Eurosport's rugby expert Neil Back claims it is a 'disgrace' the way England coach Brian Ashton has been attacked by Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt in the newspapers.

I was disappointed to see the comments made about Brian Ashton by two senior England players in the serialisation of their books in the Sunday newspapers.

Personally, I think it is a disgrace the way they have criticised Brian while he is still 'in situ' as the England coach.

Everyone knows that things were not all rosy in the England camp during the World Cup and to be honest there's rarely smoke without fire. But people are now going to question these players' motives for writing such things.

For me, the way they went about it clouds the issue. Did they write such things because they wanted to make headlines and sell their books, or did they write them because they cared about England?

The papers are clearly going to headline the most newsworthy bits because they want to make as much money as possible, and this can be misleading.

The newspapers pick and choose the sections that will be best for them - it's happened to me when I've done long interviews in the past, and I've learnt my lesson.

I have no problems with players being frank, but it has to be in the right environment and not just for the sake of making an impact and increasing sales.

Dean Richards has gone on record saying that that there is an unwritten rule that players do not criticise coaches in the press, and I have to say I agree with him.

I know the two players in question well and I know they are both very passionate about England. But I think they have gone about things the wrong way.

One of the players was interviewed on TV earlier in the week. When he was asked about Brian's coaching at the World Cup you could tell by his body language that all was not well.

However, he chose not to give a full account there and then and instead saved the details for the newspaper, which again could leave people questioning his motives.

The issue of players writing books is always a delicate one. In principle, I have nothing against players writing books and have released one myself. I wanted people to share my journey - it wasn't written with maximum sales in mind.

In fact, there is a lot more I could add to the book - the Munster incident in the Heineken Cup, the England players' strike, our World Cup victory - but for me the timing has not yet been right.

What is clear is that there must be an investigation into England's descent from being world champions in 2003 to the state they were in when they arrived at the 2007 World Cup. England must not go into 2011 in the same situation.

England must learn from the mistakes that were made, and I think the only way this can be done properly is to have a thorough investigation, from both the inside and the outside.

After the team got back from the World Cup, Rob Andrew said the RFU would make a detailed analysis before making a decision on Brian's future.

But I would go one step further and bring in someone from the outside to make a report, like they do in the business world.

Rob was clearly heavily involved with England during the World Cup and it would therefore be impossible for him to be totally impartial about the whole experience.

I'd also like to know why England never called on the experience of someone like Martin Johnson during the build up? Johnno is the most successful captain England have ever had, but he was never approached.

Why was Clive Woodward not consulted or former senior players like myself? All these things need to be addressed.

From my involvement with Brian, I know that he is a very good coach and is great working with players. He may be the right man to take England forward over the next four years - he clearly did a lot of things very well to help them to the final - but that decision needs to be assessed properly.

The fact England reached the World Cup final is not enough to base that decision on.

On the home front, Leicester went down to Bath in the EDF Energy Cup on Sunday, but we are not on a massive low. Bath are the form team in England at the moment and to be honest the game could have gone either way.

We had two young props playing and there were a few issues about binding during the game, and we will learn from the experience.

But I was very pleased with the way we prepared and approached the game, and also with the way we prevented their dangerous runners from creating too much.

We have started to integrate our World Cup players back into the club and they had a light run out during the week. I'm happy to say that they are mentally upbeat and physically they are fine.

The guys have built a good platform for the season ahead and overall we are pleased with the situation we are in.

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