Barbarians weren't great, but I don't think it fairly reflects how well England did to say it was just the Barbarians. England probably had more time together, but not too much more. This isn't a squad which had been training together since 2011. Only three (Marler, Launchbury, Brown) were starting during the 6N, and only a small number more had any involvement. And as far as experience goes, the Barbarians had tons more. Wilson has the highest number of caps in the England squad, but has fewer caps than eleven of the Barbarians. In fact, Yachvili and Harinordoquy alone have more caps than the full England 23 I believe.
Some good to take from the match, particularly in the areas that we wanted to look at. Kvesic proved his worth as a 7. Corbisiero proved that he's leagues ahead of Marler. Burns proved the worth of a 10 which can attack, and also proved critics that question his control over a game. Twelvetrees proved why it's probably better to have a playmaking 12 than 15. Brown proved himself to be a better 15 than Goode. And Yarde/Wade proved why it's worth having wings with attacking instincts. Disappointed May had to come on so late though, and to poor service.
As for the bad? Some stubbornness showed up at the end of the match. England went into disarray when Burns and Brown went off. I'm glad they're protecting Burns for the tests, but the last 10 mins seemed to be Lancaster trying to defend his playmaking-15 system. I worry that Lancaster has his system in place now, and is trying to find ways of molding players into that system, rather than molding a system around his best players. What should have happened in the last 10 mins should have been Twelvetrees in at 10, Eastmond to 12 and May in at fullback. Marler is also still not up to it imo, still think Nick Wood is a better option.
