Cotton keeps spinning old yarn ( Rob.

Byline: By Alan Hedley

Newcastle manager Rob Andrew is astonished at the reaction to England's third successive Six Nations defeat.

Former England prop and leading RFU official Fran Cotton has called for central contracts for top players to ensure top players don't suffer burn-out.

And top clubs have been told they will be allowed to spend an extra pounds 250,000 from next year to increase their squad depth. While Andrew will welcome the extra elbow room for players, he described the current furore as "bizarre" and accused the RFU of double standards.

He said: "I find it quite amazing that when England lose it's the clubs' fault and when England win it's down to the RFU.

"It's quite bizarre how it seems to work like. It didn't seem to stop us winning the World Cup, but that had nothing to do with the clubs did it! Now we have lost a couple of games suddenly it's all our fault. We seem to hear this from Fran every couple of years."

I get the impression Andrew won't be losing much sleep over the issue and is unimpressed.

It's not that long ago he was commissioned by the RFU and Cotton to produce a structure for the season, did so ( and the RFU promptly shelved it.

They could start putting their own house in order first by scrapping the November internationals, Barbarians games and Lions tours rather than look to the clubs, who pay the players, to reduce their schedule.

Meanwhile, Premier Rugby chief executive Howard Thomas has said he wants each Zurich Premiership side to have more than 40 players.