RFU anxious for England win

Twickenham boss Francis Baron has stressed the need for England to halt their slump ahead of Saturday’s RBS Six Nations Championship appointment with Ireland.

Back-to-back tryless defeats against Scotland and France have intensified pressure on Andy Robinson and his England coaching staff.

The annual review of England’s Six Nations campaign is set to be completed during the next three weeks, and while head coach Robinson appears safe in his job until after World Cup 2007, there are growing calls from outside Twickenham for a restructure among back-room staff.

Support coaches such as Joe Lydon, Phil Larder and Dave Alred are all under the microscope, although Robinson continues to give them public backing.

“As with any professional sport, performance on the pitch is important and we have got to get back to winning ways, which is what our focus is going to be,” said Rugby Football Union chief executive Baron.

“You can’t under-perform continually and expect your loyal supporters to continue to buy the shirts and pay for tickets at Twickenham.

“Every player will want to put right what happened in the last two weekends, and I am sure that it is what will happen.

“The way you move forward, and we have done this in the RFU for a number of years now, is we methodically review what happens in major international matches.

“We do an analytical assessment of what has gone right and wrong, and then we take decisions on the basis of that logical, businesslike assessment, and that is what we are going to do with the Six Nations,” he added.

“We have an established process here that we are going to follow. We are not doing anything out of the ordinary.

“We need to understand what has gone wrong, because things clearly have not gone according to plan, but you can only move forward by clearing your mind, doing the proper analysis, deciding the reasons for performance and do what we have to do to move forward.”

Robinson has made eight changes – including the positional switch of prop Matt Stevens – for Triple Crown-chasing Ireland’s Twickenham visit.

It is the most drastic action taken by an England coach in a championship match since Martin Green made eight alterations following a 33-6 drubbing against Scotland in 1986.

Reputations have also counted for nothing in Robinson’s book with full-back Josh Lewsey, centre Mike Tindall, scrum-half Matt Dawson, hooker Steve Thompson, prop Julian White and lock Danny Grewcock – who boast more than 300 Test caps between them – all demoted.

All bar Lewsey are relegated to the replacements’ bench, while there are starts for Tom Voyce in the number 15 shirt, Wasps centre Stuart Abbott, Leicester scrum-half Harry Ellis, Sale prop Andrew Sheridan, Bath hooker Lee Mears and Wasps lock Simon Shaw.

Leicester points machine Andy Goode takes over from injured fly-half Charlie Hodgson, and will make his first Six Nations start, along with Abbott and Mears.

“We didn’t turn up last weekend,” said Robinson, reflecting on the 31-6 Paris humiliation against France.

“The guys are hurting inside, and they are desperate to get on the pitch and show the last couple of weeks have just been bad days in the office.”