The despair felt at England’s premature departure from the Rugby World Cup is understandable, but also informative. It tells us something significant about the problems facing English rugby, and perhaps English sport more generally.

No one doubts that the “pool of death” was always going to pose a major challenge to the England team. That problem was of course compounded by the last-minute loss to Wales – and suddenly, the match against Australia assumed huge importance.

The reaction of the England team was everything that the Australian coach, Michael Cheika, could have hoped for. Never mind that England had home advantage, that the Wallabies had been beaten by England in four of their last five meetings, that Australia’s last match against a tier-one nation had been a 41-13 loss to New Zealand, and that their two opening World Cup matches – while producing decisive wins – had been against less challenging sides. Continue reading →