England to win Six Nations

[Maidman]

Good Lord! Wales thump Italy, now Ireland beat Scotland by their largest margin. Can England beat France by more than 26 points? Not feeling terribly optimistic here. Really didn't think that either Italy or Dcotland would capitulate quite like this. It must be an ABE (anyone but England) conspiracy!

[drc_007]

Second half performance by Italy was one of the worst I've seen at international level.

Scotland got out-thought and out-muscled by a side that wanted to win more.

[TigerLad]

So it's the shocking France that turns up today.......

In my defense they're an unpredictable lot these French.

[TigerLad]

How can St Andre still be in charge of France? Less than a 50% win ratio is pathetic for a side like France. There has to be someone else who could do better.

[Maidman]

Mmmmm! Not going too well! Can't believe how we have managed to slip behind. Suddenly this doesn't look so easy.

[TigerLad]

I have no idea how the TMO has given 2 of these tries? Shocking decisions for both.

[Maidman]

YBY is on fire! Go Ben! Come on England!

[TigerLad]

Mike Brown is a disgrace. Owens should have red carded him for screaming "he's :censored: off his feet" straight at him.

[tigerburnie]

England aren't playing badly, but this isn't a performance so far, that will worry any of our likely world cup opponents.

[TomWeston]

Right at the end I heard 'Hartley' from one of the commentators. Is he playing?

And earlier they blamed Desperate Dan for pulling down a scrum when it happened on Marler's side. Totally inept!

[baz1664]

England have gone from a solid defensive unit with an inapt attack to a flamboyant attacking unit with a leaky defence, today Ben Youngs was world class, Ford blew hot and cold and cost us with his flaky kicking, Haskell and Lawes just fell back into their stupid ways, to leak 35 points at home to a very average French team was just not good enough, the try's conceded came from poor mistakes and a lack of decisive judgment and quality, if England had dispatched Italy and Scotland properly then the title was in the bag!!

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

Mike Brown is a disgrace. Owens should have red carded him for screaming "he's :censored: off his feet" straight at him.

I agree, think he was lucky not to get worse - the only saving grace was that the expletive wasn't aimed at the referee and Mike immediately said "sorry Sir" and did seem to shut up for the rest of the game.

[4071]

Haskell and Lawes just fell back into their stupid ways,

Haskell's trip was certainly stupid, and costly. And he did nothing else in the match to make up for it.

But what did Lawes do wrong? He was a stand out again for England, and against Scotland and France he showed how much we had missed him in the first three matches.

[ourla]

England have gone from a solid defensive unit with an inapt attack to a flamboyant attacking unit with a leaky defence, today Ben Youngs was world class, Ford blew hot and cold and cost us with his flaky kicking, Haskell and Lawes just fell back into their stupid ways, to leak 35 points at home to a very average French team was just not good enough, the try's conceded came from poor mistakes and a lack of decisive judgment and quality, if England had dispatched Italy and Scotland properly then the title was in the bag!!

You don't think those defensive errors came from being attack minded and trying to win the game by 26 points by any chance?

[JohnB]

It must have been heartbreaking for English rugby supporters and their team to lose out on PD by only 6 pts. When one recalls though, that England hosted the weakest 6N teams, Italy and Scotland at Twickers, they should never have found themselves in the position of having to chase quite so many points to win the title. Frankly, no team should concede 3 tries at home to Italy. In addition, England made how many line breaks against Scotland but scored just two tries, was it? There seems to be a defensive malaise in the England set up but if Lancaster and Co can sort that out and integrate returning players of the calibre of Launchbury and Tuilagi against a RWC backdrop of playing at home then England are going to be in a very strong position in September and October I would have thought.