Austin Healey says English rugby needs to buy Super Rugby franchise

Former England and Lions international Austin Healey says England need to join Super Rugby if future World Cup failures are to be avoided.

As the post-World Cup hand-wringing continues in the north, former British and Irish Lions utility back Austin Healey has come up with a radical "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" proposal to save the game in England.
Writing in his column in The Telegraph newspaper, Healey, who earned 51 caps for England and two for the Lions in Australia, has called for the rich Rugby Football Union to "buy" a Super Rugby franchise.
After lamenting the drop in standards in premiership rugby in England and the decline in general of the national team, Healey challenged the game's rulers to take the ultimate step in learning from the southern hemisphere nations.

Austin Healey toured Australia with the Lions, and is now calling for a more permanent northern presence in the south

England became the first major host to fail to qualify out of their pool at a World Cup when they were beaten by both Wales and Australia in group play the just completed tournament.
The four-yearly global event was dominated by the southern hemisphere, with the All Blacks becoming the first team to claim a second straight Webb Ellis Cup and all four Rugby Championship nations winning through to the semifinals.
"This is my problem with the Premiership – all our players need to touch the ball far more often and the ball-in-play time needs to increase if England, as a national team, are going to compete," wrote Healey in his column.

England's Chris Robshaw could only look away in horror as England crashed out of the Cup early.

Currently players leave the field able to have a chat and look as if they're ready for another weightlifting session. Some even look cold. I want to see players leaving the field unable to breathe.
"That's because the game in England still revolves the set-piece. As the World Cup painfully demonstrated that is an antiquated mindset. I know we harp on about New Zealand's aura but the reason they are the best team on the planet is because their basics of catching and passing are superb, as are the pitches.

England players react after losing to Wales in pool play at the Rugby World Cup

"I have watched every game of the Premiership this season and some of the skill levels are terrible. The fundamental problem is we go set-piece to set-piece, penalty to penalty. We attack players, not space. We play rugby to gain penalties rather than embrace the true essence which is to score tries."

It was then he came up with his "innovative and imaginative" proposal – setting up an English Super Rugby franchise.
"It's not like the RFU are short of a bob or two," Healey wrote. "They generated £40 million ($92.8 million) from hosting the World Cup so they could easily afford to buy out an existing Super Rugby franchise and fill it with English players they want to develop.

England coach Stuart Lancaster oversaw his side's World Cup failure.

"If you said to Jack Nowell that we want you to go and play in Perth for three years but we would bring you back for the Six Nations I am sure he would bite your hand off. If I was a back playing today in the Premiership I don't think I would stay.
"Backs in the Premiership maybe touch the ball 10 times a game. That's once every eight minutes. Forwards, too, would greatly benefit from being exposed to different conditions, different environments and different ideas. There's a reason we don't develop guys like Michael Hooper or David Pocock in this country."
The utility back, who famously fell out with then Lions coach Graham Henry on the 2001 tour of Australia, has taken more than a few liberties with his proposal, but it does demonstrate palpably that there has been a major mindshift in the north around the southern hemisphere game.
"People dismiss Super Rugby as touch rugby with no tackling and no contact," he wrote. "That's not true but there is a reason for that: they run at space rather than defenders. If you have a choice of running directly at someone or running at a gap only an idiot would run at the defenders. Yet that's precisely the attitude of a lot of northern hemisphere coaches."
Healey also disagreed with former England hooker Richard Cockerill's notion that England shouldn't follow the southern hemisphere but rather stick to its strengths.
"Unfortunately, other countries have surpassed England's areas of strength in the scrum, driving maul, and we've never been that good at the breakdown.
"[But] we have to find our own way. It's almost impossible to overtake someone if you're always trying to catch them up and that's why radical thought is required. Bold measures are needed if England are going to bridge the gap with Argentina, let alone New Zealand."
The man they once called the 'Leicester Lip' also weighed in on Sam Burgess' decision to turn his back on rugby and return to league, taking a not so subtle swipe at the player's decision.
"Clearly, he missed his family in Australia. But true world-class players – champions – don't go home because they miss their family; they go home because they doubt they are capable of remaining a champion. In short, he has taken the easy way out. And in some ways you can't blame him."