Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, made it clear who was at fault for the unsuccessful talks with New Zealand, with plans for an impromptu match this autumn shelved after the All Blacks elected to play the Barbarians instead of England.

“They felt they wanted to play the Barbarians rather than have a tough tier one fixture,” Ritchie said on Friday. “It's as a simple as that.”

The simple matter is that England and New Zealand will have played each other once in five years by the time the 2019 Rugby World Cup begins, with their scheduled autumn international next year the only time that the current top two in the world will have met since 2014.

For rugby fans, that isn’t good enough, and it’s something that Ritchie buys into as well. “I simply felt that there was an opportunity to get that game that frankly every supporter in the country wants to see, every rugby fan wants to see, and beforehand was it a shame that we weren’t playing New Zealand before 2018? There was a possibility and it was worth exploring, end of.”

The RFU confirmed last week that they were holding talks with the New Zealand Rugby Union, and in particular the NZRU chief executive Steve Tew, about hosting a match on 4 November this year – ahead of England’s finalised fixtures against Argentina, Samoa and Australia. That would have seen the bulk of the England squad coming off a British and Irish Lions tour against the All Blacks, with the rest travelling to Argentina for this summer’s two-Test series against the Pumas.

England will have to wait to face New Zealand (Getty)

It had led the England head coach, Eddie Jones, to ponder resting a number of players for the autumn internationals, only for the RFU to enter talks with the All Blacks about an additional match. But even though Ritchie revealed that Jones was fully behind the idea of testing his team against the reigning world champions, it raised questions over player welfare and squeezing in another fixture for the squad to cope with.

“That’s absolutely right and he [Jones] can do that whether there were three or four games,” Ritchie said of the plan to give his players a break if they were showing signs of tiredness in the autumn.

Six Nations top 10 players Show all 10 1 /10 Six Nations top 10 players Six Nations top 10 players 10. Camille Lopez (France) Dangerous cross-field kick nearly led to a chance for Nakataici in the first-half. He kicked well, although anything beyond 40m looked to be out of his range. Missed just one kick, which was forgivable. AFP/Getty Images Six Nations top 10 players 9. Kevin Gourdon (France) France have found their natural replacement for Thierry Dusautoir as Gourdon once again displayed his talents in the win over Italy. He carried well for more than 50 metres, and did his job in defence to slow down the Italian attack at the breakdown. Getty Six Nations top 10 players 8. Finn Russell (Scotland) Finn Russell touched down in the first half Getty Six Nations top 10 players 7. Dan Biggar (Wales) About as good a defensive display as you will see from a full-back. Made an exceptional 14 tackles as Nathan Hughes tried to ram the ball down his throat, and his interception on his own line saved Wales from conceding and gained them 80m in the process. Unlucky not to bag himself a try, as the combination of Nowell, Daly and a forward pass robbed him of three chances to score. Getty Six Nations top 10 players 6. Ken Owens (Wales) It wasn’t really a tournament where the hookers blossomed, so Owens makes the cut as a best of a bad bunch option. Jamie George impressed off the bench for England but saw too little game time, while Rory Best was only able to deliver on the final weekend. Fraser Brown had a solid start, but his yellow card against England cost his side dear and he was dropped for the finale against Italy. Getty Six Nations top 10 players 5. CJ Stander (Ireland) CARDIFF, WALES - MARCH 10: CJ Stander of Ireland runs with the ball during the RBS Six Nations match between Wales v Ireland at the Principality Stadium on March 10, 2017 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images) Getty Six Nations top 10 players 4. Baptiste Serin (France) Looked to try and seize his chance after being handed his first start, and didn’t do himself a disservice. That said, he didn’t do anything to stand out and was outnumbered when Youngs and Daly ran down his channel. Getty Six Nations top 10 players 3. Conor Murray (Ireland) EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 04: Ireland player Conor Murray in action during the RBS Six Nations match between Scotland and Ireland at Murrayfield Stadium on February 4, 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) Getty Six Nations top 10 players 2. Louis Picamoles (France) Player of the round? That may be the case, as even though France failed to win on Saturday, Picamoles was on another level to the other 29 starters at Twickenham. Gained the most metres of any man in the encounter, outrunning the entire English pack by nearly 30 metres. Getty Six Nations top 10 players 1. Rhys Webb (Wales) It was the Welshman who came out on top in the battle of the Lions hopefuls, given that Conor Murray saw his match ended prematurely through an arm injury. Webb didn’t have it all his way, but his pass to Halfpenny that set-up North’s try was sublime and he also spotted the gap to send the win over for his second. He’s quickly becoming the most attacking scrum-half in the world. Getty

“How he rests them, how we deal with it, how we work that out, again I think it’s an important relationship between us and PRL and the clubs. If you look up during the course of this season, if you go back to play because they need a game, when they’re rested, there is plenty of flexibility and discretion within our arrangement to see whether or not somebody can get a rest, and it’s up to Eddie fundamentally in collaboration with those directors of rugby as to agree what they want to agree.

“I don’t see that one game post-Lions, bearing in mind the possible significance of it, was a detriment to that because I think the overwhelming thing was it was very well worth trying to see if that game could happen. It hasn’t, but that’s fine. I think I would be unfair to Eddie and to fans if I hadn’t at least explored the possibility.”

Jones was 'disappointed' to learn his side wouldn't be playing New Zealand (Getty)

After confirming that New Zealand’s commitments meant that the match could not take place after the other autumn internationals in the first week of December, the RFU were not able to persuade them into playing England on the opening weekend of the autumn internationals, and instead signed off the match between the All Blacks and the Barbarians at Twickenham on the same day.

But how did Jones take the news? “He was disappointed obviously. Eddie is fairly clear and relatively quick as to whether or not he thinks something is a good or bad idea. We had several conversations about it. He was very happy to play it, wanted to play it. It’s up to New Zealand and I completely understand their conclusion.”