I feel really strange after that performance having watched it again, firstly it shows how little a lot of our rugby media (*coughs* *indo* *coughs*) know because, line out aside, all the "system failures" that "lost" us the game last week were just as evident, the difference was that we didn't **** our maul up, didn't have a 10 prone to defensive blunders and didn't get a yellow card... Game won, still not playing great stuff like the Autumn though.
The challenge now is winning with less tight margains, wing change is in order, Earls and Zebo simply don't have the speed or evasiveness for international rugby, a couple times Earls was given all the space you could dream of and did the bare minimum with it, Zebo should have gotten away after the charge down on Youngs too. Byrne, Sweetnam and ROL can do stuff with chances like that, let them.
Murray needs to pick up the pace when he's back, Marmion's tempo is why Ringrose finally got to showcase a little of what he can do, it added a wee bit of danger. Hopefully McGrath really kicks on, he has the tools to put pressure on Murray.
There is need for rotation, POM was a positive yesterday but there's times you're going to need Heaslip, the France match comes to mind, back in Leinster Schmidt regularly swapped Locky and Jenno depending on the opposition, bring this back.
Make Sexton captain, only man certain of a start who can do it, Best was great yesterday but those performances are becoming less and less frequent so while I'd still have him around the squad his days are numbered.
I was disappointed with the targeting of Sexton, not much of it was illegal but it's been tried over and over and it doesn't affect his game in the slightest, he was the best player on the park, so the incentive is to injure a fellow professional, there's nothing to be done about it but whinge like I am but I really don't like it and don't think its in "the spirit of the game" for lack of any term that isn't a cliché. I was happy to see PO'M get in Itoje's face and show that a Limerick man who brushes his teeth with tar and uses barbed wire instead of a sponge in the shower is an enforcer, not one of us Latin speaking, communal shower taking, soggy biscuit playing, earth shaking, love making, viagra taking E STREET BAND... Apologies, private school dwellers. (He went to Harrow ffs, I think that means he automatically loses every fight he gets into!)
From an England pov, you have a serious team but some bang average operators at the same time, Hartley, Haskell, Daly on the wing, Care, and dare I say Youngs, Ford and JJ against a well set defence, Robshaw will fix a lot, Kruis adds to your second row because you
really need that but a few changes of faces will only help. From this 6 nations alone and due to bias based on man crushes on Farrell at 12 and Daly as well as not knowing your FB options I'd want to see Youngs, Ford, Farrell, Daly, Watson, Nowell, Brown. If you could get a playmaking 15 (Has Lozowski played much more there this season?) I'd quickly drop Ford and bring Te'o in too. The age profile and ruthless, wise, old **** stain you have coaching you will result in a stronger team year after year, trying to pry that trophy from your cold, dead hands won't be easy next year. Similar to us this 6n, you found out that you're not as good as you maybe thought but not a lot needs to be done to get there and even surpass it.
