England’s 23-22 win over Ireland last week was the best by the team since their 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand.
I have questioned head coach Steve Borthwick and his plan for the side on numerous occasions, and I don’t think one win against a brilliant Ireland saves him from criticism, but at the weekend I do think we saw a new England. We saw an England team that can go to France this weekend, beat the hosts and finish their Six Nations campaign with four wins out of five.
England can technically win the Six Nations but they need Scotland to beat Ireland before they face France, and they can also lose the Six Nations on four wins to Ireland’s three. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles and they should have gone about playing Scotland better three weeks back if they wanted to have a realistic shot at winning the title this year, which would have been their first since 2020.
But winning in France, albeit in Lyon rather than Paris due to the Olympics, in Le Crunch will arguably be an even bigger achievement than beating Ireland at home.
Les Bleus in their homeland are bloody tough and even a woeful campaign by head coach Fabien Galthie’s standards would be made bearable by a win against the English.
Six Nations showdown
The fixture has history and fire in it and that’s what’s so good about it.
Borthwick’s men need to reproduce their performance against Ireland in France, and I am not sure we’ve seen England complete back-to-back performances like that in years.
And this match means so much more than a potential first or second place in the Six Nations this year; it will determine the kind of momentum England can take into their daunting summer tour in New Zealand.
Going to the Land of the Long White Cloud off the back of wins against Ireland and France is a completely different prospect to head down there with losses to France and Scotland and a third or fourth-place finish in the Six Nations.
England will need to come out of the blocks in both attack and defence in the same way they did at Twickenham to negate what happened when Les Bleus travelled to Wales at the weekend.
The home side kept in touch but when the replacements were made a gulf in class was exposed between the two sides as France romped home.
England will need a full performance and after their victory over Ireland they will believe anything is possible. But that could be their undoing. They need to go at this like they still have something to prove. It’s going to be a cracker.
Wooden Wales
I was at the Principality on Sunday to watch Wales lose to France.
They were in it for long enough before being undone but I just don’t see enough progress and depth in them to avoid the Wooden Spoon this weekend.
Italy are looking like a side that can cause serious issues and Wales could be humiliated in their home stadium for consecutive games against the Azzurri.
And they deserve the Wooden Spoon; every other side has a win under their belt and, more importantly, have shown significant progress.
Warren Galtalnd’s side need redirection, again, and I just don’t back enough of their players to put that into motion.
Super Saturday is going to be brilliant, but it is Ireland who still have everything to lose.
Last time out
Former England Sevens Captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance, experts in leadership development behavioural change and executive coaching support. Follow Ollie on Twitter and on LinkedIn @OlliePhillips11