In the 2003 Six Nations, as England built towards a Grand Slam and the World Cup that year, they beat France at home in a pretty non-descript game.
Afterwards, Will Greenwood was grabbed by the touchline TV reporter and asked how he thought they'd done. Greenwood ripped into his side's performance.
He was full of raw anger at not having executed what they had spent all week preparing for. He was brutally honest in his assessment and as a supporter it was pleasing to hear, because you felt you weren't being soft-soaped in the usual fashion.
On Sunday, England captain Steve Borthwick was the man with the mic thrust under his chin seconds after the final whistle. England had just delivered a performance that made that 2003 effort look like champagne stuff.
It wasn't anywhere near good enough, and Borthwick should have had the same guts as Greenwood had to say so.
Instead, he copped out and went on about looking for the positives from the display. If he is still searching, he will realise that he'd have spent less time looking for a corner in a round room.
When the world's best resourced rugby playing nation feebly scrapes past a tier two nation who were missing their only world class player and fielded a fly half still learning how to play the game, their skipper should really have enough respect for the fans to admit that they'd just served up a load of dross.
But it seems no one in this current England camp likes to hold up a hand and say "we were rubbish".
The fact is that when England did venture out of their shells and move the ball through some hands, they looked like doing Italy some damage. But the ambition lasted about as long as a naked flame in a hurricane.
Martin Johnson might tell you he doesn't care because the result was what mattered, but the point is, the fans do care.
They want - and deserve – more, both from their team's performance and their post-match assessments.
Contrast the snooze-fest in Rome with Saturday afternoon in Cardiff. Wales v Scotland had fans and coaches biting nails, pulling hair out, laughing, screaming, crying.
As a contest it encapsulated why rugby is a sport that can entertain in a way no other game is capable of. That, surely, is the reason stadiums get crammed, pubs get full to bursting and hard earned cash is spent by thousands upon thousands of people who want to get 80-minutes' worth of entertainment back for their investment.
It is not to watch chance after chance to inject ambition into a game hoofed aimlessly away. We can only hope that England's coaches and players are more honest with each other when they analyse this display, because at the moment they seem to be taking the rest of us for mugs.
READ DANNY COYLE EXCLUSIVELY AT RUGBY.CO.UK DURING THE SIX NATIONS AND BEYOND
Date published :
16 Feb 2010 - 11:22:19
09/09/2010 05:31:58
