We and our partners utilize technology, such as cookies, and gather data that is browsing to provide you with the ideal online experience and to personalise the content and advertisements.
Please let us know whether you agree.
From Mike Henson
BBC Sport
Eddie Jones is going to hope the only real way is up since, for the previous 16 years, England’s Rugby World Cup performances are heading in the opposite way.
From world champions in 2003, to runners-up from 2007, in 2015 exit in home gardening into the quarter-finals in a gut-punch and 2011.
This is the narrative of those campaigns from the guys who have been there.
England’s World Cup campaign was their next trip down under of 2003.
Three months in 30 years, they’d become the first England side prior to the championship to conquer the All Blacks in their turf in Melbourne, before beating world champions Australia seven days with a victory in Wellington.
A group other than New Zealand arrived at the World Cup. And the local press and people sledged away in the prospective champions.
“We got it all the time, every week,” recalls wing Jason Robinson.
“It had been all sorts. ‘The white orcs on steroids’ ‘The older guys’ England couldn’t play, we had been dull, the other and this .
“You consistently get it no matter where you go, but also in Australia likely more so.”
But at the build-up into some final against the hosts, even England’s supporters were as much of a problem using an estimated 50,000 of those descending on Sydney and turning their heroes into resort hostages as their critics.
“That previous week felt like we were in prison,” adds Robinson.
“So many fans had encounter – the service was fantastic – however we were stuck in the resort. We looked at Manly beach from the hotel windows, however there have been tens of thousands of fans outside looking back in.
“We couldn’t go out anywhere. It was a zoo. So when it came into the match we were desperate to get into it and get it done.”
And they did do it. Robinson scored England’s only try in an success.
“Back in 2000 I was a soccer league player, being headhunted by England coach Clive Woodward and talking about this World Cup, even knowing I might be part of this,” says the 45-year-old.
“Then three years down the line, I was there at the final, scoring the try.
“No other knowledge in rugby can fit it, and it affects a great deal of items for you moving ahead. There are not many days when somebody does not inform me where they were on that day.
“You are doing it because you like the game, but to hear other people reminiscing about where they were makes you realise what an impact you had”
“It was completely different.”
Four years on, Robinson was again in a England Rugby World Cup campaign, but in starkly contrasting conditions.
To begin with, he wasn’t supposed to be there. In age 31, he’d announced his retirement.
But he was needed by England. A pathetic run of shape in 2006 had led to Andy Robinson being ejected from the head coach chair.
Robinson’s successor, brian Ashton, convinced Robinson to go back to the global game for one last hurrah, even if the prospects of some repeat of 2003′s run appeared distant.
“We didn’t have consistency in performance or selection, we weren’t playing well or acting individually and there was bickering within the camp – some players thought they ought to have been picked and there was division between a number of their squad along with the coaches,” recalls Robinson.
In their second pool match, South Africa seemingly confirming their status forged at England 36-0. Robinson believed his career was finished and pulled his hand in the match.
“It turned out to be a five-week recovery time and I can remember coming from the pitch thinking:’Dearie me, that is it,’” says Robinson.
“I spent some much time together using Phil Pask, the physio. It was absurd, each half an hour we had been doing some thing – icing, stretching, working.”
His last international game was against South Africa, but as a rematch from the final, as England battled past France and Australia to make an unlikely shot at become the first side to defend the Williams Webb Ellis trophy.
The image of the final was a slow-motion loop of the knee cleaning a sliver of whitewash and denying that the underdogs a score in the second half of England wing Mark Cueto . With no, England went 15-6.
“Our backs had been against the wall after that first defeat by South Africa. We had been composed, but we made the goods,” reflects Robinson.
“We all believed Cueto had gone to be honest, but unfortunately it was not to be and, if I am fair, South Africa were the better team on the day.
“However, it shows you can get an ideal of the preparation, something like 2003, but occasionally determination and doggedness can get you there too. We were not that far apart from winning it again.”
In the wake of England’s quarter-final defeat by France at 2011, this site printed a timeline of the various controversies that had erupted into the exit doorway that was last-eight.
Concealed walkie-talkies, drunken flirting, bungee jumping , prohibited gumshield patrons, surreptitious ball swaps and an impulsive dip in Auckland harbour contributed in the space of 27 days to a listing of eight events.
“We’d had plenty of training about off-field materials and been informed of all the probable mistakes we can make,” recalls next row Louis Deacon, who now splits his time between working as forwards coach for Championship side Coventry and being firm and venture director for the Matt Hampson Foundation, which supports individuals injured during sport.
“We’re well prepared for it that way, but I don’t believe we had been prepared for when it did really happen.
“The night of this Mike Tindall episode [the center, newly married to Zara Phillips, was filmed by his arm around the other girl ] other teams were doing precisely what we had been doing.
“We had some time , we had a group dinner, we went for some drinks and it had been just dismissed hugely out of proportion. It wasn’t anywhere as bad as it had been made out to be in the press.
“But we had been fighting from then on. Coach Martin Johnson was speaking about that off-field stuff than what was happening about it.
“It was frustrating because we couldn’t concentrate on the rugby. We’d go out as a set to get a coffee and there were artists all round. It was difficult. We had been sitting targets.”
Late attempts from Ben Youngs and Chris Ashton was needed to secure narrow wins over Argentina and Scotland respectively at the swimming pool, but England were agreeing to conquer a France team who had lost to Tonga out time and if the teams met in Twickenham seven months earlier.
After Wales’ quarter-final triumph over Ireland on the identical side of the draw earlier in the day, Johnson’s team can observe a route.
“A bit of complacency settled ,” admits Deacon.
“France were at a little chaos and there were tales coming out about the way they had all fallen out. We read too far into what was going on and just didn’t turn up.
“I believe we had been looking ahead because we might have had Wales in the semi-finals, who we had already beaten in the Six Nations and also in one of our two summer Evaluation meetings”
Shipping 16 unanswered points before those thoughts dashed, with France holding out to get a 19-12 win.
There was still time for Manu Tuilagi to jump off the rear of a ferry from Auckland harbour, earning himself a 3,000 fine along with a police warning.
“This was a bit of dare, a joke, and that I really don’t think we believed Manu would take action – but he was young, only 20 years old,” says Deacon.
“This was bad timing after all this had happened before.”
Two years earlierthe Rugby Football Union had put England coach Stuart Lancaster the goal of arriving World Cup using a top-two world rank.
As they got the championship under way with a strong 35-11 triumph over Fiji they were , but there was little suggestion of this carnage to come.
“We actually thought we had a opportunity to go all the way,” recalls scrum-half Danny Care, today one of the co-hosts of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Rugby Union Weekly.
“Stuart had done a load of work behind the scenes with all the squad to show how special it was to play for England, especially at a house World Cup, also there were some great moments with relatives describing what it supposed to have their loved ones from the group.
“With the power and support of this being a house World Cup along with the players we had, we believed we could give it a good go.”
Lancaster’s choice calls had dominated the build-up to the tournament.
Fly-half Danny Cipriani had battled after being told he was missing out. More controversially, Sam Burgess, also a team convert, was contained at the expense. Burrell later confessed his exclusion had left him emotionally”broken”.
“It wasn’t Sam’s fault that he got picked,” reflects Care. “He is an unbelievable athlete and was never likely to turn down a opportunity to play at a World Cup. I think everybody in the squad just felt hugely accountable for Luther Burrell for missing out.”
In the match that followed, England were seen off by Australia Following a stunning defeat by Wales.
The fallout soon followed with anonymous briefings from the camp asserting the air was too”controlling” and that assistant Andy Farrell had a lot of say in group strategies.
Care observed the Australia defeat from the racks, together with Saracens’ Richard Wigglesworth favored to Ben Youngs as the backup choice.
“I did not go into the changing room afterwards, because the rest of the squad moved directly back into the hotel,” Care remembers.
“We just saw the boys once they return. I don’t think any of us may consider it to be honest. All that hard work we’d done and we had been outside before we knew it.”
But there was one game to be performed with. The final pool game against Uruguay of england was now a dead rubber, using the two teams. Given his first playing time of the tournament, a triumph in which Jack Nowell along with Nick Easter equally scored hat-tricks was began by Care.
“The championship was for me before I played a moment,” said Care.
“But I was very happy to be playing my first World Cup game for England and has been determined to devote a fantastic performance. That was a fair few people who hadn’t played yet, so we had a point to prove.
“Now I just look back at it because the biggest opportunity missed.”
England suffered a 16-3 quarter-final defeat by Wales, perhaps sparing themselves a more heavy loss in the semi-finals. Eventual champions New Zealand beat Wales 49-6 from the previous four.
{England were joint hosts of the championship in 1991 and came near to getting home the si

Read more here: http://obkon-wellness24.de/wp/?p=2338