Well the England team are home, and as expected they are at the centre of a storm. Headlines abound about the RFU being in crisis, every man and his dog is expressing an opinion on the Head Coach and Coaching Team. While the players have also come under the cosh.

Let’s try and put things into some sort of perspective. If you look at the RFU then the vast amount of the work it does within the community game is continuing as normal and anything but in disarray. The problems exist in the small put highly visible and important elite end of the game. The truth is that in this area the whole leadership issues that have arisen over the last couple of years are very political. The characters involved be they Thomas, Andrew, Steele, Cotton and god knows who else have all had an agenda. From the outside I think the RFU made a very bad decision in getting rid of a highly respected and able administrator in John Steele. He was trying to restructure the RFU into a fit for purpose governing body. The fiasco of the Performance Directors role to me was further evidence that what he wanted to do was absolutely needed.

The challenge now for the RFU is to put together a structure of corporate governance first and foremost. Questions about Performance Directors and Head Coaches are meaningless unless this is sorted out. If there is a will to move forward in this area then people need to realise that the process will take some time. That being the case the it does not solve the immediate problem surrounding the two previously mentioned positions.

The issues around these positions are compounded by the number of reviews and enquiries that are now underway. A chaotic position will get just more chaotic in a few weeks time. It appears with at least one of the enquiries that the outcome is already decided!!

So what should happen next? Well in my view everyone should just calm down a little bit. I honestly believe that Martin Johnson is the right man to lead England going forward. It may well be that one or two (but not all) of the staff need to change. Certainly the defence, scrum, kicking and fitness aspects of the team look to be in good shape.

As for the apparent inability to attack and play a fluid game, is this simply down to the coaches. I have said many times before that the players the international coaches get to work with are merely a reflection of the pathway they have been developed from. In this you really do get to the crux of the matter at the RFU.

If you continue to do the same old same old, you will inevitably get the same results. The lack of basic core skills and decision making is down to the structures and coaching that exists within the game. An emphasis at an early age on these areas instead of the more physical aspects of the game or set piece will in the longer term produce players of a completely different standard to what currently exists.

The upskilling of the coaches at the younger age groups needs to be a priority. A Performance Director with the ability to both facilitate the changes I am talking about, and at the same time support the international team is what the RFU desperately need. I don’t believe that Sir Clive is the man that can do both of these jobs. The only man I have ever met with this type of skill set is the former RFL Performance Director and Great Britain coach David Waite. David however is enjoying his retirement back in Australia. But if I had the chance to offer him the role I would be on the plane to Sydney in the morning.

Haydn