Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio has warned there are “serious fault lines” in Eddie Jones’ squad and questioned the RFU’s strategy going forward.
England endured another disappointing Six Nations campaign this year, winning just two of their five games for the second championship running.
The RFU have fully backed Jones despite that poor performance, saying England made “good progress” and “strong positive steps”.
That has prompted a backlash from many prominent figures in rugby, including former England captain and World Cup winner Dallaglio.
“He (Jones) has tried to paint the rosiest of pictures, but it’s a disappointing campaign for England,” he said on his latest Evening Standard Rugby Podcast.
“If it hadn’t been for Italy’s victory [over Wales], England would have probably finished lower down the table. It is another losing campaign that didn’t start well and didn’t finish well.
“There are some serious fault lines in that team and that squad and anyone who doesn’t think there is, is living in cloud cuckoo land.
“To score only two tries in three games and generally play the way they have played, fans have got every right to ask the question.
“We have heard in an RFU statement, no name to it as usual, they think this England team is making solid progress and they were suggesting that Eddie is building a new team against their clear strategy. I would argue I haven't seen a hugely clear strategy.
“Eddie seems to think that they are only three per cent off where they need to be. I was never good at maths, but I know they’re a long way away from being three per cent off.”
Dallaglio has been joined in criticising Jones and the RFU by his coach from the 2003 World Cup win, Sir Clive Woodward.
“In the press release, he or she — we have no idea who it is, only an RFU spokesperson which is just so gutless — stated that the RFU were ‘encouraged by England's solid progress’, a frankly absurd comment that has been rightly ridiculed,” Woodward wrote in the Daily Mail.
“It is a gross distortion of the truth. Did Eddie sign off on the press release or was it his big mate Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive?
“Who has made this assessment of England's faltering season and if it was Sweeney, why does he not put his head above the parapet and say so? It stinks from top to bottom and it has been going on for ages.”
