ELITE RUGBY

This was another eventful and challenging season for the Elite Rugby Department.

There have been a number of highs and lows on the playing side, however behind the scenes the newly integrated operation has been working well and improving in its organisation of and support for all England teams.

As I joined the RFU in September 2006, so the new season also saw a fresh start for England, led by Andy Robinson and his new coaching team of Brian Ashton, Mike Ford and John Wells. The agreed Elite Player Squad (EPS) training days took place at Loughborough University during September and October, attended by all 40 members of the EPS squad and the 15 senior national academy players. Bisham Abbey was selected as the training venue for the autumn internationals.

It was always clear that the autumn international programme was going to be a particularly challenging one for England, with an additional match against New Zealand being scheduled to celebrate the opening of the new South Stand. Following consecutive losses against New Zealand (20–41) and Argentina (18–25), a narrow victory in the first of two matches against South Africa was a temporary respite from the intense media and public criticism being levelled at the England management, players and the RFU. Following defeat (14–25) to South Africa in the final match Andy Robinson left his position as England head coach. Although match results did not go the way that Andy, the supporters and players might have wished, they must not undermine Andy’s tremendous achievements during his six years with the RFU and his enormous contribution to the England cause.

Brian Ashton was appointed England head coach in December. He is an inspirational coach renowned for his originality, innovation and perception of the game. Bath University became our training base for the Six Nations and the England captaincy was awarded to Phil Vickery. Brian was bold in his selection for England v Scotland, which saw the returns to international rugby of Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson and the test debut of Andy Farrell. Jonny broke the Calcutta Cup points record during one of our best team performances in recent years, which England won 42–20.

The team also recorded a win against Italy the following week (20–7) although by contrast the performance was disappointing. We were pleased that some clubs agreed to rest England players from domestic competition the weekend prior to the match against Ireland. However, player fatigue, injury concerns and lack of preparation were contributory factors to a record defeat (43–13) in Dublin. Following injury to Phil Vickery, Mike Catt was offered an international recall together with the captaincy for the match against France. A much improved performance led to a good victory (26–18) with encouraging individual performances from young players Toby Flood, Shane Geraghty, David Strettle and man of the match Tom Rees. The final match saw a 27–18 defeat to Wales in Cardiff and a third place finish for England on points difference.