Stuart Lancaster has stepped down as the Head Coach of England following their failure at the World Cup.
England were knocked out in the group stages of the tournament after losing to Wales and Australia, becoming the first hosts not to advance to the knockout stages in the competition’s history.
After his release, Lancaster had this to say:
I ultimately accept and take responsibility for the team’s performance. 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.
A review took place after the tournament to look into why England performed so badly, and after a talk with Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie, Lancaster decided to step down from his position.
Ritchie had the following to say about the process:
The Rugby World Cup was hugely disappointing for everyone associated with the England team and the subsequent review into the team’s performance was always intended to be extremely comprehensive, which it has been.
Following the review, Stuart and I met, where we agreed that he should step down as head coach. This was subsequently ratified by the RFU board.
Despite the results during this World Cup he has much to be proud of, and has embedded a new group of players that will be representing England for a long time to come. Looking forward, we will leave no stone unturned to ensure England achieves sustained success in the future.
The full results of the review will be published next week, and as of yet there have been no announcements regarding the future of Mike Catt, Andy Farrell and Graham Rowntree, all of whom were part of Lancaster’s coaching set up.
England’s Six Nations campaign starts in February, so the RFU will want to have Lancaster’s replacement in position for that tournament.
