England hit ‘rock bottom’ but Andrew vows to stay

But England’s under-fire elite rugby director once again insisted yesterday he would not be resigning, despite accepting his part of the blame for the World Cup fiasco.

The pressure on Andrew to quit has increased since the published excerpts from three leaked World Cup reviews, which paint the picture of a dysfunctional England squad and a coaching team out of its depth.

Martin Johnson resigned as the team manager last week and attack coach Brian Smith, criticised heavily by some players in the leaked report, stood down yesterday.

Sports minister Hugh Robertson intervened, saying that Andrew’s department needed immediate reform after it failed the England team during the tournament.

After trying to dodge the dirt last week, Andrew has accepted he let Johnson down and that he was ultimately responsible for the England team.

But, after taking time to consider his position, Andrew confirmed he would not voluntarily be following Johnson or Smith through the Twickenham door.

“I am absolutely shattered by what is going on both on and off the field,” said Andrew, who added he was “disgusted” by the leaks.

“The RFU has to sort itself out. This is rock bottom, the lowest of the low, and it can’t be allowed to continue.

“The reality of my job is that I am not the England team manager. I am the elite rugby director and I run a big department. But I absolutely accept responsibility for what is going on here.

“The World Cup was not what it should have been. The players have let themselves down, the coaches have maybe not done as good a job as they should, and I’ve not done as good a job as I should have done.”

Andrew admitted that Johnson might have been given greater assistance, saying: “I should have supported Martin more and we should have done better. Of course I’ve considered my position. There’s been soul-searching the whole time, it’s been a pretty tough 12 months for everybody here.

“Does it mean I’m going to resign? No I’m not. Does it mean it’s all broken? No it doesn’t.”

The RFU yesterday launched an investigation into the leaking of the three confidential reports into England’s World Cup campaign.

Detailed contents from the reviews, which were compiled by the RFU, the Rugby Players’ Association and the Aviva Premiership clubs, appeared across eight pages of the Times. More excerpts were published yesterday.

The RFU’s disciplinary chief, Judge Jeff Blackett, is to appoint an independent investigator to take charge of the inquiry and deliver his findings within two weeks.

Andrew described the leaks as “disgusting” and insisted the published comments were “not a fair reflection” of the work done by the players, Johnson or the England coaches.

“I wish I knew who it was [who leaked the reports]. We’ve got to find out because it’s just not right,” Andrew said.

“This has got to stop for the good of the game. It is not what rugby is about. The review process has been betrayed and that’s unacceptable.

“But you have to put the comments in context. When you get anonymous information like this you have a huge responsibility to deal with that information correctly because you are putting peoples’ reputations and livelihoods at risk here.”

The only England coach to escape from the published comments with his reputation enhanced was scrum specialist Graham Rowntree.

Smith, recruited by Johnson in 2008, came in for some fierce criticism, with one England squad member reported to have said: “I would be delighted if he went. Our attack play was boring, uninventive, lacklustre, even schoolboy at times.”

Another is reported to have said: “If we’d got to the semi- finals or final it would have papered over the cracks and the worst thing is Brian Smith would have stayed in his job. It might be a blessing.”

Smith, who is understood to have already been sounding out coaching roles in Australia, confirmed to the RFU yesterday that he would not be seeking a new contract.