I think the whole English team is vastly overated. The forwards are slow, ponderous and couldnt punch a hole in a wet paper bag with the ball in hand. The I.talian pack pushed and bossed them all over the park even after their two best players, Castrowhatever and Parise were crocked. The backs had no clue and kicked away possession with monotomous regularity. In fact all these 6 nations teams do that. They are stuck in a time warp and seem inacapable of realising that keeping possession and running at the opposition will gain you rewards in the form of a line break or a penalty and constant tackling will tire out the opposition. Kicking the ball back will reverse that situation and put you at a disadvantage. How the press can prattle on about a wonderous comeback when the Italians gifted them a try and then missed two very kickable penalties which would have won them the game is a mystery to me. This is Italy, people.
The Wales, Scotland game was better but the Welsh pack is overated. The shaggy haired prop is useless and even in the scrum, he should have been penalsied for collpasing right under his own posts but the referee bottled it and ordered a reset.The Scottish one underated. They have some very powerful runners and tacklers who would not be out of place in RL. The Welsh backs are pretty good but even they kick way too much. The Welsh also manage to have a player lying on the wrong side of every ruck being allegedly unable to roll away and slowing down the Scottish ball, I kid you not, check it out and the ref was completely oblivious. He was conned. The Scots have been robbed against England and unlucky with the sin binnings against Wales. Before that they were on top. They have improved out of all recognition since the world cup when they were dire but still should have beaten England.
