Ireland centre Bundee Aki in talks with Toulon

With the likes of Ireland, France, Scotland and England more competitive we are seeing less cronyism at Global level and more rapid growth amongst Tier 2s and beyond.

NZ are naturalizing rugby talent now. Reign the righteous wagging fingers in.

Ppl feel friction and they look for something or someone outside themselves to blame. It's human nature.

England doesn’t have a shortage of good players. I don’t think it matters most who gets picked - it’s Borthwicks plans for this England side that matters most. How to extract the best out of the players and to beat the opposition.

Of what I’ve seen so far I think that’s the big question mark. Does he have the ability as a coach to ultimately out think and outwit Galthie, Farrell, Erasmus, Razor, Contemponi etc etc?

No. I personally don’t think so.

He has got the players and the resources. He hasn’t delivered the results, yet. And that’s what this November is going to be all about for Borthwick and England. Do the best players in England have the best coach to take them to a new level in an extremely competitive test arena?

Explain to me how practical this is. Lots of “flexibility “.

Smith is more of a running threat than Ford, but he's bad at linking with his forward pods and building attacks over multiple phases.

England's attack was poor against New Zealand. It was good against Japan, because they gave Smith space to run, but the next most recent test started by Smith at 10 was the absolutely dire 1st test against Wales last summer. Before that was the terrible loss against France in the 2023 six nations.

Lets compare the points scored by England in the most recent tests started by Ford and Smith at 10 against each tier 1 side:

Ireland:

Smith 15, Ford 23

South Africa:

Smith 13, Ford 12

New Zealand:

Smith 17, Ford 19

France:

Smith 10, Ford 31

Argentina:

Smith 29, Ford 27

Scotland:

Smith 23, Ford 21

Italy:

Smith 33, Ford 27

Australia:

Smith 21, Ford 40

Wales:

Smith 9, Ford 16

Thats 5 matchups where Ford comes on top, and 4 where Smith does. The points average is 18.9 for Smith and 24 for Ford.

Looking just at matches against other top 5 sides, its 3 to 1 for Ford, and points averages of 13.8 for Smith and 21.3 for Ford.

For me, Earl is settled as England's 8. He has started 12 consecutive international matches there. Few teams have that level of surity around who their best player is at the back of the scrum.

And Ford has to start at fly half. A marcus smith led attack might be fine for the last 20 minutes of a match, when opponents are tired, but it'll never work against the top teams from the outset.

If he has such magical control then where is it on show.

He has cliche after cliche said about him but please tell me, apart from kicking the drop goals, when could anyone say he took a game by the scruff of the neck and turned it around with the magic that Marcus has.

He apparently has wonderful leadership in training .

Fat use that is if he can't do it on the pitch .

Yes he produces the occasional delayed pass, cross field kick , but if England and the Lions want to win the fans back it's time both Smiths were given a long stint and not have an old stager looking over their shoulders.

There is respect as rugby opponents and respect and humility around opponents. World Rugby and every Union epouses a principle of respect around opponents. It is defined in rugby regulations around the world. They are not talking about respect for their rugby abilities, they are talking about human respect, understanding that when the match is over you shake hands, respect is shown and on pitch rivalries cease.

What matches do those statistics represent? I don't see statistics for Jonny Sexton so not the RWC?

SA were clearly physically and emotionally fatigued after the titanic win over France. Everyone saw it against England where they were outplayed and vulnerable to elimination.

SA beat NZ by 35-7 just before the RWC. But in the final they could only manage 12 points and none in the second match against 14 men. The SA camp had talked about fatigue before the match and setting up in a way to mitigate. That was the nature of the draw. England were the 5th team but with one big performance in them and had prepared to unleash that game in the semi.

Honestly watching NZ against Ireland my impression from the start was pressure and that bad feeling. We would have beaten a better team on the day. NZ had prepared well for Ireland as you say but crucially 3 weeks out they knew their QF opponent. Ireland still had to prepare for Scotland. I think they will learn lessons there too. Ireland should have treated that couple of games as one ie you must win those two in a row. Instead the focused on one week at a time which was not enough.