Proud of the rose

Six weeks after the disappointment of the rugby World Cup it is time for England to move forward. The review process dragged out allowing commentators to assign blame to the coach, players and set up.

Sadly former rugby league star Sam Burgess fell foul of the public’s informal review. I say sadly as I feel a player should never be made to feel solely responsible for a poor performance, he was selected by the England coaches and went on to play to the best of his ability at that stage in his union career. That said, it is disappointing to hear that after just one year of the contracted three wearing the blue, black and white stripes of his club side Bath, Burgess has decided to head back to Australia and return to his old rugby league club.

Burgess was not the sole scapegoat, the difficult questions were primarily focused on former head coach Stuart Lancaster and his team. England were the first host nation not to make it out of the group stages. Admittedly it was the toughest of all the groups but that is no excuse for the richest and oldest rugby nation. I think it was obvious that Lancaster would have to leave long before he did the honourable thing and resigned.

The search for a new head coach opened up a wide variety of candidates from both England and abroad. The argument of a foreigner versus an Englishman caused some passionate debate especially among some of the players who have voiced their desire for someone leading them to share their passion and pride for the English rose. It was decided by those at the top that the skills for the job superseded any national pride. It was public knowledge that there was an open chequebook and only the best coach will do, regardless of nationality. The new appointment, Australian Eddie Jones, will have his every move scrutinised - let's hope the money pays off.

A difficult week

I was in no hurry to board my return flight to the northern hemisphere at the weekend. I didn’t want to leave the gorgeous Australian spring behind and return to the British winter. The shocking news from Paris and depressing reports of misconduct in Russian athletics only made the prospect even less enticing.

The majority of my trips abroad are work related but this was purely a holiday so I only managed to keep half an eye on the news. Now I am back in the UK it is still impossible to comprehend the true devastation and implications of the terror attacks in France - my thoughts are with the French.

Sport has also had a difficult week. Before the shocking events in Paris the Russian doping scandal was dominating the headlines and sending shock waves through the world of sport. There have been rumours building for the best part of a year although that is all they had ever been. The results of this investigation have surprised even the most cynical and the question is - what now? There will be numerous athletes waiting to be rewarded with medals retrospectively, not that that can ever repair the damage that has been done by the Russian athletes.

This leaves a huge question mark over the future of sport. It was only last year that wide spread doping in cycling was finally admitted. Football and the world governing body FIFA are under ongoing investigations into corruption and now one of the dominating nations in athletics has added to the black cloud hanging over sport. The Olympics, the largest international sporting event, is only nine months away. Athletes have a lot of hard work to do between now and Rio but nothing in comparison to those who govern the sports. I hope that by next summer all the athletes standing on the podium will be there purely as a result of their talent and determination.