Scotland 15-9 England

Oh dear, what a shocking performance. All I can really say is that I agree whole-heartedly with what the pundits have said at the BBC.

England didn’t use route one enough during the game and couldn’t go through the phases, this meant that Scotland’s defence stayed strong throughout the whole game. The Scottish pack were not pushed at all. They should have been. But the team didn’t do this and Wilkinson kicked balls straight to the Scottish back three, who weren’t pressurised enough- those are the two simple reasons why England lost the game. If these simple things were done then the rest would have followed.

Defensively Balshaw had his best game yet for England, but he didn’t pose much of a threat in attack, which is what he’s been picked for. His defence is still generally poor and he’s simply not good enough to play for England.

Sackey, I thought, was England’s best player, his defence was solid, as usual. He made good decisions in  attack as well, despite being smashed by Jason White when he came on in the second half.

The threat of Vainikolo was neutralised efficiently by the Scots. However, I feel that he needs more players supporting him as he likes to offload in the tackle, and off the floor. His hands and offloading were poor yesterday, most probably due to the conditions.  I would still pick him for the Ireland game, though. Flood played fairly well, but wasn’t used enough. Noon didn’t have his best day defensively and wasn’t an attacking threat.

Scotland lost two players, to injury, in the first 25 minutes and England failed to take advantage of this. Nothing else went England’s way. The weather made it very difficult to play proper rugby. Having said that, we’ve all played in rain and wind. I do think that the game of rugby is due to change as a result of the change in weather we are experiencing. But that is a post for another time.

One can’t help but think that the team is disjointed at the moment. I think that this is due to Ashton’s incapabability of managing people. It was highlighted by Catt and Dallaglio after the World Cup. And his handling of the Cipriani issue, which has been criticised by many, has highlighted it further. The players have re-realised this now, they need to front up in the next game and put in a performance similar to the ones they did after the 36-0 defeat to South Africa in the World Cup. Dallaglio, Barkley, Catt, Robinson and others were responsible for the bounce back. Let’s hope that there are some similar players within the current England side. England played without a leader on Saturday. You can criticise Ashton for taking off Vickery and Wilkinson with 10 minutes to go, like I did at the time. But their lack of leadership, in the Scotland game, showed as England’s game didn’t change when they went off. That also shows that Stevens and Hodgson made no impact.

I don’t think Ashton should be sacked. He is a good coach. He just needs a manager to handle certain aspects of his job. Dropping Wilkinson is a big decision, I think it might not have a positive effect on the team. Especially if Hodgson is the replacement. If Wilkinson has to go, Cipriani should start. I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision.