What’s going wrong with English rugby

Rejoice, as you don’t normally say after a hammering like the peerless French dished out to England at Twickenham. But looking on the bright side, at last English rugby knows its place, and it’s not pretty. The consensus in the hospitality lounges appeared to be that it was all Eddie Jones’s fault, though that feels a bit unfair to me. But hey ho, the darkest hour before the dawn and all that. And you can learn more from defeat than victory… fingers crossed.

What we can see is that France and Ireland are in a different league, with Scotland close behind. Certain players, poor Jack van Poortvliet at scrum-half, and Alex Dombrandt in a hopelessly outclassed back row, should go back to their clubs. George Ford, a hugely talented fly-half, should be given a chance by England in Dublin for the climax to the season on Saturday.

The preposterous rule that says players who go abroad cannot be picked should be scrapped forthwith; and the ludicrously overpaid RFU chief executive, Bill ‘Sweeney Todd’ Sweeney, who wins every week on £668,000 a year, should stand aside.