It wasn’t meant to be like this.
England were dumped out of their own World Cup before it even started last night and there are many, many days and weeks of interrogation ahead into how this could happen.
While there is no doubt that England were dealt a cruel hand with their pool, it seems astonishing that a tournament they had worked towards for so many years is over before they even reach their final pool match.
Stuart Lancaster is already considering his position and the knives are out for the head coach in the UK media.
Here’s a selection of what they’ve been saying:
In The Telegraph, Paul Hayward writes:
Mortifying. England out, three games into their own World Cup, 16 days into the tournament. The bond between team and fans – broken, for now. This event will glide on without Stuart Lancaster’s men but there is no disguising the ignominy of what happened here, and against Wales. England were not ready, not clever and not good enough.
Hayward also wonders whether Lancaster, like Clive Woodward in 1999, will be given another chance to get things right:
Woodward survived a World Cup let-down 16 years ago and went on to raise the Webb Ellis cup in Sydney. Lancaster has some promising talent at his disposal: George Ford, Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph, to name three. There is no disguising, though, the muddle of this Pool A campaign. Selection veered this way and that. Execution under pressure was poor. England created chances for themselves but had no idea how to convert them. Led by Bernard Foley, who scored two brilliant first-half tries, Australia crushed every claim made for, and by, this England set-up.
In the Guardian Andy Bull references the ‘deluded’ people – himself among them – who though England might possibly win:
First, the positives. No one jumped off a ferry. And no dwarves were harmed along the way. What else? Stuart Lancaster pointed out after the match that “there are a lot of good young players in that team”, and that between them they have the makings of a good side. And he was right. Only trouble was, it wasn’t out on the pitch. It only ever existed in the minds of those of us who believed in them – like myself and the other five pundits who predicted in Saturday’s Guardianthat England would win this game. And as deluded as that turned out to be, next to what Lancaster had to say in his post-match press conference it sounded utterly sane. “We have come up short in these two games but you shouldn’t take away everything we have done in the last three and a half years,” he said, “which has been very positive for the majority of the games. We’ve not lost many big games, and certainly not by that margin.”
Mail on Sunday Sport:
Over and Out#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #RWC2015 #ENGvAUS pic.twitter.com/WqxSxbC1Wz— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) October 3, 2015
In the Mail, World Cup winning coach Clive Woodward says:
So England’s World Cup dream ends a full week before the end of the pool stages and as we swallow our bitter disappointment let’s not waste time with excuses. Let’s lose with dignity.
In the final analysis we simply haven’t been good enough, on or off the field, at this World Cup and the way forward will be just that little bit easier if we admit that straight away.
Yes it was a tough pool but England should have been well capable of beating both Wales and Australia, familiar opponents they have beaten many times in recent years. No expense has been spared in England’s preparation and they were at home in both matches. Everything was in England’s favour and they should have cashed in.
Mail on Sunday back page:
End of the World#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #RWC2015 #ENGvAUS pic.twitter.com/ulvuUOYCk2— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) October 3, 2015
In the same paper Oliver Holt writes:
Let’s be honest: England’s tournament has been an ungodly mess from start to finish. On Saturday night, they were pathetic. They went out with a whimper. If the defeat to Wales last week had been desperately close, this capitulation to Australia was men against boys. Against a top southern hemisphere side, England were exposed as naïve and callow.
