Ian Ritchie says he has no regrets over hiring Stuart Lancaster as England’s head coach despite the disastrous home World Cup campaign in 2015, and having announced his retirement as chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, he claims he leaves a side far better placed to make amends at Japan 2019.
Since arriving in 2012 Ritchie has stabilised the RFU – rife with infighting when he arrived – continued to bring about record revenues and by appointing Eddie Jones ensured England are at last delivering on the pitch. The timing of his retirement, announced on Wednesday, suits both the RFU and Ritchie, who is nearly 64.
Even Ritchie, despite flying to Cape Town to get his man, would not have envisaged this degree of success under Jones and it is to the outgoing chief executive’s great credit that he showed such commitment to resolving the mess after the 2015 World Cup. He can leave with England back-to-back Six Nations champions, while the women’s and the under‑20s sides are both Six Nations and world champions. The under-20s begin the defence of their world crown in Georgia on 31 May.
He said: “I felt very driven after the World Cup despite all the disappointments in 2015 that there was a responsibility to say what are you going to do next? I felt Eddie was the right person for the job – I did the trip to Cape Town but I never thought he would win 18 games on the bounce. That is testament to what he is and what he brings.
“The players are hugely more experienced now. You have got a big group of highly talented players who are much more experienced, more battle hardened and more prepared. That psychological small margin is extremely important and we have got the coaching team that matches that.”
Yet the 2015 World Cup will always be a stain on Ritchie’s copybook. Off the field he can be commended and commercially it was an unprecedented success but on it England under Lancaster were a shambles. The closest Ritchie came to acknowledging the error of his ways was when asked if he ought not to have turned down Nick Mallett and Wayne Smith – now a New Zealand assistant coach – in favour of Lancaster in 2012.
Ritchie said: “To be clear I have no regrets about Stuart at all, and I really feel for Stuart and what he put in and the whole coaching team but Eddie has that knack when it comes to fine margins. “Of course you think about [turning down Mallett and Smith], and hindsight’s a wonderful thing. But Stuart is a highly talented, highly committed coach.
“At the end of 2011 all those things were under some attack within the union as a whole, never mind the England team. The appointment of Stuart was consistent with that at the time. I still think Stuart did a huge number of positive things.”
Ritchie cites England’s 28-25 defeat by Wales in the 2015 World Cup as his motivator to change things – a touch naively as while victory may have settled the nerves, their problems and Lancaster’s limitations had already manifested themselves. Though perhaps Ritchie’s greater mistake was giving Lancaster a six-year contract extension less than a year before the World Cup. Again, with the benefit of hindsight, it seems a ludicrous move considering that as the World Cup drew closer it was publicly acknowledged England would not peak for the tournament, rather at 2019.
Lancaster had three years to prepare his side and he failed – in contrast Australia had a year under Michael Cheika and reached the final. It is also not surprising the one date marked on Jones’s calendar is 2 November 2019 – the day of the next World Cup final – and he cares little for what happens even 24 hours after that.
It was put to Ritchie that he might have left in 2015 had things panned out a little better. He said no but regardless, he vacates the post having mopped up a post-World Cup mess on two occasions. He is blameless for one, the other he must take his fair share for, but Ritchie can depart safe in the knowledge he leaves an organisation in unrecognisably better shape than when he arrived.
