I think you're being incredibly generous. He was clearly personally decent, honest, etc but as a coach he was disastrous. His flaws were many but let me list some
- No genuine experience meant that instead of implementing ideas worked out and tested over time he was trying to learn international rugby management 'on the job'.
- Because of his lack of a proven track record he had no confidence in his own choices so constantly vacillated, changed tactics and selection. He did not know what would work so he was prone to panic.
- His teams never seemed to have any clear tactics.
- His lack.of confidence led to extremely conservative selection. He would rather have a 10 who could place kick and defend but nothing else than risk more flair. He played Barrit at 12 despite him having no attacking ability except leg pumping brute strength because he could tackle thus sacrificing the entire creativity of the back line for defence.
- He knew when appointed that he was building to the WC yet he had no consistency of selection, ever. He never knew his best 15 even just before. His WC squad was bonkers and collapsed into disaster once JJ was injured. He favoured Barrit at 12 and when forced by injuries to pick better, more creative centres he reverted back as soon as he could.
- He failed to win one 6N despite being in a position to win three. Inconsistent performances with one rubbish one each year cost England. For me the nadir was Cardiff where anything other than a car crash display was the 6N. He should have gone then.
His disastrously poor reign can be very easily contrasted to the impact of a quality coach on an international team. Schmidt, two seasons, two 6N. Ok his star is tarnished by the inexplicably dire effort against Argentina but both England and Ireland could have won the last two 6N and Ireland did. Cheika is even better evidence. Journos gushing over Australia this WC forget that when he came in they had lost 7 in a row and were a shambles. Nobody thought they had a chance in the WC group in NH conditions. He has won them the RC, brought in a coach who sorted their dire scrum and got to a WC final, albeit with only one genuinely good performance. Australia envied world beaters under Cheika, laughable failures before.
England have the resources and I'm sure the right man can make a huge difference. A consistent tactics and selection would be a good start.
