Drink up then find Plan B

ON the final morning of each campaign, the players and staff come together for a review meeting before they pack their bags and head home.

There will be a few sore heads from the night before. It’s customary for a team night out at the end of every campaign.

Players and coaches will have a beer together at the hotel before heading to a nightclub — usually somewhere fancy on the King’s Road in London — with their wives and girlfriends.

There’s always an RFU credit card behind the bar and it must take a hammering from Joe Marler’s rounds of shots and Anthony Watson’s bottles of champagne!

Everyone heads back to the hotel together on a team bus at around 3am. A few hours later they are sitting in one-on-one reviews before a group debrief. There will be mixed emotions at the end of this campaign.

It’s obvious that when things click, England can beat anybody. But, if you look at the bigger picture, have they really kicked on since the World Cup?

It’s hard to see where they have progressed. We knew before the Six Nations that they have a formidable power game and a real scoring threat off attacking kicks. But what happens when a team finds a way of stopping that? South Africa managed to in the final, and France did the same in Paris. The playing personnel isn’t going to change too much, so why not expand their tactics a little bit? Maybe start offloading more? Give yourself two ways of playing, so when you come unstuck, they can adapt to a Plan B. Right now, I can’t see the Plan B.

They’ve got three years to progress to something else.

Selecting three No7s is never going to expand your game. Why not try a few more people?

We know Ben Curry is an exceptional player and he’s fine as cover at No8 but England need a genuine back-up to Billy Vunipola. Sam Simmonds and Alex Dombrandt are killing it in the Premiership. Why have we not tried them out?

If they’re not good enough, fine, move them along. But at least give them a shot on the summer tour of Japan.

Use those Tests to find out what they’ve got what it takes. I would leave guys like Owen Farrell and Kyle Sinckler at home to try an experimental squad.

Give 15 guys who aren’t regular starters a shot and maybe three of them can push their way into the November series.