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Jamie George 'absolutely' believes England can be title contenders

Jamie George with England in Rome (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

New Test-level skipper Jamie George isn’t writing off his England team’s chances of winning the 2024 Guinness Six Nations. The English have won the two most recent tournaments played after a Rugby World Cup, being crowned champions in 2016 and again in 2020.

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Having finished as bronze medal winners at France 2023, a level of optimism existed about England’s championship chances. They were poor, however, in their round-one win away to Italy, coming from being behind at the interval to eventually win 27-24 without managing a for-try bonus point.

Their blunt display contrasted negatively with the sparkle exhibited by Ireland in their mauling of France in Marseille and Andy Farrell’s side will now be heavily tipped to win back-to-back Grand Slams for the first time in Irish rugby history.

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Stuart Lancaster discusses Owen Farrell’s move to Racing 92

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Stuart Lancaster discusses Owen Farrell’s move to Racing 92

England will host Ireland at Twickenham in round four. Before that, they will pick up the driftwood of their underwhelming efforts in Rome by taking on Wales next Saturday where a win would leave them two from two on the table and add to George’s belief that his England team are title contenders.

Asked if England are capable of battling Ireland and winning trophies, the hooker said: “Absolutely. I don’t want anyone to be involved in this squad if they don’t genuinely believe that we can go and challenge the best and win this tournament.

Six Nations

P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Ireland
1
1
0
0
5
2
England
1
1
0
0
4
3
Scotland
1
1
0
0
4
4
Wales
1
0
1
0
2
5
Italy
1
0
1
0
1
6
France
1
0
1
0
0

“Looking at Ireland, they were very impressive. Not many teams go to France and perform like that. It’s a blueprint for us, and any team, to look at how they approached that game.

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“France will be disappointed with how they played but for us, we are going to be learning fast and we need to make sure we learn our lessons and be very clear about what we want to go after next week.

“We have got a great opportunity to be back in front of our fans against Wales next weekend and really give them something to smile about.”

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J
JW 29 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

12 Go to comments
F
Flankly 56 minutes ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

9 Go to comments
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