Hopkins says:
pull-my-plonker says:
Didn't see Fra v Wales, but it's looking like the Year of the Frog.
defensively sound and strong, but attacking-wise didn't do much
we gifted them those 2 opening tries, and they rarely threatened us in our 22
best of a bad bunch though
I actually thought France played a very clever game, just hoofed the ball at Wales and let them self-destruct. They knew their defence would stand up to most Welsh counter-attacking and I'm fairly sure they went out to look for those interceptions. They've got enough attacking prowess to unpick teams unaided, but I think they realised Wales would gift them a lot with the right encouragement.
Ireland ended up playing a similar game against England. Their kicking game was good and England's was oddly non-existent - over-compensating for the Italy game, perhaps? Ireland were happy just to let England go side to side all day, and took their chances clincally when they arrived.
England need to do several things to sort themselves out. 1, stick a rocket up Danny Care's arse so he gets to the breakdowns in less than 5 minutes. 2, tell Wilkinson it's ok to stand in the same time zone as Care on attacking plays. 3, send all the backs on "Kicking from hand 101" course.
Having been a staunch Wilkinson defender, I'm increasingly of the opinion that Flood should be given some serious game time in the remaining matches. He's been in good form for Leicester since he came back from injury and Wilko is not having the best of it in any department.