In the wake of the loss to France at the Stade de France, England’s forward coach Graham Rowntree gave a ‘stern review’ on Tuesday as reported by the Telegraph.
Rowntree gave a frank opinion on the France game in which he said the performance “cannot happen again.”
England gave up seven penalties and struggled up front in the scrum. When asked whether England missed hooker Dylan Hartley suspended, Rowntree dismissed it saying he has been in contact with Hartley only in case of emergency call up.
Rowntree was, however, reluctant to point fingers at specific plays, he highlighted a host of issues England have to work past.
“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing in the lineout for example as there are a lot of moving parts,” said Rowntree. “But the lineout isn’t functioning and that has been a productive source of ball. We have got to put that right.
“At the breakdown we gave away too many easy penalties. There were easy points for France. We were over-exuberant in our first hit-out, chancing our arm and chasing lost causes. You can’t be doing that in the modern game. The players have been very honest. There is no hiding anything. We know we can’t let the opposition have cheap points.”
England will need a much better performance In their final warm-up match against Ireland on September 4th and will hope to have all problems sorted by the time they kick-off their World Cup on Saturday, September 18th against Fiji.
