BAGSHOT, Surrey -- An emotional Stuart Lancaster has revealed England's failure in the Rugby World Cup will sit with him forever and he will never come to terms with it.

Lancaster's future as England head coach is the source of much speculation after they suffered the ignominy of being the first World Cup hosts to fail to get through their group. Ian Ritchie, chief executive of the RFU, has said the union will now review the disastrous campaign and have ruled out any knee-jerk decisions over personnel.

However Lancaster has refused to shift blame after a humiliating exit that was confirmed by Australia's 33-13 victory over England at Twickenham on Saturday evening.

"I'm the head coach and we didn't get out of the pool," Lancaster said. "It's stating the obvious but it's going to sit with us all forever; players, coaches and management.

"I don't think I'll ever come to terms with it, personally, because it  (being World Cup hosts) was such a big thing. As a coach, I've had some great moments coaching England and I've had some disappointing ones but this pales everything else into insignificance because of what the tournament means to everyone.

"That'll be the overriding emotion I'll have for a long time I think. I need some time, obviously Ian needs some time and the RFU does as well. I think we'll make the right decision at the right time."

There is no timeframe on the review but  Ritchie is likely to play a key role in determining exactly where the blame should be placed for this campaign. Ritchie said the review will be carried out in a "confidential 360 degree basis" and the players will be contacted for their input.

Lancaster hopes the players will back him through the process, saying: "Clearly, I have invested a lot of time in one-to-one relationships with the players and I'd like to think I've got an open door where people can come in and tell me any problems and issues that arise.

"Players' views are always sought. I would like to think so (they would be supportive) but obviously it would be up to them to give their opinion."

As CEO, Ritchie will not be immune from criticism in the World Cup post-mortem but said this is a time for "calmness, consideration and reflection".

"The key thing about responsibility in my view is when times are difficult and when there are challenges ahead," Ritchie said. "Of course we both accept responsibilities for what happened but part of that responsibility is facing up to 'What do we do to move on, how do we do that?' We'll discuss that as well, collectively. The comments Stuart made I'd absolutely echo. We all get the significance of the defeat (to Australia).

"In the last three-and-a-half years there have been a lot of things that have been positive. We need to reflect on the perspective of all of that. That goes for the training centre here (at Pennyhill Park), whether it's the training, whether it's the way in which there's been a connection across the union. All of those sort of things.

"I'm not minimising in any way what happened in terms of those two games (the defeats to Wales and Australia). But you need some calm thinking and reflection, which goes back to what we need to do to kick on even more."

Lancaster and England will now somehow have to focus on Saturday night's match against Uruguay before then looking to the future. Lancaster highlighted the potential of Maro Itoje and Jack Clifford and said he hopes the nation will get behind the young players as he feels everything is in place for continued success over the coming years.

"Whilst I'm sure the emotions are raw in everyone -- it is in me as much as anyone, more so I guess -- but stick behind the young players because everything, when I look at it from a high performance point of view, is in place. There are good people, there's good players coming through, and it's completely different to 2011. I know the results aren't, they're worse than 2011, but the long term future I think is better."