Specifically, Kafer is making a TV mug of himself

ROD KAFER can be seen on an Australian television trailer sneering at the pain on English faces after their embarrassingly early exit from the World Cup. Anyone with a modicum of compassion would have baulked at making any capital out of their suffering.

Aided and abetted by his laugh-along Wallaby cohorts, Kafer had no compunction mocking the old commandment about respecting your opponent. Chris Robshaw considered it the cheapest of shots, not that he said so publicly.

For some while now, Kafer has been acting as a television ‘interviewer’. The word ought to be used advisedly. The former fly-half tends to do for the art of interviewing what Robbie Savage does for the English language as in the Welshman’s distressed shriek near the end of his countr y’s win over Slovakia: ‘Check your ref, watch!’

Kafer belongs to a school of interviewing so strange that he tends to avoid direct questions, preferring statements of the bleeding obvious. He doesn’t seem to have learnt much from his short-lived tenure as head coach of Saracens.

When Kafer presented himself for the obligatory post-match inter view after a home defeat at Vicarage Road, Terry Cooper, who had seen countless coaches come and go during his decades as the Press Association’s rugby correspondent, asked the first question:

“What did you think went wrong with your team today?’

Kafer: “I only answer specific questions.”

Cooper: “Specifically, what went wrong with your team today.”

The answer didn’t matter.