England lock Geoff Parling has insisted that Stuart Lancaster has left the team in a good position, despite their failure at this year's Rugby World Cup.

Lancaster left England by mutual consent last week having seen his side become the first host nation to be eliminated at the group stages of a World Cup, courtesy of defeats to Wales and Australia.

The likes of Eddie Jones, Jake White and Warren Gatland have been linked with the vacant post at Twickenham, and Parling believes that whoever takes over will find themselves with a strong squad at their disposal.

"He put a lot of good things in place, a lot of foundations. There's a hell of a lot of talent around and whoever comes in is going to inherit a good group of players that play in a very competitive league every week," Parling told BBC Sport.

"I can't tell you how disappointed I am, it's something that will stay with me in some way almost forever and I still think about it quite a lot - a home World Cup, I'm certainly never going to experience that again as a player. Out of all the stuff that comes out afterwards, the thing that I've been thinking about is 'what more could I have done?'.

"A lot of the stuff that people are looking for, outside reasons, weren't actually there. We just weren't good enough on the rugby pitch and I think as players we'll be thinking, and we have thought, about what more could be done."

Australia coach Michael Cheika, who guided his side to the final of the tournament, has ruled himself out of the running to replace Lancaster.