Burgess out of England’s last World Cup game

While England finalise preparations for a dead-rubber game against Uruguay in Manchester on Saturday night, Wales know that victory over Australia – a feat they last managed in 2008 – would secure a quarter-final against Scotland or Japan.

Rebuilding morale in the battered and bruised England World Cup squad has been a hard battle, their beleaguered coach Stuart Lancaster said Thursday.

White was convinced that England needed a coach with experience of leading teams in test rugby.

Yet if Chris Robshaw had opted for a shot at goal, and Owen Farrell had landed it, to secure a draw with Wales instead of a 28-25 defeat two weeks ago, England might still have been alive and kicking in the group of death even after being well beaten by Australia.

“Results define coaching success, but equally there are a lot of other things from which I take confidence in the way I prepared this team”.

“But I do think that once we get over the emotion – and no-one is more disappointed than me that we haven’t delivered in the games against Wales and Australia – it shouldn’t take away from the position the team is in at the moment”.

“England have everything going for them in terms of resources, players and history”, the 52-year-old, who is now at French club Montpellier, told the Daily Mail.

“At the end of the day, we are all in this together, aren’t we?”

“We might not have the amount of caps that New Zealand have as a collective but at the same time that is coming and I for one think it is hugely exciting about what this group can do”.

“But we need to be clear that this is not a time for knee-jerk reaction”.

Elsewhere, prop Paul James returns from injury and replaces Gethin Jenkins, Samson Lee wears the number three shirt, Luke Charteris features at lock and skipper Sam Warburton moves to blindside flanker, with openside Justin Tipuric handed a start. It gives us that footwork and physical presence in midfield. “What we look at is what Sam can do, then we’ll get him up to speed in the lineout further down the line”.

We remember, for example Portugal celebrating keeping the score against the All Blacks below 100 points at the 2007 World Cup but, for all that they are on a very similar level to Scotland on the sevens circuit, there has been little mention of them as a 15-a-side force since.

“What he did with Leinster, putting structure and discipline in, and he was incredibly successful”.

“I have no problem with the reviews, I’ve conducted them myself in age grade teams – 18s, 20s, Saxons – and after every tournament or Six Nations I’ve had there has been a review”.

Stuart Lancaster is convinced he has demonstrated his credentials as an worldwide coach as he refuses to signal the end of his England stewardship. “He has done a fantastic job with them, and he’s a world-class coach”.