Ex-England ace Mike Brown to make first start of the season

Leinster and Ireland have been using James Lowe for the left footed clearance for a long time now, mostly with great success. But I think they were caught on the hop when England started running ball back at them, they obv expected Borthwick to keep kikcing back to them as he had previously.

And yes, if the boot was on the other foot it would be a bit like Brian O'Driscoll telling Dan Carter to f**k off and enjoy his retirement - which would never happen. There would be too much respect between the pair.

Wahtever Ioane may or may not have thought about Johnny Sexton, he should have had anough sense to respect his achievements in the game and bite his tongue.

I agree England’s world rankings were inflated by their easy WC draw.

Win ratios don’t seem to matter, when it suits our friends from the North. We’ve have had to endure a lot of chest thumping because of win ratios up to now. So I’m glad you’ve at least seen the light. Trophies matter. Of which England has none of those either.

Although I’m surprised just how satisfied you are with mediocrity between World Cups. Something you’ve been quite outspoken about re: the Boks and their supporters.

I don’t think England will do much better than 60% wins for the year. Which would make it 42%, 56% and 60% in 2022, 2023 and 2024 if my maths stacks up. Eddie at least achieved 71%, 89% and 70% in the 3 years before he left.

So I can’t agree that England has “a clearly defined style of play for the first time in a long time”. You’ve regressed since Eddie. Even razor who has less time than Borthwick under his belt, outwitted you and achieved 70% for the year with a less settled squad. You tried copying the Bok rush defence over the last year and the guy who brought it in is leaving. Already.

Too many ifs, buts and maybes. But I hope I’m wrong. Because 1. I can’t bear the idea of Ireland and France running completely rampant without some resistance from England. And 2. You’re only going to get more salty about the boks to make up for your misery (envy).

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.

Win rate doesn't tell you a huge amount, world rankings offer much better insight. 2023 was a year of improvement for england, owing to the good world cup run. Things haven't progressed in 2024 so far, but given England have a settled starting XV and a clearly defined style of play for the first time in a long time, we'll see the number rise again pretty soon.