The Rugby Football Union is launching an immediate investigation into the leak of three supposedly confidential reports into England's World Cup campaign with the aim of finding not only who gave the documents to a newspaper but also their motives.
The three reviews – conducted by the RFU's director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew, the players' union and the professional clubs – were never intended for public consumption but the contents, published in The Times, paint a damning picture of a divided squad.
The union's chief disciplinary officer, Judge Jeff Blackett, is appointing an independent investigator, likely to be a retired policeman, to take charge of the inquiry and report back to him within two weeks.
"It is very disappointing that such sensitive information, based on a number of statements by individuals who were promised confidentiality, have been leaked," said Blackett. "We need to find out who and why and we are wasting no time in starting the investigation.
"It is outrageous that individuals find themselves disparaged without the right of reply and this is damaging to the RFU as an organisation. When the report is produced, we will take the necessary action."
The head of the Rugby Players' Association, Damian Hopley, issued a statement, condemning the leaks as "outrageous".
Hopley said: "I am absolutely devastated that our RPA members' trust has been so publicly betrayed. Players voluntarily took part in these interviews and gave their honest and frank assessment of England's Rugby World Cup campaign.
"The aim was to be completely open and transparent and players should be respected for refusing to shy away from some of the problems encountered. Players were critical of themselves, of the coaching team and of the RFU and its leadership. Their determination was for everyone to be accountable and take responsibility for the disappointing showing in the Rugby World Cup.
"Many comments were understandably robust because they knew England had not performed as they could have and the players are committed to getting things right for the future.
"Our players were assured that their feedback would be totally confidential and yet no sooner has the report been sent to the board members than it appears in a national newspaper. If England wants to regain its status as a respected rugby nation, it is imperative that we stop the rot at the top of the game and show some much needed integrity. What example does this set to the game? It is an absolute disgrace.
"It was the lack of faith in the system and process being confidential that saw many players shy away from completing the RFU questionnaires in the first place and, perhaps not surprisingly, their mistrust has been proven to be correct.
"We cannot ignore that once again there has been a serious breach of confidentiality. We are demanding a detailed investigation to track down the source of the leak and deal appropriately with that person. If we are serious about destroying the porous culture in our game, then we need to introduce tougher security measures to weed out these self-serving people once and for all."
The Professional Game Board's chairman Ian Metcalfe said: "It is disappointing and frustrating that confidential reports submitted to the PGB have been put into the public domain when all involved were promised that their views would remain private for the ultimate goal of improving the England team.
"The reporting of selective elements of those documents is also counter-productive to that aim.
"There will naturally be a wide range of views surrounding the Rugby World Cup and the PGB review was set up to take into account all feedback from all parties. There has been a clear process that has been followed which will culminate in fair and balanced recommendations to the RFU board of directors on 30 November."
The sports minister Hugh Robertson, meanwhile, reacted to the leaks by saying he was "dismayed" by England's World Cup performance, and not particularly surprised by the contents of the reports.
Robertson said: "In a sense there is nothing that is a great surprise in the revelations: people have been saying that or things like that to me for most of the last month or two. The important thing is that the RFU use this as an opportunity to reform the way rugby is run in this country.
"I think sport in this country has a quite a lot of governing structures that are stuck in a previous era, and in rugby's case I don't think they have fully made the transition in governance from the old amateur era to the modern professional game. They are not unique in that – quite a lot of sports suffer from it, football being one such.
"I have told them already that they need more independent non-executive directors [on the board], they need more independence on the board and a better balance between those that represent the vested interests in the game and those who bring external expertise."
