Blood & Mud

Another Example of why the English rugby media makes you want to punch yourself in the kidneys

Hopefully this man has a bit more sense

Robert Kitson today wrote a column in The Guardian considering what changes the England rugby union team may make to their elite squad ahead of the Six Nations.  So far, so sensible.  That is until you consider his opening lines:

How do you improve on perfection? It is a nice problem for Stuart Lancaster to contemplate as he seeks to capitalise on England's stunning win over New Zealand last month.

That's right, he did use the word perfection.  

Now, as great as that win was, it was a very long way from that adjective.  The forwards were outstanding, Manu Tuilagi had his best game, and Mike Brown displayed great form, but perfect?  Do me a favour.  

England still created very little, despite their utterly dominant fowards performance, and if the forwards are to continue to play like that (a big if) then they deserve a better 10-12 axis than Farrell & Barritt.  And don't even get me started on Ben Youngs' seemingly insurmountable inability to pass the ball with anything approaching urgency.  

This blog is English and the NZ victory was a wonderful, history-making day and more importantly a giant step forward.  However, any step forward can only be judged by the direction of the following step and this kind of hyperbole is as unwarranted as it is infuriating.  For English and non-English alike.  

Will England continue to improve?  You can get up close to the answer to that question and those posed in other Six Nations games if you buy tickets at StubHub UK.

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Another Example of why the English rugby media makes you want to punch yourself in the kidneys

Hopefully this man has a bit more sense

Robert Kitson today wrote a column in The Guardian considering what changes the England rugby union team may make to their elite squad ahead of the Six Nations.  So far, so sensible.  That is until you consider his opening lines:

How do you improve on perfection? It is a nice problem for Stuart Lancaster to contemplate as he seeks to capitalise on England's stunning win over New Zealand last month.

That's right, he did use the word perfection.  

Now, as great as that win was, it was a very long way from that adjective.  The forwards were outstanding, Manu Tuilagi had his best game, and Mike Brown displayed great form, but perfect?  Do me a favour.  

England still created very little, despite their utterly dominant fowards performance, and if the forwards are to continue to play like that (a big if) then they deserve a better 10-12 axis than Farrell & Barritt.  And don't even get me started on Ben Youngs' seemingly insurmountable inability to pass the ball with anything approaching urgency.  

This blog is English and the NZ victory was a wonderful, history-making day and more importantly a giant step forward.  However, any step forward can only be judged by the direction of the following step and this kind of hyperbole is as unwarranted as it is infuriating.  For English and non-English alike.  

Will England continue to improve?  You can get up close to the answer to that question and those posed in other Six Nations games if you buy tickets at StubHub UK.