Have you not seen SA twitter? South Africa chose to not beat us by 50 to inflict scars that we'll never recover from, nothing to do with not having a fully fledged lock on the pitch.
I probably went a bit strong by saying anything but first is unacceptable - However, if we’re not at least in Championship contention come the final weekend in Paris, then I would class that as unacceptable. We should be finishing in the top 2. In response to @Saintjay, I’d be giving Ireland a massive chance if it was the “odd” year and they had Eng and Fra in Dublin. I’m just not sure that they’re quite in the form they would need to be in at the moment to beat England or France away.
100%. As much as I think we've seen excellent progress in 2025, winning at Murrayfield and beating Ireland will still be significant challenges that shouldn’t be underestimated.
France will implode against us if it's a Championship or GS decider - if there's one 6N team that historically has always got under their skin and rattled them in big games, it's England. I'm always far more confident against the French, no matter how good their side is, than I am against the home nations. France, bar the odd aberration, is the one game every year that you can bank on England turning up in. It’s the complete reversal of how i always see the Calcutta Cup.
There’s always one smart arse isn’t there?. I would point out that England weren’t going for the Championship in any of those games.
2004 they were.
When was the last time we beat them in France probably about 2016 or something.
Ah yes, early on when Borthwick was trying to accumulate as many "worst ever" records as possible, with that being the largest winning margin either side have ever had against the other.
I think the whole thing about France dominating the 6N post Lions is a bit of a myth tbh. The stats are the stats - but, I think the main reason why France do well in that scenario is that in an even year they have England and Ireland, the two most consistently competitive teams in the 6N era at home and the Championship is basically gifted to them on a plate before a ball has been kicked. Another reason why having set opponents home and away in a particular year that takes no account of current rankings is absolutely ridiculous. The 6N fixtures should be done by seeding every year to give every side a more balanced list taking into account the rankings at the time. I mean next year France have got England (3), Ireland (4), plus Italy (10) at home - and Scotland (9) and Wales (12) away. How is that remotely fair?. It’s complete garbage.
Doing it by seeding is even worse, it could cause a right mess with repeated home or away games on certain fixtures. A few years ago we wouldn't have been bothered by France or Scotland away and would have been bothered by Wales away. It shifts and sometimes works well for some teams, other times it doesn't.
I think you'll find we're 11th now bud. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Fairness of revenue split maybe? The SRU and WRU etc are not giving up home games so the richer unions can make even more money. Also to allow fans to see there own team play at home. I'd rather watch England in Edinburgh or Cardiff. Far better day out.
I also can't think of any 6n where England won 4/5 and lost to Scotland.
