for Ritchie in his handling of the ERC RCC farce, but all this bullsh*t now is shuffling deck chairs on the titanic and not facing up to the fundamental question of are they good enough and who put them there in the first place ….
Perhaps a campaign to balance the makeup of the panel is what is required – bring in Dean Ryan for example who is quite critical of the current failings.
Banners of dissent at the RWC type of thing but that would just take the shine off a fabulous RWC. It might embarrass the RFU though.
Of the NH teams only Scotland can really be proud at this RWC, written off & coming so close to the SF so how have they managed their improvement, what is their set up ?
Instead of looking at our failings go and look at what works and replicate
If one thing comes out from this, can it be that we never hear the phrase “credit in the bank” when it.comes to squad selection? Particularly when someone like Burrell had plenty, yet was overlooked!
Perhaps one of us could start a petition asking the RFU to select a review panel which is truly independent of the Lancaster regime and those that chose it. I for one would sign it. Judged by the strength of feeling expressed, I think thousands of other England rugby fans would sign it too. Surely the RFU would have to listen?
You are asked to sit on a panel to look at any issue – first thing you do is declare any conflicts of interests. Either this wasn’t done or the RFU don’t care. Looks bad either way.