On Friday and Saturday, I was having some doubts about not going.
On Sunday, boy was I pleased that I hadn’t wasted my money on that drivel.
What is so completely wrong with the setup that the same problems which beset Andy Robinson and Brian Ashton can continue to afflict the supposed clean start of Martin Johnson?
We may have an uneviable list of injuries but at the same time England are the best funded rugby country on the planet with the largest playing base.
But whilst the names filling jerseys 1-8 looked a bit shallow, there was nothing wrong with the depth of talent starting at 9 to 15.
For a backline with those names to not even threaten to score is unforgivable. The lines, the moves, where where they?
For years, the threats from the back three of any of these Southern Hemisphere sides should be a nagging deterrent to anyone thinking about kicking away possession, and yet England continue to kick away, and poorly at that, anything less than pristine position. Then when they get good ball, the forward plod away in the Leicester way as has been their wont for the past four years.
The kicking of the Callard years pales in comparison to the smarter play of the Dave Alred era.
Surely, surely, surely, the finger of suspicion has to point at John Wells, Mike Ford and Jon Callard. For too long, Wells and Ford particularly have survived whilst the figureheads have rolled.
The game next week against Argentina threatens not only to be the shit between the sandwich of big name defeats but a dour game of unambition at the same time.
Whatever happens, England aren’t going to go down in a blaze of glory that’s for sure.
What a shame it now seems that Ashton and Johnson weren’t brought together whilst Ford and Wells were sacrificed….
Where now for English rugby?
From Saturday’s game, starting places for Haskell, Hartley and Lawes might inject some much needed dynamism but the backs and the backs coach, Brian Smith, need to start delivering. Teams need to fear that gifting possession to this set of runners in any part of the field could leave them grasping at shadows.
Show some ambition or a generation of players will be wasted and a generation of fans will be lost.
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