Rugby World Cup 2015: Pack problems haunt Stuart Lancaster as he finalises England’s squad

This was supposed to be a largely routine week for Stuart Lancaster as he put the finishing touches to England’s Rugby World Cup squad.

However, the manner of the 25-20 loss to France on Saturday means it has become the most important week of his three years as head coach.

It has been anticipated that England’s World Cup challenge would be underpinned by their forwards, but in Paris they suffered a second successive pummelling.

By putting out what was seen as the best pack available, it was assumed the weaknesses exposed by France as England won 19-14 at Twickenham a week earlier would become a distant memory. Instead, Lancaster and his coaches started yesterday to sift through the debris as they undertook another painful debrief.

Lancaster has until next Monday to name his 31-man squad, although Friday is the most likely date for it to be announced.

The mood in the camp was neatly summed up by George Ford, who had real problems behind a pack that was under pressure. The fly-half said: “It was frustrating. We weren’t good enough. We were inaccurate, ill-disciplined and gave them an ability to build a score. We didn’t have much ball, gave away too many penalties and even when we did have little bits of ball, we weren’t good enough with it.”

The absence of the banned hooker Dylan Hartley is being keenly felt as he remains England’s most reliable line-out thrower. Repeated failures in this area leave serious questions over Tom Youngs as the starting No2. Saracens’ Jamie George will join Rob Webber in the final squad as the other hooking options but neither is a proven Test performer.

Most startling of all the performances in Paris was the one given by Billy Vunipola, who has lost a stone in weight but struggled to impose himself. With Ben Morgan desperately short of match practice after his broken leg, Lancaster has to give serious consideration to Harlequins No8 Nick Easter, a veteran of two World Cup campaigns but still capable of making an impact from the bench.

The same is true of try scorer Danny Cipriani, whose bid to be chosen as one of the back-three players appears destined to fail as Lancaster believes Alex Goode can fill those roles.

Lancaster insists England’s Cup campaign has not been seriously undermined by the loss.

He said: “Obviously, we won’t judge everything just on one game, there has been a lot of time and effort gone into building the team over the past four years.”