No knee-jerk response to England demise, says RFU’s Ritchie

The players will be involved in an RFU review which will decide the future of Lancaster, Farrell and the rest of the England management team which will be undertaken at the end of the World Cup.

His side crashed out of the World Cup by losing 33-13 to Australia at Twickenham, making them the first World Cup hosts to fail to reach the knockout stages of the tournament.

Former England captain Will Carling, who after the Wales defeat accused Lancaster, once a teacher, of treating the players as “schoolboys”, said it was clear a coaching shake-up was required.

Lancaster said his biggest regret was not beating Wales and that maybe the England team was too young for this World Cup.

But the nature of the so-called “Pool of Death” means it could still all come down to their final match against Australia at Twickenham today week – a scenario coach Warren Gatland knows is highly probable.

Australia’s back row of David Pocock, Michael Hooper and blindside flanker Scott Fardy showed against England that they are a pretty useful outfit themselves and a battle royal at the breakdown can be expected.

Danny Cipriani also Tweeted: “Gutted for the boys, absolutely gutted – well played Australia…”

He added: “We knew the pressure was going to be there whether it was this week, next week, a quarter-final or semi-final”. We’ve spent a lot of time looking forward over the last two to three years and now we need to look at what we need to do next.

Wales play Australia in their final Pool A game on Saturday with top spot in the group up for grabs.

Lancaster, 45, has led England to four successive runner-up finishes in the Six Nations.

“All things are being considered, but I won’t be walking away for now”.

“Last week we let Wales of the hook, but today we were comprehensively beaten”.

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Lancaster has a contract until 2020, but when he was asked whether he would now be considering his position he replied: “Yeah, obviously I think I’ve got to”.

“I think they’ve been playing the wrong game for a long time”, he was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.

Lancaster, who became permanent head coach after initially taking over from Martin Johnson as interim boss following England’s poor showing at the 2011 World Cup, said his immediate focus was on Uruguay.

“Of course we both accept responsibility for what happened, but part of that responsibility is facing up to ‘What do we do to move on, how do we do that?'”, Ritchie said. Their integrity is not questionable and they will work together to get the best result.

“Once again to all of the England rugby supporters thank you for your unbelievable support to me personally and to the team”. There were times there when we really did that.