The inevitable came shortly after noon when the RFU released a fairly lengthy statement explaining that Stuart Lancaster had stepped down as England’s Head Coach by ‘mutual consent’.
As statements go, it was fairly redundant.
Lancaster was a dead man walking from about the 60-minute mark of the crushing defeat to Australia last month which ended any chance of England’s getting past the pool stages in a tournament that was Lancaster’s priority – in fact his only brief – when he was given the job in 2011.
“I ultimately accept and take responsibility for the team’s performance,” said Lancaster.
“I took on the role in difficult circumstances and it has been a huge challenge to transition the team with many hurdles along the way.
“However, I am immensely proud of the development of this team and I know that there is an incredibly strong foundation for them to progress to great things in the future.
“We have played some excellent rugby and it was always going to be tough to get the right level of experience into them in time for 2015. It is a young group of players with the huge majority available for the World Cup in Japan in 2019, where I believe their recent experience will make them genuine contenders.”
RFU statement pic.twitter.com/v8kjPQCsRF
— Dan Roan (@danroan) November 11, 2015
The search for a new coach is likely to involve Ian Ritchie, CEO of the RFU, making at least a cursory call to his Irish counterpart Philip Browne to see if there is any wiggle room on Joe Schmidt’s availability.
Schmidt stated last month on the Late, Late Show that he is staying with Ireland, but it may take more than an interview with Ryan Tubridy to dissuade the RFU.
Michael Cheika is another who has been linked with the job, while two more former Irish internationals – Conor O’Shea (Harlequins) and Mark McCall (Saracens) – are two other names in contention.
