<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (munstermuffin @ Mar 9 2010, 10:14 PM)
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Lads just 1 query .... Do England think maybe sacking Ashton was a poor decision.
Like if he was surrounded with excellent coaches like Ireland did (Kidney with Gaffney, Smal & Kiss) it could've been a progression instead of a rotating door at English managerial post.
And is Rob Andrew safe always or what the story like I'm sure he has input into decisions so should come under microscope too.[/b]
England were right to sack Ashton; wrong not to do it straight after the RWC rather than wasting time with the 6N; and wrong to cut him out of the set up altogether. He was a fine attack coach, just not a good head coach.
One of our problems has been that we've not had a proper head coach since Sir Clive - one who can pick teams properly and has enough vision and management skill to
manage a team.
Robinson was an excellent forward's coach, but that did not mean he picked good teams, and nor did he play the right gameplan. We're seeing this with Scotland - he's capable of getting a team to really max out its potential, but never consistently, and he himself sometimes makes fatal management errors.
Ideally, we should have kept Robinson and Ashton on as coaches in their own specific fields, because that's what they're good at. But you need a manager to do the other parts.
He needs some more experience, but Richard Cockerill's done an absolutely cracking job since taking over at Leicester. He also comes across as a guy with a lot of integrity. If he keeps up the good work at Leicester, I'd love to see him take over as head coach after 2011, with a nice 4 year 'untouchable' period and the ability to select his own coaching staff.
Of course, this will never happen because we're dealing with the RFU.
