EAST Lancashire’s world Cup winner Will Greenwood expects England to appoint one of the game's "super coaches" to replace Stuart Lancaster, who stepped down from his position as head coach on Wednesday.

Lancaster in a statement admitted responsibility for England's World Cup failure, saying "we didn't achieve success on the field when it mattered and we all have to take responsibility for that but me especially as head coach."

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With a Six Nations campaign approaching, former centre Greenwood, from Blackburn, who won the top prize in rugby union in 2003, thinks England will turn to a world class coach, rather than a young English one.

He said: "There will be a variety of names put forward. I don't think they'd go with a young English coach who's not won big trophies yet.

"Long term, (Rob) Baxter of Exeter Chiefs will be one to keep an eye on. I hope they're monitoring him, mentoring him - he's worked wonders with Exeter Chiefs.

"But I think they will go with one of the super coaches, a coach that has won big tournaments, whether it be in Super Rugby, European Cups, Tri Nations, Rugby Championships, Grand Slams and even World Cups.

"That list appears to be Warren Gatland, Steve Hansen, Wayne Smith, Joe Schmidt, these sort of characters have vast pedigree in terms of winning major trophies."

Greenwood believes Lancaster's World Cup side were not prepared for the tournament.

Greenwood said: "I look back on it and I see the style in which Australia and New Zealand play, averaging 65 caps in that final. I just think that the young team were overawed.

"You can point to a variety of little incidents, back-row forwards giving away daft penalties against Wales, Brad Barritt - senior defensive guy - made a huge error and they didn't go for the points when the points were on offer.

"At key moments in games, when the pressure really came, they were unable to express themselves. We mustn't forget we were beating Wales 25-18 with 10 minutes to go and that would've been good enough for a quarter-final berth.

"It's clear the team weren't able to deal with the intensity of this World Cup and even if they had made the quarter-final, wouldn't have been able to go on and win the trophy."