I was chuckling to myself today reading a quote from the England Rugby captain Mario Itoje saying "Not as bad as everyone says it is." If you consider the team had won two games out of 10 previously before their latest two victories and those victories were against Japan.
I actually think the reports have been kind when saying things are bad when clearly they are far worse than just being bad. Then as the captain of the team he is never going to say the truth as he wants to keep his job. I would go as far as saying this is the weakest English team I have seen in the last 40 years and is a direct reflection of the standard of club rugby in the UK which is professional. It is hard to justify how these players are earning top salaries when they are only average players.
Last week they beat Scotland by a single point 16-15 after Scotland missed all their kicks and should have won. Luck was definitely on their side and the other victory was a 26-25 victory against a lacklustre French team. A win is a win and they did not exactly dominate those games even though they were clearly playin at their best.
The reality is England Rugby are way down the pecking order and unless they find new players they are not going to be challenging for silverware for a very long time. You can kid yourself as much as you like, but the team is literally one game away from a serious hiding. If they played in he World Cup tomorrow teams would be happy to have England in their pool.
This is the problem when you win a game or two as not much has changed and you are only setting yourself up for failure. The victories are covering over the cracks for now and is the worst possible result for England as the pressure is off the coaching staff and players. The team will only be exposed again when the Autumn internationals happen in November. All this does is keep a coach in a position for an extra year giving whoever the new coach might be less time to fix the problems.
World Cups happen every 4 years and the next one being 2027 I give England no hope as this should be the rebuilding phase. England could easily have 0 log points from 3 matches yet we now see them sitting on 10 points instead and most likely heading for a 3rd place finish in the Six Nations. Saying they have over achieved is an understatement and why English teams generally fail on the big stage.
The press build the team up to such a degree instead of being truthful which results in a public back lash when the team fails which it will. There is just too much wrong with the team that it is hard to see how the coaching staff and selectors can improve moving forward. This is like a poison chalice that will only end in disaster and this group will be blamed for why they fail in 2027 when the fault is much higher up the food chain with the English Rugby Board.