Heather Fell, Olympic silver medallist, writes about her life in the media and sports world.

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It was decided by those at the top that the skills for the job superseded any national pride.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 would do, regardless of nationality. The new appointment, Australian Eddie Jones, will have his every move scrutinised — let’s hope the money pays off.