by Our Sports Desk

ENGLAND begin the countdown to the defining match of Stuart Lancaster’s reign amid accusations by former captain Will Carling yesterday that their head coach has created a “classroom-orientated environment” among players treated as “schoolboys.”

World Cup survival hinges on the outcome of Saturday’s showdown with Australia after Wales left Twickenham with a stunning 28-25 victory. Should England lose, they will become the first single host nation to exit the tournament at the group stage.

Captain Chris Robshaw has been condemned for opting for an attacking line-out in the closing moments when awarded a penalty instead of giving Owen Farrell the chance to kick for goal — albeit from a difficult position near the touchline — that would have secured a draw.

Carling, who led England 59 times, is scathing of Robshaw’s “unbelievable” decision and of the selection against Wales but saved his most savage criticism for the failure by Lancaster, a former teacher, to empower his players.

“I got the sense that England were panicking. I don’t blame Chris as much as I blame others. I blame the environment,” Carling said.

“We have a very prescriptive environment in the England team.

“I’ve listened to Stuart Lancaster say for years that: ‘I don’t have the leaders and therefore we’re having to make all the decisions as coaches.’ It’s a very classroom-orientated environment.

“My view is that he has had leaders and that he needed to have trusted them and develop them.

“What we watched in the last 10 minutes was a confused debate between people who have never been given responsibility to lead and drive the team. Instead, we’ve treated them as schoolboys.”

Had England secured a draw against Warren Gatland’s underdogs, they would have been in a stronger position come the final reckoning of an unprecedented tough Pool A.

“You have to kick the penalty. Farrell was kicking brilliantly and if we’d drawn, that would not have been a disastrous result,” Carling said.

“We got a bonus point against Fiji with the game against Australia to come, so we would have been very much still in the pool with no sense of panic. It was such an unbelievable decision and sadly the wrong one.

“We were far more likely to get those three points than a line-out. There are so many more variables in going for a line-out drive, especially when we executed it as badly as we did.”