Melville furious at Paul humiliation

'If he wasn't to play for England again, that would be our gain. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

'He has every right to feel down. They had obviously been happy with him from the previous match against South Africa, which makes you wonder whether there was something wrong going into the Australia game.

'You cannot make a judgment on Henry based on the first 26 minutes.

'I have never seen a player substituted that early in an international. I still don't understand the decision. Henry made no more mistakes than the others. I find it hard to understand the logic and there was always the risk it would come back to haunt them, which it did.

'There is a strong argument that the decision to take Henry off ultimately lost England the game.

' Whatever you think of taking him off so early, you cannot escape the fact the decision left England without cover in two key areas - fly half and goal-kicking. One penalty would have done it.'

Paul, whose place-kicking has brought him 40 goals in 10 matches for Gloucester this season, will be an influential figure when the club renew their European Cup challenge against Cardiff at Kingsholm on Saturday.

Not surprisingly, the player was 'fed up' yesterday but not, according to Melville, to the point of going into immediate Test retirement at 30 . ' Henry's made of sterner stuff,' said Melville. 'I've had a chat with him and he still wants to play for England. He is not one to shy away from a challenge and I will support him.

'He wants to know what he did wrong. He did make mistakes, so it's a case of ironing them out. I am not going to let what happened at Twickenham affect him.

'He has to take it on the chin. We'll go through the video, which will only take 20 minutes. He only touched the ball four times.'

Paul's initial contract, worth more than £200,000-a-year following his switch from rugby league, was funded jointly by Gloucester and the Rugby Football Union. His current contract has two seasons to run, although at a substantially reduced salary.

The RFU has withdrawn its 50 per cent contribution, as it has with Jason Robinson. His new deal at Sale is financed entirely by the club and Paul's acceptance of a similar agreement at Kingsholm eliminated any question of a return to league.

'He really enjoys his rugby at Gloucester,' said Melville. 'And he does a really good job for us. His ambition is to keep improving and everyone will learn lessons from the weekend.'

Jonny Wilkinson, out of action since Newcastle's home draw against Saracens six weeks ago, is still awaiting medical clearance on his damaged bicep to resume full contact training.

He is unlikely to play any part in his club's back-to-back European Cup ties against Edinburgh over the next two weekends.