England rugby - an objective analysis

I was amused to read the back page of the Times yesterday where Sir Clive Woodward (for it is he) says that England need to stop whining about injuries and bad refereeing decisions to start winning again. There's just one small problem with that - we don't need to have both of those fixed in order to win again, just one will do. A non-bent ref would have seen us home against Ireland (who choked against a poor French team who weren't playing well but still repeatedly crossed the Irish line, something they couldn't do against us), someone who can kick (a certain Newcastle fly half springs to mind) and we beat France, and probably Wales as well. Then the grand slam is as good as ours.

We're not as bad as things look (although it's difficult to come up with good comments when we've got a fourth place playoff with Scotland next week), but we're definitely a team in transition. Look at the team against Italy yesterday and who the survivors from the World Cup are - Steve "Liability" Thompson, Ben "Teflon" Kay and Josh "Fairy" Lewsey. We're missing both of our props through injury, Johnno's gone but we've got Danny the Thug to play 4, the dream team back row has seen Richard Hill (by far the most important player we have) out long term and two retirements. Dawson's past it, Wilko's always injured. Cohen's been usurped by Cuets, Mike "God" Tindall's been off the pitch more than on it and Greenwood's nowhere. Even Robinson was injured.

A full strength England team is easily the best in the northern hemisphere at present, and if we use comparisons via Wales, still competitive against anyone. We've just not seen that team once since Sydney.

By the way, it's a shame Ireland lost yesterday. They normally leave their choking until the last game. Now Wales will have the sole opportunity to fluff their lines on the biggest stage.