It’s obvious that change is needed
World Cup winner JASON ROBINSON gives his verdict on England’s dismal Six Nations and looks at how they can get back to their best
Okay, so cards on the table time. I had England down to be Six Nations champions and Wales to finish fifth. No way did I see those places being reversed.
Yet tonight in Paris, if France fail to score four tries and fall short of a 21-point winning margin against Scotland, that is how it will finish.
Fair play to Wales for how they have transformed their fortunes after a dreadful 2020.
How coach Wayne Pivac has stayed true to his beliefs, held his nerve and been vindicated.
The same cannot be said for England and the review the Rugby Football Union have just begun needs to be honest and open to work out what has gone so badly wrong.
It’s already obvious that changes need to be made because one thing’s for sure: we ain’t going to win a World Cup playing the type of rugby we’re playing at the moment. No chance.
England is the richest rugby nation with the greatest resources and biggest talent pool.
We know we have the players. But clearly we are not using them to our advantage.
Is it the game plan, selection or coaching methods?
Is it time to freshen up the management, or just the mindset? Keeping the status quo and blindly expecting things to improve is not an option.
This is England we’re talking about. We don’t accept finishing fifth. How has it reached a point after so long questioning Italy’s right to continue in the championship that we look at the table and are relieved they are in it? My British & Irish Lions Test team for the summer contains just two England players – Tom Curry and Maro Itoje.
Yet most of this side played in the World Cup win over New Zealand, which is the best I have ever seen England play.
That, for me, was the perfect England game, not anything we did back in 2003. Yet now these players can’t keep hold of the ball. They don’t put teams under pressure.
Some clearly have not been at their best and, while I get it that you give certain individuals the benefit of the doubt because they’ve proved it over the years, that can only go on for so long.
There comes a point that for – their sake as much as anything – you need to bring somebody else in.
Give a Sam Simmonds or a Paolo Odogwu a go.
The process alone will sharpen everybody up.
The brutal truth is that we’ve gone backwards since the World Cup.
England are a team playing a game that I don’t believe suits them. Something must change.