England rugby a laughing stock: Woodward

Why would the RFU make suggestions to the Barbarians as to the selection of their side?

How could the RFU 'finish league off'?

If it is true that he rarely visited clubs in England then that is pure idiocy. The premiership clubs are basically in control of English rugby, and one of the first things Johnson did was to increase communication between the England set-up and the clubs. If Smith did ignore the clubs then I'd be very surprised to see him working in the English game again.

Ben S, I can remember Brian Smith as a young player at Wests rugby Brisbane, he was very gifted but also drank heaps of his own bath water and at times had some communication problems with others in the team, however I thought as he matured he may have grown out of these little idiosyncrasies. Seems he hasn't.

Kovana league's far weaker in England than Australia. Union is on top and if it wanted could finish league off. However, the RFU has no interest in doing so.

I have a real issue with the senior players within the England set-up. They create the culture, they can feel the squad emotion they can change the direction in a game. Players need to be held more accountable. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

Agreed KPM. They should be doing much better in terms of winning percentage considering their financial clout and player numbers. Poor coaching. As for League.. hmm, dont know about that EVER happening.

kovana this is what's curious about England's situation: so lucrative and profitable is the game that any bunch of clowns can run it and still make a gigantic profit! Remember it is failing in its own terms. Given the player numbers it possesses it should dominate world rugby, and should have taken over league easily by now, with profits several times that. Sadly with the RFU who knows when English rugby will fulfill its potential.

Laughing stock.. Yep.. Laughing all the way to the bank. "Twickenham announces £8.7m profit despite poor World Cup campaign" http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/21/rfu-profits-england

I thought that Johnson really had a youthful side improving, but as soon as he selected Wilkinson ahead of Flood in the WC warm-up games I knew he had gone in to his shell. He tried to get England playing with width and tempo and blinked at the last minute, so I think (and I was a Johnson fan) that he made the right choice. On the non-playing side I'm not sure if I feel he was to blame for certain players misbehaving. At the end of the day he treated the players like adults and they let him down. If the players hadn't misbehaved then I doubt there would have been such a media storm over the performance. Also, Johnson had no manager to deal with those issues. Even the Lions in 1997 had Fran Cotton to take on that role, and yet here we are in 2011... I read somewhere (obviously I don't know how true this is) that Smith is very poor at communicating with the players and rarely visited the clubs, which is bad news. Sometimes he had England playing some very good rugby, but at other times it was like the players had never played together before. I thought it informative to read Ben Youngs criticise the England game plan in NZ. Smith was basically the head orchestrator in the England set-up in terms of tactics. Apparently Smith and John Wells are to be sacked asap. Some of the English clubs are playing very good rugby at the moment too.

Ben S I think you have described the situation rather more correctly than most. Reading your post makes logical sense in-so-far as what I perceive the problems are with English rugby. I agree that with a few tweeks in the right places they will be a formidable force. All the basic infrastructure seems to be going OK at the basic level, it seems that it stuffs up when at the RFU level. It will be very interesting who they get to replace Johnston. I thought that Johnson struggled primarily because of his lack of coaching experience, I would have liked to see him in the job after 5 - 10 years coaching at club level. He has that little extra that players follow. I wonder what will happen to Brian Smith the assistant now that Johnson has gone. I was thinking out loud and mulling over if he could join with Deans to be an assistant with the Wallabies. He might be better suited to being back home with the Wallabies than trying to coach English players.

I've always had the impression that Woodward has had a personal agenda against Andrew, but he has also seen the limited vision and general inefficiency of the RFU up close and personal, so I suspect he knows what he is talking about. The entire system seems to be about egos. Baron was quick to put the boot into Thomas, and paint himself as something special, and yet Baron blackballed there being a position to take away the media stresses of the England manager, which various people asked for... Rob Andrew's performance in Johnson's resignation speech was embarrassing... The whole thing is bizarre. English rugby is actually in a reasonably strong position IMO: English teams challenge in Europe despite the huge financial disparity and the youth teams and Sevens side have, over the past few years, generally been good. Also you can see the increasingly good work of the academies - but the playing side isn't really the issue. The RFU is a farce, hence the national side has suffered since the Andy Robinson era. If that's sorted out then I would imagine that English rugby would really continue to grow into professionalism quite well. If only the RFU could mirror the work of the clubs at Aviva level.

I think it is very positive and mature step forward for the two codes in England. Although very unlikely in Australia given the bitter hatred between RU and RL this type of "cross coding" would only strengthen both codes here. With the strength of Aussie Rules, Leagues limited international standing and Unions non existent domestic comp, league and Union here could benefit greatly if they buried some hatchets and started to " think outside the circle" -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

You must have missed the fact that he has just signed a massive 5 year contract with Wigan.

p.Tah the RFU are far too useless to think of something as imaginative as that. It's the Barbarians who have come up with the idea on their own for some fun.

One week of being told about world cups, international tours, full stadiums in Paris, Milan, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tomkins will have made up his mind. Maybe that's the point. If Tomkins plays well, massive offers will come flooding in.

Joel, Sam Tomkins brother has just signed for Saracens and probably because of Andy Farrell's influence there will be a relationship between Wigan and Saracens relating to exchange of players, coaching etc; seems a little like wishful thinking. I agree with another poster, Sam T's inclusion will raise the level of interest and sell a few tickets. Sorry to be so cynical but according to reports sales have been sluggish. Hope he enjoys the week mixing with Habana, Matfield, Mortlock etc and he has to do a party piece as part of the process of becoming a Baa-Baa; perhaps a piece from Wigan Pier by Orwell or a rendition of " She's a lassie from Lancashire".

Story 1 Barbarians commercial director Mike Burton says Monday the team "has a tradition of thinking outside the circle when inviting players with league backgrounds." Story 2 Tomkins, who will become the first contracted rugby league player to play for the Barbarians, said: ‘I’ve been given an opportunity to play that I think I’m going to take. I’ll see how my body pulls up, but it’s something I’m interested in.’ They sure do have a history of thinking outside the circle (outside of facts), but how many players with rugby league backgrounds have played for The Barbarians throughout the history of the game? Say prior to 2000.

That is a real problem kingplaymaker and one that holds back our game!

The Baa-Baas make their own selections. They have a problem these days when they field teams against touring sides: they can't get enough Home Nations players. When New Zealand last played the Barbarians at Twickenham in 2009, the team was packed with Australians and South Africans and only a sprinkling of Welshmen. No English, Scottish or Irish players were available. Part of the romance of a Barbarians fixture against a touring side in the past, is that it has often been viewed as almost a shadow British and Irish Lions fixture. While it was entertaining to see Genia. Elsom, Giteau etc playing alongside the likes of Matfield, Burger and du Plessis, it didn't really connect with the home crowd with so little local talent on display. Tomkins sounds like the kind of card the Baa Baas would play to generate some more interest and coverage in the fixture. Tickets will sell well but a match at Twickenham needs some local names, and the only Englishman in the hat so far appear to be Danny Cipriani.