Warren Gatland slams Rugby World Cup bosses over Pool A

Saints star Tom Wood apologised to the nation for the 33-13 defeat by Australia at Twickenham that has sent England crashing out of the World Cup at the group stage.

The future of head coach Stuart Lancaster and his assistants Andy Farrell, Graham Rowntree and Mike Catt are in grave doubt and the inquest will begin once the World Cup is over, although Ritchie refuses to outline a timescale or format for the review.

“It was a tough pool and we put ourselves in a real tough position by losing that game last week and that was a small margin and big outcome in hindsight”, Lancaster said.

The Independent on Sunday’s front page had a photo of Robshaw striding off the pitch hands on hips, with his shattered troops spread around the field, and the headline “England Regrets”.

By contrast, Australia-who softened their hardline stance before the World Cup-saw their final try on Saturday scored by Matt Giteau, a Toulon team-mate of Armitage.

Stuart Lancaster fears he will be forever bear the scars of having presided over England’s worst World Cup performance. They have an uncanny ability of peaking at the right time and Michael Cheika’s men can definitely not be discounted from lifting the trophy this time around. “The responsibility and accountability lies with me”.

As CEO, Ritchie will not be immune from criticism in the World Cup post-mortem but said this is a time for “calmness, consideration and reflection”.

The Aussies were more clinical in attack and two Bernard Foley tries in the first half gave them a 17-3 half-time lead.

Lancaster hopes the players will back him through the process, saying: “Clearly, I have invested a lot of time in one-to-one relationships with the players and I’d like to think I’ve got an open door where people can come in and tell me any problems and issues that arise”.

England can not now reach the quarter-finals, while Australia’s victory ensures they progress to the last eight, with Wales qualifying too. “We really wanted to win and to play well”.

After the shock loss to Japan at the start of the competition, South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer said the team would stay humble.

Gatland, whose first World Cup experience with Ireland ended with a shock exit in 1999, added: “If Stuart does get an opportunity to continue, this is potentially a massive moment for him as a coach and he will look back on the experiences of the World Cup and the Six Nations, where he has been so close”.

“We’ve been working hard on it. Like I said before, Mario [Ledesma, Wallabies scrum coach] has taught me that the scrum is a very humbling part of the game because you can dominate one and then get your pants pulled down in the next one if you’re not on top of your game”, Cheika explained.

Lancaster, who was elevated from his role with England’s youth teams following Martin Johnson’s exit in 2011, offered a simple response when asked what he would have done differently during the brief, failed campaign on home soil.

“It’s the Wales game that will haunt them”.

“This England team is going to have to go through a few sort of evolution so I don’t think it was perhaps the tournament (for them)”.

Gatland said knowing his team had already qualified for the next stage would allow them to “take the shackles off” when they play against the Wallabies.