GJ

🟨 Eight yellows 🟥 One red It's officialy England's worst 6N campaign for discipline.

How have they let france wear light blue

France will wear this throwback jersey tonight for the 120th anniversary of the Le Crunch 🤩

Eng v Italy - hopes & fears Hopes : Solidity - in short, we need discipline and we need to tackle. Far too many missed so far. Hope Smith - Atkinson will give the rest of the team more faith than Ford - Dingwall and there could be a positive knock on effect across the back division. The greater threat to the line of the new 10 & 12 should also make gang tackling Freeman harder. Could we see our best runner get the chance to run?! Ferocity - a troubled Wales team is making a fist of it tonight through utter passion and almost manic, body on the line stuff with and without the ball. England fail to find that level and we’re looking at unprecedented depths come Sunday. It’s time for the hard men to earn the tag. Nouse - finding a level of pure passion doesn’t have to mean stupid gameplans. Smart decision making and playing to our strengths is still the order of the day. I don’t want us abandoning astute rugby just to please the anti box kick crowd and because of our desperate situation. Fin Smith to bring his varied game. Spencer 🦵to Roebuck should be a massive weapon. Stick to astute rugby. But please execute it better than we have. And cut loose when opportunities present. Fears : Lethargy - no one outside the camp knows what on earth has happened to them but the contrast in energy from the Autumn to the last two weeks has been bizarre. Leggy and zombie like 20 mins into test matches. 2nd to react to everything. Fitness issue? Over trained? Or not mentally attuned? I’ve no idea. The fear is it that it’s something deeper lying and not rectifiable in 2 weeks. Fear itself - that the severity of the defeats and the pressure of a possible first loss to Italy overwhelms them and they freeze and become risk averse. No point making exciting changes if they don’t have license to do their thing. Toothlessness - who is making hard yards. Who is coming from depth. My hope of greater ‘ferocity’ may solve this. A shift to fever pitch puts spite in the carry, but I’m staggered we haven’t picked Cunningham-South. Curry and Genge need a massive upturn to offer Earl some support. Get some go forward and Atkinson and Freeman can start to pose as many questions as they’ll be asked. Should be a cracker. Careers on the line. Can’t wait.