James Haskell insists there is no great mystery behind New Zealand’s dominance of the sport but said yesterday that the English game would benefit from changing to a summer season.

The All Blacks became the first team to defend the World Cup after toppling Australia in last Saturday’s pulsating final at Twickenham to be crowned champions for an unprecedented third time.

The absence of northern hemisphere sides from the semi-finals and England’s failure to advance from the group stage in their worst performance in eight editions of competition has reopened the debate over Europe’s shortcomings.

Haskell is the only Red Rose player to have spent a season in southern hemisphere provincial rugby after completing a year-long spell with Super 15 franchise the Highlanders in 2012, providing him with an insight into the All Blacks’ success.

“When I went to New Zealand I thought people would be throwing the ball out the back door all the time and that I’d have to be able to do drop-goals like Zinzan Brooke,” Haskell said.

“Low and behold it turned out that rugby is rugby wherever you go but there are some key differences. Culturally they live and breathe rugby.

“First and foremost everyone wants to be a rugby player, no one wants to be in ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ or a footballer. It helps when the whole nation is geared towards one thing.

“They play touch as soon as they can walk, in good weather. If they don’t make their Super 15 team, they play club rugby. The surfaces are better across the board and I didn’t have one wet weather game while I was there.

“The only change I can suggest if you want us to compete is to make rugby over here a summer sport.

“Then we can play in dry weather and play a style of rugby we want to play. There’s no point wanting to be like New Zealand because we’re not them.

“There isn’t a miracle answer, but if we encouraged more people to play touch, focus on the skills and play in the summer, things would change.”