Players’ behaviour at World Cup was ‘an insult to the shirt’, says Carling

Former England captain Carling also questioned whether manager Martin Johnson would want to remain in his job and called for sweeping reform at the Rugby Football Union.

England exited the tournament 10 days ago, but Carling remains furious about a campaign when Johnson’s squad at times became a laughing stock.

Their stay in New Zealand was overshadowed by players’ raucous behaviour at a bar in Queenstown, before three players – Chris Ashton, James Haskell and Dylan Hartley – were forced to apologise to a female hotel worker in Dunedin for lecherous comments.

Centre Manu Tuilagi was then fined £3,000 by the RFU for diving off a ferry into Auckland Harbour as England’s wretched stay in New Zealand drew to a close.

On the field, England performed with little ambition or adventure, grinding out narrow victories over Argentina and Scotland before exiting the competition against a limited French side.

It not only raised questions about Johnson’s future, but those of his coaching staff, while several England stars could easily have played their last games for their country.

“I don’t understand it,” Carling said.

“I just think the values system seems to have been lost in the England team, and I am not sure where it has gone.

“I hope whoever forms the new coaching team sits back down with these players and some of the players grow up a wee bit and understand the honour of putting on that shirt.

“A lot of them, the way they behaved down here was an insult to the shirt.

“I am not being funny, but to blame the media is an easy excuse.

“There is part of the media that love that (type of story), but there is a naivety to actually give them (the papers) a chance to start going down that line.

“I didn’t see what was wrong with guys going to a bar and having some beers. I don’t have an issue with that at all, and I don’t think anyone ever would.

“Some of the other stuff, it was naive and it was stupid, but the day rugby players cannot go out in public to a bar and have a beer, that’s a very sad day.

“The rest of it was naive and irresponsible, and you can’t defend it. The majority of the guys didn’t get involved in anything stupid, but all it takes is four or five of them.”

Wales coach Warren Gatland considered asking a front-row forward to feign injury and force uncontested scrums during the controversial World Cup semi-final defeat against France.

Gatland had already seen prop Adam Jones depart with a calf muscle injury, and then eight minutes later Wales captain Sam Warburton was sent off.

The International Rugby Board are aware of Gatland’s comments, but have so far not responded.

“We’d already lost Adam Jones, and we discussed in the (coaches) box whether we would fake an injury to one of our props and go to uncontested scrums,” said Gatland.

“But morally, I made the decision it wasn’t the right thing to do.

“We could easily have done that in the first 25-30 minutes, but in the spirit of the game, in the spirit of a World Cup semi-final, I didn’t think that was the fairest or the right thing.

“That is why I honestly believe Alain Rolland made the wrong decision. Under the rules and regulations he was perfectly entitled to give a red card. But every game is different.”