Sam Burgess rips selfish players and big egos for England’s World Cup downfall

Former England centre Sam Burgess has said that selfish players and individual egos were to blame for England failing to advance from the Pool stages of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

England became the first host nation in Rugby World Cup history to fail to advance from the Pool stages after losing to both Australia and Wales in the competition. Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell were both subsequently dismissed from the England coaching staff as a result but Burgess insists the players cost the aforementioned coaches their jobs. https://twitter.com/SamBurgess8/status/1067330711038783488 https://twitter.com/SamBurgess8/status/1067331150287261696 https://twitter.com/SamBurgess8/status/1067331457369001984 Lancaster took full responsibility for England's performance and said that the Red Rose had a promising future, however, he said that the pain from that defeat has stuck with him to this day. "You'll never change what happened," Lancaster said earlier this year. "The pain of being the head coach in a home World Cup and not qualifying will stay with me forever but there's no doubt about it; the decision to come to Leinster is the best decision I  ever could have made. There's no doubt in my mind. "A fantastic group of players, great staff to work with and to achieve success helps massively." Lancaster said that his assistant coach at England, current Ireland assistant Andy Farrell, had convinced him that moving to Leinster was a straight forward decision and that he would inherit a talented team that just needed some co-ordination.

"I knew I was coming to a good team, there's no doubt in my mind," added Lancaster earlier this year. "I was lucky that I got a tip-off from Andy Farrell that I would have to think about this one because he had coached a lot of the players and he knew how good they were. "The season before I arrived Leinster had lost to Connacht in the final, Europe hadn't gone so well, so I had watched those games and I could see the talent in the team and I thought they just needed a little bit of co-ordination. "We came close last year, two semi-finals, but to achieve the double this year - which no team has achieved in the PRO14 - it's only Saracens and one or two other teams that have achieved it domestically - it's an exceptional group of players."