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• Bill Sweeney believes English rugby is ‘on cusp of something quite spectacular’

  Bill Sweeney is confident he remains the right man to lead the Rugby Football Union despite the English game being mired in crisis and claims that “we are on the cusp of something quite spectacular”.

  Four professional clubs have collapsed in just over a year – Wasps, Worcester, London Irish and Jersey Reds – while in January the Rugby Football Union triggered a grassroots revolt through its handling of the tackle height being lowered at community level.

  On the eve of England’s victory over Argentina that opened the World Cup last month, RFU council members sent a letter to the board raising concerns over the leadership of chief executive Sweeney and chair Tom Ilube.

  Sweeney stated that the “cynical” rebellion had been faced down at Friday’s council meeting, adding that it was staged by a “small group of people who are no longer in the game or have agendas that are not necessarily in the best interests of the game”.

  At the elite level England have not finished above third place in the the Six Nations since 2020 and sacked Eddie Jones in December, giving his replacement Steve Borthwick just eight months to prepare for the World Cup.

  “It’s probably for others to say if they don’t feel I am the right person to do it,” Sweeney said.

  “I personally feel I am given my experience, given my background and my balance of business and sport. I feel I am the right person to do that.

  “I came into this role for one simple reason and it’s because I’m very passionate about this game.

  “There’s probably a large number of my friends and family who would be quite happy if I didn’t do it any longer. But I do believe that we are on the cusp of something quite spectacular here.

  “This has been a unique moment in time because of the financial challenges, because of the working relationship with Premiership Rugby, our ability to change that relationship around the partnership, to fix the things that have stopped us winning Six Nations on a regular basis.

  “The work that we’re doing in World Rugby around Nations Cup, the global calendar – that all plays into this as well.

  “I feel that I have the energy, I’ve got the passion and I’ve got the desire to see this through. Now if somebody else thinks differently about that, that’s also equally fine.

  “You don’t wake up every morning enjoying it, but that’s the reason why I would like to carry on.”

  Sweeney was accused by a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing last November of being “completely asleep on the job” and told that he should consider resigning in response to the financial crisis that led to Wasps and Worcester entering administration.

  The Twickenham chief has promised structural reform “to fix a number of issues that have been broken for some time”, thereby ending the “boom and bust periods when it is more based on hope”.

  Sweeney confirmed that negotiations are proceeding for 25 England players to be placed on ‘hybrid contracts’ that would give Borthwick more control of his most important internationals.

• England career igniting convinced me to sign new Saracens deal – Ben Earl

  Ben Earl admitted it was his England career igniting that convinced him to re-sign with Saracens and play his part in lifting the domestic club out of the doldrums.

  Earlier this week Earl signed a long-term contract with the Gallagher Premiership champions to continue his upward trajectory in a 2023 that has produced his first Test start and selection in Steve Borthwick’s World Cup squad.

  Now that rampaging displays against Argentina, Japan and Chile have impressed audiences in France, he has become one of Borthwick’s star performers, who is set to be restored to the back row against Samoa on Saturday.

  Having struggled to convince Eddie Jones and then being discarded by Borthwick in the Six Nations earlier this year in order to work on his conditioning, the 25-year-old admits he was considering his options overseas until his England outlook changed.

  “You never shut that door. I guess it is a lot easier to move abroad if you are not playing for England,” Earl said.

  “If you are not in the picture, it can be nice sometimes to have a change of scene, but thankfully at the moment I’m playing for England and that made my decision for me.

  “Steve has always been very honest with me about what it would take for me to play for England and hopefully I’m starting to make some steps in those directions.

  “Now it is just a no-brainer, I’m fully focussed on playing for Saracens and hopefully for England for a long time.”

  Earl has chosen to stay in the Gallagher Premiership during a period of upheaval.

  Jersey Reds’ announcement last week that they had entered administration lifts the total of professional clubs to have gone out of business in the past year to four, painting a grim picture of the finances of the English game.

  A closer relationship between the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby is set to produce a series of ‘hybrid contracts’ that will give Borthwick greater control over around 20 of his Tests stars.

  Earl would be a prime candidate for one of the contracts that would see a player’s club receive greater compensation and he believes his generation has a role to play in restoring the sport to health.

  “We are hearing good things about the plans for the league over the next couple of years – salary cap stuff and commercial stuff. We are already seeing some small changes and that can only be a good thing,” he said.

  “There have been times when players have shut themselves off from the commercial side of the game.

  “And we as a younger generation in terms of coming through and taking on the mantle of the league, we need to be a bit more open by putting ourselves out there.

  “We’ve had some talks with the league. We’re asking for a bit more, they’re asking for a bit more. Everyone is willing and saying the right things, so hopefully that’s a step in the right direction.”

• I don’t like the word defending – Jos Buttler wants England to attack

  Jos Buttler wants his England side to throw off the tag of ‘defending’ champions at the World Cup, insisting attack is the only thing on their mind in India.

  Buttler remains fiercely proud of the 2019 triumph but has made it clear that the four-year-old title carries little weight once the tournament gets under way on Thursday, when England take on New Zealand in a repeat of the previous final.

  The attachment to the trophy-winning side is clear – with eight of that squad on duty once again here and a ninth, Jofra Archer, in tow as a travelling reserve – but the captain is eager to draw a clear line under the past.

  And that starts with banishing unhelpful terminology.

  “I don’t see us as defending champions. We’re not defending anything. I want us to attack so I don’t like the word defending,” he said.

  “It may be a motivation for certain teams when they’ve been in that position, but for us it’s irrelevant. It certainly is for me.

  “It’s fantastic to be reigning champions and I won’t say we’ve left that behind completely because it’s a nice place to be, but you’ve given that trophy back now.

  “It’s done. It’s about trying to create something new. We must be hungry to do it again and try to be focused on something different.

  “I think the hunger is there. For most professional sports people, there’s always a want for more, there’s always a desire for more, a hunger for more.

  “We wouldn’t be here if we were content with what we’ve done and you’re always excited for the new challenge.”

  Buttler was the man who applied the finishing touch that secured England’s first World Cup at Lord’s, completing the run out that separated the two teams on the now defunct boundary countback rule, before taking over as captain for last year’s T20 success in Australia.

  Having unified both white-ball crowns, the next seven weeks offer an opportunity to make it three global trophies in the space of four years.

  That would be the kind of legacy to put England’s golden generation up with the very best there has been and Buttler is happy to be held to such high standards.

  “We’re all dreamers and we all want to be able to say those things,” he said.

  “It’s a nice place to be as an English sports team that fans expect you to do well and we’ll try our best for the fans back home and those that make it out here.

  “I think the biggest thing is we know we are a team who like being in that position of having expectations on us.

  “It’s a great place to be, I’d rather be there than a non-fancied side that nobody thinks has a chance.

  “We’ve got some of the best players in the world in our team – that gives us a great chance.”

  How much further the current team can take their story is open to debate. There are 11 thirtysomethings in the current squad of 15, including five who will be 34 by the end of the month.

  A raft of retirements at the end of the World Cup would hardly be a huge surprise ahead of a new four-year cycle.

  “We know we are an older squad than some and that should be a feather in everyone’s cap because of how professional we are to be playing to the standard we are at this age,” Buttler said.

  “Age is not the defining factor – and we don’t need to add pressure by saying this is the last one – but I think it’s quite obvious with a few people being where they are at in their careers and the next ODI World Cup being four years away.

  “But we’ll do our thing, we always try and enjoy the pleasure of playing for England. It’s a team that’s been together a long time and there’s some great friendships there and this World Cup is part of that story.

  “We’ll try and make more great memories and cherish every moment as team-mates, friends and colleagues.”