Gordon D’Arcy slams naive Sam Burgess

“His naivety embarrassed all around him and severely damaged England’s chances of reaching the quarter-finals”, D’Arcy wrote in his Irish Times column. It’s simply not possible for him to be ready.

While D’Arcy acknowledges that Burgess performance must be seen within the context of his limited experience, the 2005 and 2009 Lion was scathing of Stuart Lancaster’s decision to select the League convert.

That amount has now doubled following an 18-minute cameo off the bench in England’s opening game against Fiji, and 70 minutes in the 28-25 loss to Wales that put the hosts on the verge of elimination.

But the Englishman has looked a little green at times in his short global career, although Williams is positive that if he keeps thing simple, Burgess can thrive in midfield.

“Burgess lacks the sense of timing, in attack and defence, required to be effective at global level”, said D’Arcy.

Centre Joseph comes in for Bath team-mate Burgess, who has been named among the replacements, after recovering from a chest injury which kept him out of the Pool A defeat to Wales last weekend.

Although the ex-Leinster stalwart conceded that Burgess did not lack effort in what was only his third senior global appearance since switching codes, he further stressed that his skill-set had yet to transfer from rugby league to union and that pure physicality was never likely to be enough to impress on the night.

He also criticises Barritt, who he says was responsible for numerous defensive mistakes that cost England the match, and praises the “creative” Welsh attack that won them their only try.

“By then the Burgess experiment had been abandoned because the England coaching team accepted, long after everyone else, that he had no idea what was happening around him”. Ma’a Nonu is absolutely phenomenal. There is no ruck so he timed the run off the scrumhalf and could get up a 10-metre head of steam and thunder into a player of his choosing.

But England out-half Cipriani, who just missed out on Stuart Lancaster’s World Cup squad, claims D’Arcy was being mischievous in his comments.

But D’Arcy felt Australia had their own problems with enigmatic first-five Quade Cooper.

CHISELDON’S Jonny May has retained his place in England’s starting line-up for Saturday’s crunch Rugby World Cup clash against Australia at Twickenham.