Australia flanker Hooper cited for shoulder charge

“World Rugby is investigating an alleged breach by the England coaching team of the match-day communications protocol between match officials and team members or union officials”, said a World Rugby statement.

No names have been released, nor has the nature of the conversation, although England trailed 17-3 at the interval following a half in which their scrum had struggled, while Wallabies openside Michael Hooper has escaped punishment for a shoulder charge on Mike Brown. The bad news kept coming for England on Monday, with the team dropping to No. 8 in the world rankings – matching its lowest-ever position.

England No. 8 Billy Vunipola took to Twitter late Sunday to deny stories that said he questioned the selection of rugby league convert Sam Burgess and inferred that Andy Farrell, an assistant to coach Stuart Lancaster, had a dominant influence in the coaching set-up. Media reports have suggested that there is CCTV footage from the tunnel where the alleged incident took place.

Jones, who coached Australia to the 2003 World Cup final and was an advisor to South Africa when they won the tournament in 2007, criticised the dumping of George Ford for Owen Farrell in the key No10 jersey for the second match against Wales. “Not that anyone believed us, but we kept telling people how hard we worked”, Gatland added.

“It’s not the sort of job I’ll go out chasing, but I’d certainly chat to them if they thought I was the right man for the role”. The mobile network said it was here “here for the ups and the downs” and hailed the success of the Wear the Rose campaign, which has generated “5 million acts of support” since it launched in February 2015.

“A player was in a selection meeting now?” Ultimately Stuart makes the call and we all buy into that.

The RFU chief executive, Ian Ritchie, has said there would be no knee-jerk decisions over Lancaster’s future.

“You have got to put things into perspective”. The then Irish head coach signed a long term deal before the World Cup, which resulted in Ireland exiting the competition at the pool stage.

“When you lose a player it never helps”.

They’ve also been hammered by injuries, but keen to ward off any faint sniff of complacency in his camp, Cheika will turn to his mind game handbook and paint Wales this week as a tight, cornered unit led by a “master coach” in Gatland.

“I know when selectors picked the squad they would’ve gone through every scenario of guys being injured, suspended, coming in and out of the squad”.