England stumble to victory over Scotland
The Eddie Jones era got off to a positive start as England retained the Calcutta Cup with a 15-9 victory over Scotland. What unfolded over the 80 minutes was not, however, the exciting and innovative performance that England fans had anticipated or at least hoped for. The match was the definition of attritional, with the set-piece to the fore and England dominated that facet of the game.
England scored a try in each half with George Kruis stretching over to open Jones’s account as England boss, and Jack Nowell scuttled over after 50 minutes before Owen Farrell kicked a penalty to complete the win. Scotland’s contribution of three penalties slightly undersells their performance as the Scots were tenacious in hanging on to the game, and were provided a rather off-colour performance from fly-half Finn Russell. English eyes will quickly have flicked to next week’s match against Italy, as very few of the questions that have plagued England rugby fans since October were answered at Murrayfield.
Battle of the Blues goes the way of the Gauls
France were luckier than anyone to come away from their tournament opener with a victory, squeaking by Italy 23-21. It was the maiden voyage for France under new head coach Guy Noves, and if Eddie Jones’ debut seemed unconvincing it was nothing compared to the former Toulouse man’s debut. Although Virimi Vakatawa opened the scoring after thirteen minutes, Italy’s Carlo Canna and Sergio Parisse contributed a drop goal and a try respectively to keep Italy in touch, before Damien Chouly scored France’s second before half-time.
Sebastien Bezy was entrusted with the kicking but was wayward with all three of his first-half efforts meaning that France led 10-8 at the half. Canna continued his excellent day in the second period, scoring a try of his own after Parisse was stopped short, and kicked a penalty just beforehand to give Italy the lead. With Italy leading 18-10, France scored their third try through the otherwise awful Hugo Bonneval and Jules Plisson, having been handed kicking duties, successfully converted. Kelly Haimona and Plisson traded penalties, with Plisson hitting a monster kick to give France their final lead.
In a bizarre end to the game Sergio Parisse took it upon himself to take the potentially match-winning drop goal, which went predictably wide and handed France an undeserved victory.
Grand Slam goes begging for Celts
Ireland and Wales played out a 16-16 draw at the Aviva Stadium; undoubtedly the best match of Round 1 despite the anticlimactic result. Both sides started the game at a furious pace, but it was Ireland who gained traction the quickest, as Johnny Sexton punished two Welsh indiscretions with penalties, and Conor Murray showed quick wits to snipe over for a short-range try.
Trailing 0-13 and missing Dan Biggar who limped off after 20 minutes, Wales began to claw their way back into the game. Priestland shook off some early jitters to kick a penalty before Taulupe Faletau crashed through the Irish defence to score just before the half-time whistle. Priestland struck once more within the opening ticks of the first half and the next 26 minutes saw a stalemate emerge.
Inside the last 10 minutes of the game, Priestland stroked over his third penalty handing Wales their first lead of the game before Johnny Sexton’s quick reply which brought about the draw. This was arguably the fairest outcome, but not one that will ultimately put smiles on the faces of either set of fans.
Six Nations Star Man: Billy Vunipola
Wasps, Sale and Gloucester win in soggy weekend
Bath fell to their sixth straight defeat in all competitions against Gloucester on Friday evening, 15-11. The hosts capitalised on an early Gloucester sin-binning to score through Dominic Day and although Tom Homer was off-target with the conversion, he added a penalty minutes later. James Hook battled the conditions but eventually found the mark with a penalty before half time. He and Homer then exchanged penalties after the break and Hook began to tick away, kicking three further penalties to give Gloucester their fifth win of the year, and broadening the gap between the two sides to seven points.
Saints and Gloucester took part in a ding-dong battle at the Stoop, with Northampton stealing a win at the 11th hour by 27-23. England hopeful Luther Burrell was in commanding form setting up the first of his team’s tries for Christian Day and scoring the second to give Saints a first-half lead. Quins scored two first-half tries of their own, George Merrick and Ross Chisholm the lucky pair, with Nick Evans adding six points from the tee. With less than ten minutes left, Ben Botica and JJ Hanrahan kicked penalties for their teams, Quins keeping their nose ahead 23-20 before Botica made an impact on the game in a much less helpful way. Deep in his in-goal area, the New Zealander decided to kick for touch to end the game rather than touch the ball down behind his own line. The kick stayed infield and after some level-headed attack play, Ben Foden found a small gap to dot down and win the game.
Wasps beat Newcastle 9-8, in a rather less exciting game than one might have anticipated. Andy Goode was surprisingly poor from the tee early on and the score at half-time was a pulse-pounding 3-3 thanks to one penalty each from Goode and Jimmy Gopperth, while in the second half the Falcons found the line through Sean Robinson. Gopperth kicked two penalties to escape with a victory, despite an earlier disallowed try for the returning Christian Wade. Newcastle will be at least chuffed to steal a bonus point away from home.
Leicester’s perfect home form this season was ruined by a dogged Sale Sharks team, whose 62nd minute try from Josh Beaumont gave them their second win at Welford Road since 2003. The distinct lack of grass at the home of the Tigers makes exciting rugby unlikely, but the conditions doubled down the difficulty for the kickers, and Danny Cipriani and Freddie Burns managed just one penalty apiece before Sale drove over with Beaumont.
Exeter and Saracens played for top spot at Sandy Park, with the Chiefs throwing away an 11-0 lead to lose 11-14. The unstoppable James Short intercepted a Sarries pass early in the game and blazed 80m up the field to score the first try of the game, sandwiched between two Gareth Steenson penalties. Minutes before half-time, Samuela Vunisa hauled Saracens back into the game, with some help from the TMO, and Charlie Hodgson delivered three killer penalties, the last of which put Saracens in front.
At the other end of the table, London Irish lifted themselves off the bottom by beating Worcester 20-13. The Exiles fought off a second half fightback by the Warriors, and tries for Ciaran Hearn and Andy Fenby’s were enough to see Irish through. Shane Geraghty kicked two penalties as well as converting both tries, while Worcester rallied with efforts from Bryce Heem and Val Rapava-Ruskin (great name). London Irish have now won their last three Premiership games at the Madejski.
Aviva Premiership Star Man: Luther Burrell
Jackson kicks Ulster to narrow victory
The weekend’s lone Guinness Pro12 fixture saw Ulster top Newport Gwent Dragons 17-15, thanks to a late Paddy Jackson penalty. The teams traded tries with the Dragons going ahead early after an Angus O’Brien penalty and Adam Hughes’ try in the left corner, and Ulster countered ten minutes later. Sean Reidy burst down the left touchline to continue his blistering run of scoring form and Ian Humphreys, crucially, converted.
The Dragons put Carl Meyer through a gap just after half-time to score their second try and Ulster shook off two disallowed tries to shunt over from a scrum to win a penalty try. Jackson made no mistake with the conversion but needed two attempts at the winning penalty, his first shot bouncing off the crossbar, but five minutes later found the target from the right touchline to give Ulster a narrow victory.
Guinness Pro12 Star Man: (Not much choice) Sean Reidy
Try of the Week: Usually I say ‘there are lots of good tries to choose from’ here but this week, with the reduced schedule and the attritional rugby on display, they were few and far between! The pick is Christian Day’s score against Harlequins, started by Luther Burrell in an excellent performance.
Hero of the Week: Wales’ Rhys Priestland gets the nod, stepping in for Dan Biggar and kickstarting Wales’ comeback against Ireland. Priestland is a much-maligned member of the Wales set-up but, despite a couple of early mistakes, he was cool and collected in kicking nine points to help Wales to a 16-16 draw.
Villain of the Week: Honourable mention goes, as it often does, to the Welford Road ground staff for producing their bread-and-butter pudding of a pitch. However, the controversial pick is in fact Italy captain Sergio Parisse who seems to have developed a smidgen of a messianic complex, as evidenced by his ill-advised drop-goal attempt. In a match that France had little right in winning, Parisse went some way to denying his side an historic first ever victory in Paris.
By Fraser Kay (@fraserkay)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
43 replies on “Best of the Weekend: Six Nations off to painfully slow start”
I think your a bit out on your review of England and Scotland.
Yeah, it wasn’t great but it was pragmatic stuff from England but Jones knows that to be able to let rip you first have to earn that right. But far from stumbling to a win England were in full control of the game. Ok, that probably owes more to the paucity and lack of ideas and ambition of a Scotland side that climbed the ladder at the World Cup only to throw a two and slide back down a snake to bad old traits of lack of ideas and belief.
Add to this that England had the one truly good bit of attacking play leading to Nowells try across all three games shows two things. 1. We’ve got a long way to go to frighten the SH teams and 2. The defensive mind sets of coaches, but in particular Schmidt and Gatland, is holding NH rugby back. In this aspect at least England (and tbf Italy) showed a willingness to attack. Ok it may not be proficient yet, and maybe the gnarly reliance on a Roberts running head down may be the crucial aspect to winning this 6n’s, but going forward I know which coach is going to develop a better future.
Complete agreement.
More credit needs to be given the that English defence. It played a visibly different style compared to the previous regime; mirroring Saracen’s wolfpack rush defence.
Scotland have come under a lot of stick for not being creative. This was mostly down to England not allowing them to get the ball past first receiver.
I largely agree with both Jez and Will. A pragmatic performance with plenty to build on. England´s aggressive defence put Scotland on the back foot, and with Russell having a poor afternoon Scotland weren´t given much opportunity to create anything. However, given how much time England were in control they needed to win much quicker possession in rucks and mauls in order to release the backs into unorganised defenders. As it was our tackling was good and should have provided a better platform for attack but we rarely got first man to the ball on the floor. We have to find a back row with real pace to do the job that Hooper does for Australia.
Very much agree with Jez that the “Roberts head down” approach is well past it´s sell by date. Wales didn´t break the Irish line once on Sunday, and never really looked like doing so. If Gatland does get offered the Lions job and tries to get them playing like Wales there will be carnage in the land of the long white cloud. What say you, Prophet Eunuch?
I agree Jez, anyone who thought we were goiing to go up to Murryfield and play an expansive running game is deluded.
There were many areas that need working on if we want to challenge Ireland and Wales but the squad will have had over a month together with Jones and hopefully have Manu back by then.
Ire v Wal game was knackering just to watch. Never seen so many people on a pitch so shattered they can hardly jog, great stuff and as an Eng fan best result we could have hoped for. They both but especially Ireland now have a race to rest up with a short turnaround and it could well impact their performances next weekend.
Finally very releved that Sarries managed another superb comeback even with so many players out.
Sarries were very lucky as Exeter had a legitimate try chalked off for a non existent knock on. a more pragmatic ref might of held off on his whistle and referred to the TMO.
But he didn’t Leon, so yes lucky maybe, but in this game you makes your own luck. The fact Sarries hung in and then stepped on to win in a game that most supporters would have been pleased with a losing bonus point is testament to how well they are doing on the field and should give Baxter some pointers in what Cheifs need to do to step up to the next level. Come the semis Exeter will be able to use this game to combat a likely game vs Tigers.
Poppycock Jez. Ire and Wal game had stacks of linebreaks in it – they just were not executed upon. Only the most one eyed could look through the bones of some largely dire rugby and turn it into ” Schmidt and Gatland, is holding NH rugby back. In this aspect at least England (and tbf Italy) showed a willingness to attack”. Eng sucked. Sco sucked a bit more. Ire and Wal were woeful in multiple execution ergo they also sucked but won’t be scared by any of the other teams given the rugby on Saturday. A thoroughly dispiriting weekend given all of the talk of upping the NH game to compete with the SH. It sucked across the board. Fra truly sucked, Ita didn’t look like they sucked so much because people were expecting them to get battered.
Sorry Brighty but the published stats said no line breaks. Both teams either went bosh (Roberts I’m particular, no peripheral vision whatsoever) and just recycled or went sideways allowing drifts to defend easily. As shown by neither try being scored from breaks but rather poor defence by Tipuric and a stroke of luck (well executed) by Faletau.
As for Roberts defence, headless. A half decent heads up centre would beat that easily. The fact Ireland couldn’t exploit the gaps left is an indictment of how far they’ve slipped back.
A reference please to these stats. Sexton had at least two that had my heart in mouth, if he’d passed to Zebo instead of the wing then Ireland would have been through. “As shown by neither try being scored from breaks ” oh dear, terrible logic. No tries from breaks means no breaks made? So Eng for example only made one break then as only one try from a back. Back of the class sir.
A quick google – ESPN, Ire v Wal – 7 line breaks. Sco v Eng, 10 line breaks, 7 for Sco. Doesn’t backup any assertion that Eng were leading the NH charge in attacking rugby, does it?
Defenders beaten in Ire v Wal – 29, in Sco v Eng, 27. Again, the “Schmidt and Gatland, is holding NH rugby back” pair come out on top.
Eng offloads – 1 to Sco 4, Wal 2, Ire 1. Again, low across the board but with Sco on top again….
The fact (the facts, not your opinions) is that it was a triumvirate of poor games on the weekend, nobody covered themselves in glory in terms of their playing style. I wish Wal had the points Eng do, but this doesn’t stretch to your painfully ill informed argument that Eng had the best attacking play on the weekend.
A win is a win, Eng are in charge of the table, but your assessment goes beyond just the win and as usual tries to big up things that are just not there. If I was Eng I would be delighted with the win, but I’d have the sense to not sneer at the other sides as if Eng were some sort of trailblazers of quality rugby.
I’m not sneering at the other sides and I’m sure not saying that England are by far the best side (actually on attacking intent Italy take that crown).
What I’ve said is basically:
1. Nowells try came off the best attacking move across all three games. I think that’s a fair opinion to make, although both French tries were good as well.
2. I don’t see any attacking flair at all from Wales (Roberts plays no different from Brad Barritt and we all know how much he’s rated on here).
3. I think Wales will win the tournament as their Gatt ball is still effective against NH teams. It’s not going to win against SH teams or World cups.
4. Judging on the games over the weekend:
Scotland and Ireland have gone backwards.
Wales and France have stayed about where they were at WC.
England have made a bit of progress.
Italy have really stepped up (helps having Parisse back.)
It’s not sneering, it’s just pointing out realities as I see them.
Ireland had more clean breaks but Roberts (sorry i meant Wales) had plenty of broken tackles
7 Line Breaks 0
15 Defenders Beaten 14
Sorry ill clarify, bbc stats showed no clean breaks from Wales.
According to ESPN rugby stats, 7 line breaks by Ireland, including the 2 by Sexton mentioned
None for Wales. Which chimes with my memory of the game
(Incidentally 7 for Scotland, 3 for England)
This is not an attempt to wind you up Brighty but I do think Wales have a big problem with attacking through the backs. They have some fantastic talent in players like North, Williams, Davies, etc that they just cannot set free.
Ireland looked more creative in their back line play (which is good after they’ve been pretty one-dimensional recently) and as you point out, were let down by their execution
I personally would play Jonathan Davies at inside and Scott Williams outside. At least JD can pass.
I know you’re not winding me up Pablito – as I said at the start, attacking play was woeful. 3 pretty dire attacking games, some sterling defence and ferocious commitment. Jez though turns that into ” Schmidt and Gatland, is holding NH rugby back. In this aspect at least England (and tbf Italy) showed a willingness to attack” which, no matter what he says now, is sneering at the other teams as if Eng were so much better.
Liam Williams was poor – possibly back too early for him and he did arrive in the country only a few hours before kickoff. He cut inside a few times when James was begging for the pass on his outside. Story was common across the backs – when the offload or inside pass was on it wasn’t taken. Not good enough. Hopefully it’s down to rustiness and it will improve as the tournament goes on as the gaps and the opportunities were there. Ironic that some who criticise “1D” Roberts also criticise Wales for shipping it across the backline too quickly – so we’re bosh AND passing?
Gareth Davies had a poor game, need Rhys Webb back. Scott Williams will be a big win when he is fit and Anscombe/Morgan at full back (bench or starting) will add more playmakers into the backline. It was a tight game – one pass from Ire or lack of a dropped ball from Baldwin and it would have looked very different. Jeez, if Lloyd W hadn’t fluffed that box kick we could have been here with a 3 pt margin win. It’s not good enough, I’m aware of that, but I won’t accept that there was better endeavour or core attacking skills execution elsewhere in the 6Ns this weekend.
I am not sneering. For crying out loud, get that chip off will ya.
My point is I think Gatland and Schmidt have taken their relative teams as far as they can. Their brand of rugby is effective as far as 6n’s go, but that is it.
I don’t think England were brilliant at all. In fact I’d say just about good enough, certainly against a poor Scotland, but I certainly don’t think that performance would have beaten Wales or Ireland.
The point I am.making though is that whilst Wales and Ireland are essentially continuing in the same vein as before at least England (and Italy) are looking to try something differently. Do I think that makes England better now than Wales or Ireland? No. Do I think it will make them better than Wales or Ireland over the next 3-4 years? Quite possibly so.
That’s not sneering at other countries, it’s just saying that I prefer the improvements England have made and seem to be looking to make over what I see as a settling for what we have, it ain’t broke attitude from in particular Wales and Ireland.
You seem to have an issue understanding how you come across – when you claim the coaches of the other two teams are “holding NH rugby back” and, after a single match against a hapless Sco, Eng are now the flag bearers for attacking rugby then yes, it comes across as sneering because the emphasis is on being negative about the other teams. No chip needed. You can qualify it all you want now but initially you said “no line breaks, as evidenced by no tries from breaks”, then that becomes “I meant to line breaks by Wales”, etc. If you want me to respond to what you meant then write that first, not the other stuff.
I haven’t said England are the benchmark of attacking rugby all of a sudden, Ive just said that in comparison to.other sides, except Italy, they’ve looked to make steps forward. They are by no means proficient but even the most anti English rugby critic would have to admit they looked like they tried something different.
In comparison the Wales Ireland game was entirely predictable and no different to the fare they’ve produced over the last few seasons. I still think, at this stage, this is good enough to win 6 nations titles. If that is the sum of your ambition then fair enough. I just don’t see it, based on the evidence of the last two world cups, being good enough to challenge on the highest stage whereas England possibly could do provided they can earth a couple of world class players (and or keep Tuilagi fit/ out of trouble). Of course it could all go to rats hit, but I’m happier as an England fan at the moment than perhaps I should be.
If it comes over as sneering it’s not meant to be. I think I’ve been constructive in most of my criticisms. I genuinely want to see 7 or 8 nations capable of winningworld cups. As a coaching team the Welsh haven’t got there in nearly 10 years. Does it need a change?
Unbelievably optimistic outlook on England.
We were solid, nothing more. To the word “sublime” for Farrell executing a 2 on 1 just seems absolutely ridiculous. It was a good spot and a nice interchange between Mako and Farrell, but once Farrell had the ball in his hands not finishing a 2 on 1 would have been absolutely criminal. It amazes be how much you overstate the basic skills of rugby as some sort of genius.
The best Rugby players are not the ones who do the flashy stuff periodically. The best are the ones who do the simple things everytime. It’s why you do passing drills.
I completely agree. But this isn’t the case in this incident.
It’s a one off execution of a 2 on 1 that is being hailed as fantastic play.
Great hands from Mako and overall a good move though; I just think you’re significantly overstating the quality of it.
If Farrell spotted the opportunity and called it, I’d be considering more impressed with his vision, but nothing about his hands in the move was anything above what is expected of a club player, let alone a test fly half.
But, and here’s the crux he did do it when there were many many occasion of similar opportunities being butchered esp in Wales Ireland game
Surely the skill in that move was from Mako rather than Farrell. Nicely done by Farrell but as Jacob says, you’d expect that from an international 10.
The soft hands and timing of the pass from a massive prop is more worthy of note
Indeed Pablito, massive kudos to Mako whose been doing that for ages at Sarries. Need to give some credit to Faz though for calling it, making the right run and creating the 2 on 1. How many times in that situation would you see a player crash off the pop. Simple it may have been, still had to be executed.
I can’t wait until a certain regular commenter read this – he might explode!
Bath fell to a sixth defeat in all competitions? They’ve lost 7 in the AP alone. And 4 more in Europe. So that’s 11 isn’t it? And how you can look beyond Ben Botica for villain of the week is beyond me…!
Meant to say sixth ‘straight’ defeat!
I thought try of the week should have gone to England (more importantly Mako Vunipola) for that wrap around pass from a 20 stone prop!
The whole try from Maku with Faz’s late run pulling the defender out onto him before shipping to Nowell was sublime
Pretty good from England I thought. The back row still lacks pace so we struggled to get quick ball. Haskell and Robshaw both did what they do, rack up massive tackle counts. I wouldn’t mind seeing Clifford in for Robshaw next week and Haskell moving across to 6. Or even just Clifford for Haskell.
Ford was also very good, but without Cips in the EPS Jones will be forced to stick with the same 10/12 combo next week and hope he can find some form.
Positives – from 5 were brilliant. Launchbury and Kruis look like a great partnership. Cole looked back to something close to his best, a nuisance at the breakdown and good at scrum time. I can’t work out if Mako scrummaged better than Marler or if the removal of Nel made the difference on that side. But certainly would consider starting Mako next week.
I’d be interested to know if Mako was the genius behind the try – or if Farrell called it. I imagine it would be Farrell, in which case it is a brilliant spot from him as he wrapped around, and solidly executing a 2 on 1 was a good execution of the basics which we’ve seen him lack before.
Ford was rubbish with wayward kicks and little from ball in hand. I’m hoping we see Farrell and Devoto given a chance against Italy.
Marler was subbed before Nel and in the next two scrums Mako was in all sorts of trouble. Luckily after that Nel gave way to Fagerson and Mako got back to parity which allowed us to win the next two comfortably. That said as always Mako was fantastic in the loose and regardless of who called it the execution on the wrap around pass was sublime.
Marler did well to keep relative parity with Nel. As you say, had Nel stayed on for longer once Mako was on he’d have put our scrum under some real pressure
I do wish Mako’s scruim ability was better than it is, he is such a threat round the field. Any chance we can play him at inside centre?
BTW – thought Cole wasn’t great. Gave away a couple of silly penalties at the breakdown
Although tbf to Cole there was one brilliant turnover too. As the pens were in areas that didn’t hurt England I think we can, possibly, forgive him that as the chances of him getting that turnover is high. Same as Gethin Jenkins has done so well for Wales over the years.
Love it. Mako at 12, Manu at 13. Sod it, let’s chuck Billy V in at 10 too, he’s got pretty good hands. Imagine trying to defend against that lot! I mean, you probably could with a reasonable degree of success but it wouldn’t half hurt…..
Agree on Cole too. I’d add the catching of a loose ball while standing 10 metres offside to his charge sheet too.
I actually thought Mako did ok against Nel for the couple scrums they did have, but potentially was made to look better at scrum time after Nel’s departure.
Thought Cole was good. I’d prefer the odd penalty to anonymity at the breakdown, and I thought generally the scrum was good. I’d certainly be looking to get Brookes on the bench and give him some game time if he is available.
I’d want to see Clifford start next week definitely. Other than that, I wouldn’t be changing that much. Maybe Daly onto the bench over Goode.
“In a bizarre end to the game Sergio Parisse took it upon himself to take the potentially match-winning drop goal, which went predictably wide and handed France an undeserved victory.”
Might have been bizarre from most other Number 8s, but this is Sergio Parisse and I’ve seen him slot drop goals with consummate ease before, as well as touchfinders and perfectly weighted grubbers.
The man is awesome and the comment above does him a disservice.
You also failed to mention how France only got that final score on account of an erroneous decision against Parisse, who was clearly *not* held in the tackle and was perfectly entitled to continue. If anything it was a high tackle on Parisse so should have been a penalty in his favour. Fair to Plisson though for smashing the kick over – looked like he was on the high veldt!
Also thought France’s first try came from a forward pass. Italy unlucky to lose that.
I did too, but I didn’t want to over-egg it. 😉
Italy looked reasonably strong and I wonder if people will still be calling for dozens of uncapped England players to be blooded in Rome next week?
Overall it was a typical first round of Six Nations – pretty rubbish quality across the board, with a lack of cohesion and skills on show. In the SH they might say “Well that was our first hit of the season mate/bru, and we’ll only get better from here”. And I’d believe them. Up here, I’m not sure it will get much better.
Only 9 tries across 3 games, with half the teams getting 1 or less. No wonder the Six Nations veto’ed bonus points proposals – no need up here!
I thought all the home nations lacked a little in attack. Although England and Scotland can point to out-of-form 10s, I think with Ireland and Wales it may come down a bit more to the gameplan not being conducive to attacking rugby.
If you look at the Top 3 teams in 2015, only once in 21 rugby world cup matches did any of Australia, New Zealand or South Africa fail to score 17 points (more than any home nation this weekend) – Australia’s 15-6 win over Wales. Even in games against each other, they scored more points than the Home Nations teams managed this week.
This was also true in the Rugby Championship, with only Argentina returning a match total of less than 17 points – in their 34-9 loss against Australia.
Australia and New Zealand averaged around 28 points per game in the Championship last year, with South Africa and Argentina coming in at 21 points per game each (and finished last and second last respectively). If we want to compete with these teams, we will need to score more points than we do now. 15 or 16 points and a “committed defence” is rarely enough against the big boys.
Interesting to see Burrell playing so well. He’s clearly out to give EJ a reminder
Mallinder looks like one for the near-ish future.
Agreed on both points. The biggest disservice Lancaster did for England was to totally destroy the confidence of Burrell, Eastmond and Ford. It´s good to see Burrell getting back into some form. I also like the look of Mallender. Just hope his dad doesn´t become England coach or he´ll get all the same sort of rubbish that was handed out to Farrell if he gets picked.