TEARFUL MOMENT IT ALL WENT WRONG FOR LANCASTER
Centre Burrell told he was in squad, then axed as Lancaster admitted he had been outvoted Players felt parachuting in Burgess for his ‘big personality’ undermined the long-term captain Resentment at relentless pursuit of commercial by Robshaw’s singer gi
TEARS welled up in both men’s eyes as Stuart Lancaster told Luther Burrell he was out of the England squad. Little did they know this was the moment the small cracks in his squad would become fault lines which would have seismic consequences for their World Cup hopes.
Burrell could not believe what he was hearing from the coach who had thrown him a lifeline 11 years earlier when his mum, Joyce, had emailed the Leeds Academy manager complaining that her boy had been overlooked.
An ever-present in England’s Six Nations campaign, Burrell faced selection D-Day thinking he had already been told he was in the squad. Assurances from Lancaster in England’s World Cup camp earlier led the player to understand his World Cup dream was alive. He had even delayed his wedding to childhood sweetheart Millie to take part.
Then came the bombshell. Burrell was out. Sam Burgess was in. Lancaster had been outvoted by his fellow coaches and Burrell would not, after all, be part of the 31-man squad.
Nowhere to turn, the decision was final. Burrell tried to argue his case. But to no avail. A player with one cap and 10 months’ experience of playing union was in, ahead of a 27year-old with 13 caps who had dedicated his life to playing for England. Lancaster’s U-turn sent shockwaves through the squad. If he hadn’t made the call, then who had?
Last week the Mail on Sunday revealed that one anonymous player — whose identity we protected but has subsequently been named by other media outlets — described Burgess’s selection ahead of Burrell as ‘ bizarre’ while questioning defence coach Andy Farrell’s influence within the squad.
More details are emerging of tensions within the camp after they failed to qualify for the knock-out stages, with Burgess’s selection viewed as a leadership snub to captain Chris Robshaw, while the captain’s girlfriend’s relentless pursuit of commercial activities caused simmering resentment among other Wags. But that is not all.
LANCASTER’S attempt to foster a culture based around England’s national identity led one Premiership director of rugby last week to describe the campaign as ‘soulless, rudderless and uninspiring’.
The decision to pick rugby league convert Burgess ahead of Northampton’s Burrell, Gloucester’s Billy Twelvetrees and fellow cross-coder Kyle Eastmond — who spent four years cutting his teeth in union after signing from St Helens — went against Lancaster’s policy of only picking players once they had been fully integrated into the squad.
Despite strong denials, it is understood Farrell did push through Burgess’s selection with the strong support of skills coach Mike Catt.
‘Luther was absolutely devastated to be told he wasn’t in,’ said one England insider. ‘He believed every conversation he’d had with Stuart indicated he would be included. To hear Sam had been selected on the call of other coaches made it even tougher to take. Several players were shocked by the decision.’
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder, a contender to replace Lancaster, confirmed Burrell believed he would be picked.
‘Luther thought he’d done enough at Premiership and international level to justify being in the squad,’ he said. ‘To my mind Luther had done enough to be in.
‘Luther’s been to some dark places, but it’s not a surprise. To think you were going to make it, then suddenly at the very last minute to have that pulled away from you, I think we’d all feel a similar way.’
Despite refusing to invoke the ‘exceptional circumstances’ clause in the RFU’s controversial overseas player policy when it came to Toulon’s Steffon Armitage, the late decision to parachute a player with little union experience into the squad sent out a confusing message.
Eastmond, described recently by his Bath captain Stuart Hooper as ‘unquestionably the Premiership’s most dangerous attacker’ is no less frustrated at being overlooked in favour of his Bath team-mate, who wears No6 for his club. Out of contract at the end of this season, the 26-year-old is ‘seriously considering’ a return to league.
The dissection of unprecedented England failure will begin in earnest tomorrow when the man who appointed Lancaster arrives at his Twickenham office ahead of a RFU board meeting.
Ian Ritchie, the RFU chief executive many believe is just as culpable as the men he appointed, will lead a team comprising senior union figures to examine what went wrong. Unlike four years ago, the Rugby Players’ Association and Premier Rugby will not have a voice in a bid to avoid leaks.
Ritchie, who last year controversially awarded coaches Lancaster, Farrell, Catt and Graham Rowntree six-year contracts, will pick over the bones of the worst World Cup campaign in England’s history.
Lancaster, an honourable man still widely admired even by those who believe he is the wrong person for the job, is expected to resign. There is a job within the union as head of professional coach development that will soon to be vacant, due to the impending retirement of Kevin Bowring after 14 years in the job.
After four years of planning, Lancaster’s team fluffed their lines so spectacularly it is inconceivable that significant change will not occur. Ritchie indicated as much in last Sunday’s press conference the morning after their exit was confirmed by Australia’s victory.
ROBSHAW’S decision to kick for touch in the dying minutes against Wales, a decision derided by many, has become the poster case for England’s dire decision-making and flawed planning, yet the cracks undermining the house of Lancaster were evident long before.
The selection of Burgess, a popular figure within the squad whose physical attributes were evident but whose union education has barely begun, also undermined the captain’s standing.
‘There was this huge play made of Sam’s character and leadership qualities but why did we need those if our captain was bossing things?’ one source said. Burgess is understood to have irked some players by taking to the microphone after a high-altitude training session in Denver to tell the rest of the squad they needed to work even harder in training.
‘A few lads weren’t especially impressed by Sam telling them how to train,’ added the source.
‘They were already international players so they know how to look after themselves. Sam’s a top bloke but he went too far.’
The judgment of Lancaster’s coaching team will also be examined by Ritchie and his review panel, with Catt’s position vulnerable following the training ground bust-up with Danny Cipriani which saw the coach tell the player: ‘I will end your career’ hours after the fly-half had been told he was not in the squad.
Catt’s outburst did not impress senior players, who sided with Cipriani. Catt later apologised but the incident left a bitter taste.
Catt also denied walking out of a selection meeting ahead of England’s defeat by Australia while Farrell and Rowntree were banned from the dressing room for yester-
day’ s game against Uruguay after breaching protocols by approaching French referee Romain Poite last week. It was not just the players who lacked discipline.
The review panel are also expected to examine the substitution policy, the disintegration of their scrum and line-out following Dylan Hartley’s omission on disciplinary grounds and accusations of bias towards Farrell’s son Owen, who was picked against Wales ahead of incumbent No10 George Ford.
The decision not to select Exeter playmaker Henry Slade even as a bench replacement will be examined, as will the omission of Dylan Hartley and Manu Tuilagi on disciplinary grounds.
Lancaster’s attempts to reconnect with disenchanted fans after his appointment in 2011 through a concerted PR and marketing campaign designed to reinvent a notion of national identity has also been called into question. ‘The RFU knew what they were getting when they appointed Stuart,’ one senior Premiership director of rugby said this week.
‘He is a very nice, relatively uninspiring bloke. What good is all the marketing stuff when your team hasn’t got any fight or soul? He refused to pick blokes with a bit of edge but everyone knows you don’t win matches without having a bunch of ***** in your team.
‘Australia picked their best players. England just played it safe and put presentation first. They got badly burned as a result. The performances were soulless, rudderless and uninspiring.’
Robshaw’s position as leader was further undermined by the antics of his girlfriend, opera singer Camilla Kerslake, whose attempts to make commercial gain from her association with the team irritated other players’ wives and girlfriends.
The release of her first single ‘Come Home’ — a play on ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ — the day after the World Cup began was seen by many as a particularly cynical ploy.