Hill critical of players' 'disloyalty'

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There has been close scrutiny in the days since England lost the World Cup final 15-6 to South Africa of comments made by the likes of Mike Catt and Lawrence Dallaglio on the leadership of England coach Brian Ashton during the tournament in France.

"It is always a bit disappointing to see players piping up and showing a bit of disloyalty to what goes on behind closed doors," said Hill. "What happens behind closed doors has to be kept behind them and not be for public consumption."

Skipper Vickery, who like Catt and Dallaglio was dropped during the tournament only to win his place back in time to lead the side during the knockout stages, has insisted Ashton should be backed by the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

"I would endorse what Phil Vickery has said about Brian Ashton. A lot of things go on in rugby clubs and he made a very important point," added Hill.

"As an example, we've got 54 players at Bristol and you can never keep that number happy.

"And you can never keep the whole World Cup squad happy because everyone wants to play in the starting XV and even in that starting line-up they will have ideas about how they want to play or get their involvement in the game.

"They may not like the fact the coach is telling them, 'you're not going to be doing this', but you have to respect what the coach says and go along with it."