Did ANYONE give their hopes for Japan a boost?
FLYING HIGH
ELLIOT DALY: Instinctive player but his skills are wasted on the wing.
OWEN FARRELL: England’s standout player. Jury out over captaincy credentials.
ANTHONY WATSON: World-class attacker but defence was exposed at full back.
JAMIE GEORGE: Hooker should have started against Ireland.
MAKO VUNIPOLA: Close to being world’s best loosehead but fatigued after Lions.
COURTNEY LAWES: Consistently powerful, but experiment in the back row failed.
JOE MARLER: Big personality and solid scrummager with a gnarly edge.
JOE LAUNCHBURY: England’s most effective forward in the wide channels early on.
BEN YOUNGS: England’s freefall after losing the scrum-half highlights his importance.
CHRIS ROBSHAW: Exposed in the No 7 jersey but enjoyed a renaissance at blindside.
DON ARMAND: Just 13 minutes of game time and deserves to start against the Boks.
JACK NOWELL: Winger should start in South Africa after the back three struggled.
STANDING STILL
DANNY CARE: Finisher role after failing to assert authority as a starter.
GEORGE FORD: Fly-half was dropped but still has the team’s best handling skills.
JONNY MAY: Lightning speed yet wasted it by running into crowded channels.
BEN TE’O: Terrorises tired defenders but his limited passing can be costly.
KYLE SINCKLER: Yet to prove set-piece quality to start at tighthead.
HARRY WILLIAMS: Stubborn selection policy for the front row kept him on bench.
SAM UNDERHILL: Early stages of career jeopardised by injury; could still be No 7.
SAM SIMMONDS: No 8’s lack of size is still an issue against heavyweights.
JAMES HASKELL: Seized every opportunity off the bench.
DAN COLE: Modern prop needs more impact in open play.
ALEC HEPBURN: His lack of size will not upset the established order.
RICHARD WIGGLESWORTH: Solid service as a late call-up but lacks the X-factor.
NOSEDIVED
MARO ITOJE: High penalty count and ineffective ball-carrying.
DYLAN HARTLEY: Captaincy questioned after three defeats. Lacks a point of difference.
GEORGE KRUIS: Line-out technician, but made errors with ball in hand and lacked impact in attack.
JONATHAN JOSEPH: Anonymous in attack and unpicked in defence by the Scottish backs.
MIKE BROWN: Unceremoniously dropped because limitations in attack undermine his all-round game.
NATHAN HUGHES: Raw power with ball in hand but discipline and breakdown work below par.
LUKE COWAN-DICKIE: Hooker failed the test of nerve with an overthrown lineout in final minute against France.
THE honeymoon period for RFU chief executive Steve Brown, who took charge last September, will be well and truly over when he faces the media for a Six Nations debrief on Wednesday.
Brown, who arrived with a fine reputation after his lead role at the 2015 Rugby World Cup on home soil, has a lot of explaining to do after England finished a humiliating fifth in the table.
As line manager, what influence — if any — has he exerted over head coach Eddie Jones, whose regime is in crisis after three straight defeats? Why did he award Jones a complicated two-year extension to his contract last January when there was no need to do so?
Brown told the last RFU council meeting that Jones’s extension had been ‘well received by the media and the game’.
But after three losses on the spin, the RFU are no longer ahead of the win percentage targets set for the men’s team — and trumpeted in the last council minutes — on the increasingly rocky journey to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Meanwhile, Jones must face the Professional Game Board in April with his report of the Six Nations fiasco. And will the PGB blazers swallow the line that Jones gave the media after Ireland’s Grand Slam on Saturday: ‘We’re moving forward… with massive positives.’