British press pick at English bones

NZPA - 22/06/2008

The British press were scathing of England's two-week tour of New Zealand, describing it as a failure on the field and a public relations disaster off it.

New Zealand's greatest critic Stephen Jones turned his sights on the English in his Sunday Times column following their 12-44 second Iveco Series Test capitulation.

Jones lamented a lack of professionalism and discipline from players and management to allow the alleged late-night misconduct which sparked a police investigation in Auckland.

"If the mildest allegations are true, the actions reveal something seriously amiss in the squad, its attitude, its hierarchy and the way the players are treated," Jones wrote.

"It seemed to me that the current England players, in and out of bed, did not care enough, were easily distracted, lacked passion for revenge."

The Guardian writer Robert Kitson lampooned a listless effort which followed the 20-37 loss a week earlier.

"Had the entire squad been arrested before kick-off and driven away in a convoy of police vans it would have been a marginally less embarrassing night," Kitson wrote.

"The All Blacks barely had to rise above the mediocre at times, so ordinary was the team in white. There was a huge hole on one side of the stadium because of major ground redevelopments but it was nothing compared with the yawning credibility gap that has opened up around England in the past eight days."

Stuart Barnes theorised in The Sunday Times that the England players received better coaching at club level than they did for their country.

"This side is crying out for an inventive attack coach who can change the way England think (when they allow themselves to ponder anything bar a defensive obsession so savagely exposed by the All Blacks)," Barnes penned in The Sunday Times.

"New Zealand are not a great team and without a vintage display from (first five-eighth) Dan Carter are likely to be pasted in South Africa."

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph Paul Ackford agreed with his former England teammate Barnes about the All Blacks' frailties but they said they were a class above the one-paced visitors.

"Dan Carter, who finished with another 22-point haul, was the principal difference between the sides. That, and an instinctive ability to up the pace and the collisions when it mattered," Ackford wrote.

"Until England can find a tempo, and a core of players who can compete with individuals of Carter's pedigree, they will continue to struggle against the world's best."