Conor O’Shea is happy to see England’s rugby players criticising each other in public

The former Ireland international could be in line for the top job.

Conor O'Shea is a man in demand, but it would still be a major surprise if we were to see the current Harlequins coach take up as Stuart Lancaster's successor. O'Shea was part of the panel that selected Lancaster for the England job, while he has also been linked with taking up a role with our Six Nations rivals Italy. For the moment he's very much embedded with the Premiership side, and they began their European season last night with a 41-18 win over Montpellier in the Challenge Cup. One of the club's star player, Mike Brown, has recently been in the headlines across the Irish Sea for criticising his team-mates in the wake of England's disastrous World Cup adventure for revealing dressing room secrets. The fullback admitted that leaks from inside the England camp meant that he no longer trusts his international team-mates and O'Shea fully backs his player's stance.

 "If you don't get the crap out onto the table you will never move on. "That is the best way to break the ice. From Browny's point of view, before he went to do the interview he said 'I have something to say and I will say it'". "And fair play. They can move on very easily - they get together, don't over-egg it, far from it, embrace Mike Brown was 100 per cent right to say what he did. I wish a lot of people would say what they feel."

O'Shea is an outsider for the vacant England job with Jake White, and Warren Gatland rumoured to be both on a short-list for Lancaster's job.O'Shea feels that England players need to be more vocal, but the sanctity of the dressing room is the most important thing for any future England coach.

"We don't have a dressing room camera, and we're one of the only clubs that doesn't do that. That is a sanctuary, a special place. "I sat in the dressing room in Lens when Ireland lost to Argentina in 1999 and I know how low that place was. "What happens there should never be revealed. You look back on it and it will be a low. "But you know something, it will be something you have shared with special people. I couldn't agree with Mike more."