Pining For Lancaster

It’s mid-February and it’s like the Rugby World Cup never happened. Remember the southern hemisphere filling all four semi-final spots? How about the attacking verve of the unheralded Argentinians?

Was anybody in charge of Wales, Ireland, England or France even watching?

Patently the lessons have not been learned because the opening round of matches in the 6 Nations were dire. Yes they were close but mediocrity loves company. The one exception were Italy. They should have beaten France and averaged a respectable possession adjusted 409 metres. That’s not world beating standards but an improvement on their world cup average of 351.

As for England – they beat Scotland but that’s about the only positive. Eddie Jones was brought in amongst much fanfare (and cost) yet his team made only 244 metres (possession adjusted) during the match. That is worse than Uruguay averaged at the world cup!

Jones shouldn’t be judged on one match but it feels like England are back to square one, all the progress under Lancaster undone. It seems an odd thing to say but Italy are the only team in the tournament on the way up and they must be backed at 12/1 (Skybet) to give England a bloody nose.