RFL launches review after England's early World Cup exits as Tonga defeat confirms men's elimination

England's rugby league chiefs moved to map out the game's future after the men's World Cup exit was confirmed when Tonga defeated Samoa 20-18 on Sunday morning at the Rugby League World Cup. The Rugby Football League said former Great Britain captain Paul Sculthorpe, retiring England women's skipper Jodie Cunningham and Adrian Morley would form part of an initial panel to draw up the plan.

There were mitigating circumstances behind England's early departures from the Men's and Women's Rugby League World Cups, but the RFL has accepted that group-stage elimination for both sides is not acceptable. The body said the panel will build on work begun earlier this year under a scheme called One Game, One England, whose aims include developing players from grassroots and academy levels to prepare them for international selection. England's head coach Brian McDermott has repeatedly argued during the campaign for stronger domestic structures to give the national team a better chance, while travel schedules, the competition format and injuries also affected outcomes.

Ian Nolan, the RFL's chief executive, said the organisation recognises external factors but will not hide behind them. "There are plenty of mitigating reasons why we failed to reach the knockout stages, many of which were out of our control, such as travel itineraries and format of the competition, but we can't use these as excuses," Nolan said. "Likewise, we were also criticised for what happened with the TV rights and the tournament going behind a paywall [on Premier Sports]. We had no control over who the rights were sold to. However, television is an important element of capturing the imagination of the next generation."

Nolan said the review would be comprehensive. "This analysis of our national game will be all-encompassing, including how we can influence media rights, balancing reach and revenue, and attracting new audiences," he said. "But on the pitch, we must look at why we have consistently struggled to make our mark on the world stage for more than half a century; this isn't just a recent problem."

The RFL highlighted specific issues in the women's game and pointed to existing development pathways. "Grassroots investment in our women and girls' game only started a few years ago," Nolan said. "We've started that journey. "Stuart Barrow took a very young side to this World Cup, with 11 graduates from our DiSE programme. We're very much building for the next World Cups – the average age of or squad was just 21 years old - but the groundwork is starting to pay off." England's women beat Wales 70-6, lost 78-0 to Australia and 24-6 to Samoa at the tournament.

England's men finished the group stage having won two of their three group games and with a points difference of +86, yet were eliminated; their exit was confirmed on Sunday exactly 12 months to the day after their Rugby League Ashes challenge officially ended. On 1 November last year, Australia won 14-4 in the second Test at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium to secure a series victory; that defeat and the one that followed at Headingley set in motion Shaun Wane's departure in January and led to McDermott's arrival in April. With no mid-season international or warm-up matches to refine a style of play, McDermott has produced some improvements, but England "were good in patches against Tonga, were as ruthless as they needed to be against France and were doing everything required of them for the opening 20 minutes against Papua New Guinea before losing their way completely."

The RFL and McDermott drew attention to the scale of the Australian game and the constraints it places on England arranging tests against southern hemisphere opposition. The NRL's seven-year, A$5.3bn (£2.78bn) television contract signed in July and the three-match State of Origin series staged in June and July shape available international windows, meaning England can largely only schedule southern hemisphere matches in October and November while working around the Pacific Championships. "Of the 23 players picked for the tournament by Tonga - England's ultimate conquerors - 22 play in the NRL," the review noted. McDermott also spoke about potential investment and structural differences: "I think there's some dominoes could start falling our way if the NRL invests and we accept their investment," McDermott said just under two weeks ago. "New South Wales clubs have got about six teams [from youth level up to the senior side]," he added. "And every one of those teams have got a six [stand-off], a seven [scrum-half] and a nine [hooker] and a one [full-back]. And they all play consistently. "Super League clubs... I don't think they could populate three teams underneath them with a genuine six, seven, nine and one [the spine of the team]. "And this is not a new opinion, this has been going on for a long time. "It's nothing to do with professionalism. It's nothing to do with commitment. It's nothing to do with good quality coaching or commitment from players. It's just the size of the competitions."

The RFL cautioned that solutions will take time and collective backing from across the game. "The panel will help us form some big decisions and changes. Those decisions might need the support of the entire game, and progress won't be achieved overnight. These will be changes that pay off in four, eight, 10 years' time," Nolan said.