Union will ‘listen’ to players

The Rugby Players Association insist individual players should not be “hung out to dry” in the fall-out from England’s disappointing World Cup campaign and claimed there had been “misinformation fed into the press” which had blown various incidents out of proportion.

Martin Johnson’s side lost to France in the quarter-finals after a campaign marred by incidents of indiscipline. Fran Cotton, the former Rugby Football Union vice-chairman, has agreed to lead an external review into the whole England set-up, which will shine the spotlight on both Johnson and his immediate boss Rob Andrew.

The RPA say all the players will contribute their “full and frank” comments in confidence to the Professional Game Board (PGB) review – which was agreed on September 8 and is completely separate to the Cotton review – but the union believe England’s players have been undermined by the reporting of their conduct.

RPA chief executive Damian Hopley said: “With regard to the off-field incidents that have been widely reported, there has been significant misinformation fed into the press that has compromised some of the players, and this is considerably harmful in undermining the players’ positions.

“Indeed the very public outpouring of disapproval heaped on these players over the past month is disproportionate to the actual events that happened.”

Hopley added: “The RPA are here to support the players. That doesn’t mean we condone any inappropriate behaviour but it means we listen to the players, we work out what was wrong and what was embellished.”