However the game moves on and from a neutrals point of view (well as neutral as you get this side of the Severn ) it seems that the game in England hasn’t coped well if at all with the ELV’s , the rot set in before this but the aerial ping-pong now in some of the Premiership games is dire.

There also seems to be a basic lack of certain skills such as how to pass and catch the ball correctly , the one side I’ve seen running and passing well is London Irish and that’s mainly down to the influence of foreign players , again the balance of foreign to native players seems too high in the Premiership.

By picking Goode England appear to be suggesting an attempt to return to the old forward dominated lets kick the penalties and drop goals game considering Johnson’s in charge it’s hardly surprising . However the personnel up front do not appear to be there anymore to guarantee this , it’s probably enough to do the job against Italy but not against the rest anymore.

Forwards win games , backs determine by how much isn’t always true but it usually is , in the past in Wales we’ve been guilty of playing the game too fast and loose all the time (Fiji World Cup !! ) but have tightened up considerably under Gatland , it would seem that England have the reverse problem of trying to find a game -plan when you can’t guarantee the old forward dominance.