Lay off Robbo, say captains sensible

Former international captains Lawrence Dallaglio and Gavin Hastings today joined forces to back Jason Robinson as the inquest into England's desperately disappointing loss to France focused on his leadership.

There have been suggestions Robinson's full-back role means he is too remote from the heat of battle, particularly up front. Support has been growing for Martin Corry, the Leicester No8, to take over.

However, Hastings, who captained Scotland and the Lions wearing the No15 jersey, believes that argument is "utter tosh" and sees no reason to strip Robinson of the honour.

The Scot is supported by Dallaglio, who is urging Andy Robinson, the England head coach, to ignore calls for change and to remain calm.

Hastings said: "If you are the right man for the job then it doesn't matter where you play on the pitch and to suggest that Jason shouldn't be captain because he plays fullback is utter tosh.

"The number on your jersey has no bearing on your ability to lead a rugby team and, in this day and age, a captain has a lot of help on the pitch.

"When I captained a team from full-back, I made sure my views were known if I spotted something that I felt wasn't going right.

"Besides Jonny Wilkinson, the man I believe England are missing massively is Will Greenwood, the Harlequins centre. The team have lost key men with vast experience and I can understand why people talk about Martin Corry.

"Let's face it, Corry was playing his first game for six weeks against France and stood out on his own from the rest of the pack."

Corry is wearing the England No8 jersey vacated by Dallaglio, who quit Test rugby after leading his country on the ill-fated tour to New Zealand and Australia last summer.

Dallaglio's departure along with the retirements of Martin Johnson, Jason Leonard and Neil Back and injuries to Wilkinson, Greenwood, Richard Hill and Mike Tindall has removed a spine of experience from the England squad that is being badly missed.

The failure of England to recognise fundamental errors that were being made in the second half against France is a serious worry for coach Robinson and is at the heart of the leadership debate currently raging around a team that must now go to Dublin and tackle championship favourites Ireland on 27 February.

Dallaglio said: "People are being a bit harsh on England. They did have a lead that, on another day when Charlie [Hodgson] was kicking his goals, would have produced one of the best wins in recent times against France.

"When England went behind they did not panic and responded by putting themselves into a position to try for that drop goal.

"The fact they established this position in the last third of the pitch showed me they had leadership and all that went wrong was the execution of the drop goal.

"I don't agree leadership is massively lacking in the team. I accept that dominant figures have left the squad, but we didn't become dominant over night. It took time and a lot of international matches to gain the experience we then used in our playing careers.

"What will really concern Andy Robinson will be the soft penalties that England conceded around the contact areas and these can be addressed in training. That is why I do not see any reason to panic."

Increasing the experience in the team for Dublin is a real problem for Robinson because of injuries. His one option is to start with Matt Dawson, a former England captain, at scrum-half and let him help Hodgson deal with the Irish storm that will be unleashed at Lansdowne Road.

It will be the kind of stage that Johnson, Back, Leonard and Dallaglio loved to perform on. But, as England fans know only too well, their time has gone.

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