Six Nations: Stuart Lancaster outlines respect agenda for ‘arrogant’ England

ENGLAND’S new coach Stuart Lancaster has admitted that he has spelled out to his players this week that they must treat opponents with respect, after Scotland coach Andy Robinson accused English players of “arrogant” behaviour.

Lancaster refused to be drawn into a spat with Robinson and declined to directly address the Scotland coach’s remarks, but said that he had spent his first week with the squad in camp looking to change the environment around the squad and demanding greater respect.

Robinson revealed this week that at the World Cup last year he had pushed the citing of Delon Armitage, the England full-back, for a forearm smash at Chris Paterson’s head because he was incensed at what he perceived to be a growing disrespect among some of Martin Johnson’s players towards Scotland.

He further mentioned this week that he was close to taking the Scotland squad out of the after-match dinner after the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham last year infuriated by the traditional speech given by stand-in skipper Nick Easter, in which he failed to acknowledge Scotland at all.

Lancaster yesterday tried to create a clear divide between the squad now and that which competed under Johnson in the World Cup.

There is no escaping the controversies that marred the team, from the drunken behaviour of senior players, notably Mike Tindall, a trio upsetting a female hotel staff member, and Manu Tuilagi diving off a public ferry boat into Auckland Harbour, to their poor performances on the field. Lancaster set out his stall when he dropped scrum-half Danny Care from the England squad after he was convicted of drink-driving, and spent nine hours on Monday in one-to-one meetings with his entire squad and then held a team meeting to review the World Cup issues on Tuesday.

He explained: “We talked about the lessons I felt we needed to learn collectively. Clearly, we didn’t get everything right.

“It was a case of talking that through, draw the line and ‘this is how we’re going to move on’. It needed to be done. I didn’t want to brush it under the carpet and say ‘everything was great’. Clearly, we had to do something.

“There has always been a code of conduct and that hasn’t changed, and all the players read that last night and understand it, but environment shapes behaviour.

“I would like to think that the media, public, community, commercial sponsors and everybody we work with will see a change in behaviour. My message to them [the players] has been ‘you will get respect if you are responsible’.”

The former Scotland U19 and Students cap, who is the interim England coach for the Six Nations, continued: “I don’t think anyone went out there with the intention of misbehaving or creating problems off the field, or not playing well on it, but clearly we didn’t get everything right. We needed to front up to that and the players did, but it’s put to bed now and it’s about going forward.”

Tom Wood, his chosen captain, was part of that squad in New Zealand, and while he will miss the Calcutta Cup match at least through injury – Lancaster will select captains game- by-game until he returns – Wood defended his team-mates, but spoke of a change under Lancaster.

He said: “I don’t think any player who has ever put the England shirt on has taken the field with anything other than pride in the shirt and treated it as anything other than an honour.

“We got a few things wrong off the field but we’ve learned lessons from there. We’re not saying it’s all perceptions. Some of it was reality and some things had to be learned very quickly, and we’ve spent a day or so steering the ship in a slightly different direction to where we were in New Zealand, and we’re looking forward now to the Six Nations.

“I don’t think there is a player in our squad at the moment that I would refer to as arrogant, but we’ve got to get the balance right between fear and complacency.”

Having lit the fuse, Robinson tried to keep yesterday’s focus on the upcoming championship, and refused to expand on how he felt the players had shown disrespect. But he did reiterate: “We have a responsibility as players and coaches in this great game that we play to have respect for the people that you play against and with.

“Rugby is a physical game, a tough game to play, and these Test matches are fantastic matches. So it’s important to me that we respect each other for what we go about. It was a couple of people that did it, and for me it undermined what England achieved last year [ten wins in 13 games].

“There were many forms and I’m not going to go through every example, and this is not the sole talking point for today, but I think that we have a duty in this game we play as to how we conduct ourselves.

“I was asked what I thought about what happened in the World Cup and I gave my honest opinion, and I’m sorry if it offended people, but I believe it’s right and I feel for Martin Johnson.”

Armitage responded to criticism of his behaviour yesterday by stating: “I am very disappointed with what Andy Robinson had to say.

“If he thinks I’m arrogant for wanting England to win the World Cup and to do my best for them, I am arrogant. If I ever was to coach, I wouldn’t be impressed with myself if I tried to get players cited. I had a lot of respect for Andy Robinson as a coach and player – but maybe it came from him not liking me.”