Harlequins skipper Chris Robshaw hopes English rugby can recover its tarnished reputation and learn from its mistakes after the game was rocked by more controversy this week.

Reports compiled by the Rugby Football Union, Premiership clubs and Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) and leaked to the Times, have delivered a damning verdict on England’s disappointing World Cup display.

The documents, based on anonymous interviews with England players and coaching staff, cast further shame on those involved in the disastrous campaign in New Zealand.

Robshaw has been in fine form as Quins have kicked off their season with a record 12 straight wins as the skipper bids to establish himself on the international stage.

He was cut adrift from former team boss Martin Johnson’s plans ahead of the World Cup, and having moved on from that disappointment, he hopes England can recover from the latest set back.

“It is devastating news. The players who played in the World Cup and the management who were there, gave those views in confidence,” he said.

“The whole process was done, hopefully, to improve the England set up and wasn’t designed to be splashed around the newspaper headlines.

“It is hard to take. People’s reputations have been injured and it will be interesting to see what the RFU do.

“From a player’s perspective, it is not great that it is out there and it is probably not the direction England rugby wants to go in.

“At the moment, it looks like things are just going from one problem to another.

“It is not the best thing that it is all out there in public, but hopefully things can move forward.”

The RFU has launched an independent investigation in to how the dossier was made public and vowed to take appropriate disciplinary action in to what it described as a “serious breach of confidentiality”.

Rugby’s Professional Game Board (PGB) set up the review of England’s World Cup campaign and chairman Ian Metcalfe expressed his frustration at the leak.

“It is disappointing that confidential reports have been made public. The reporting of selective elements of those documents is counter-productive,” he added.