The England senior management team was strengthened over the summer by the appointments of Brian Smith, former Director of Rugby at London Irish, as Attack Coach, and the promotion of Graham Rowntree as Assistant Forwards Coach. Rob Burgess has now joined the RFU from Gloucester Rugby in the role of England Team Operations Manager, allowing Lisa Packham to relinquish the team management responsibilities she performed so admirably and efficiently for much of the year and returned to her regular role as PA to the England Team Manager.
The England representative teams had a terrific season with England Saxons and England U18s unbeaten in all games, and England U20s recording just one loss which came in their final game of the season. We believe this is testament to the strength and depth created by the player development pathway – from community clubs through to the regional academies – which is now having a significant impact at elite level.
England Saxons, this season under the leadership of Head Coach Steve Bates (Newcastle Falcons) with assistance from Simon Hardy and Graham Rowntree, won both their Six Nations games, the first 31–13 against Ireland A at Leicester, the second 38–15 against Italy A in Ragusa, Sicily. The Saxons, with Toby Booth of London Irish replacing Graham Rowntree in the coaching partnership, also went on to retain the trophy in Barclays Churchill Cup, held in the USA and Canada during the summer. They recorded impressive wins against the USA (64–10), Ireland A (34–12) and Scotland A (36–19) in the final.
England U20s achieved a well-deserved Six Nations grand slam this year with Nigel Redman as Head Coach, assisted by Mark Mapletoft. They went on to become the first England junior representative team to reach an international final when they met New Zealand in the final of the inaugural IRB Junior World Championships in Wales in June. Although they were beaten 3–38, this was a tremendous achievement for all involved in the programme.
We have shifted the focus of England Sevens to concentrate on the development of a younger group of players. In doing so we have at times struggled to maintain consistency in selection and performance and to stay competitive with other teams in the IRB World Sevens Series, many of which use full time sevens players for the circuit. The team, led by Ben Ryan, has, however, given a good account of itself over the season, finishing in fifth position in the IRB series. The experience of being involved with a high-profile, international sevens programme has been important in the development of the next generation of England players.
The tour was marred by events after the first Test which resulted in four of our young players finding themselves publicly accused of a very serious crime.
We worked in full co-operation with the local police and, ultimately, no further action was taken by them. However, a shadow was cast over England Rugby for several weeks and everyone involved learned an incredibly hard lesson about life in the spotlight. The RFU Disciplinary Officer has since conducted his own investigation into events on tour and exonerated the players of serious wrongdoing. Recommendations from his report have now been included in a revised code of conduct for all England teams as part of the Elite Player Squad agreement, which was successfully negotiated for the next four years with the Professional Players Association, who act as agents for the England team.