Simon Gleave

So, three wins out of 13 matches (23% win rate) for Borthwick's England against other teams currently ranked in World Rugby's top-5.

A chance to improve this against Ireland this weekend.

England's win% under Steve Borthwick:

100% v Argentina (5/5)
100% v Italy (3/3)
100% v Japan (3/3)
83% v Wales (5/6)
67% v Fiji (2/3)
50% v Australia (1/2)
33% v France (1/3)
25% v Scotland (1/4)
25% v Ireland (1/4)
25% v New Zealand (1/4)
0% v South Africa (0/2)

59% v Nations Championship teams

The equaliser was a fantastic example of what you are saying. Basically an easy ball for Raya to take under zero pressure until his own defender changes this. Quite staggering.

So, the easy Six Nations opponents are out of the way for Townsend, albeit with one defeat.

Now the tough games against Wales, France and Ireland!

UPDATE: Scotland's win% against selected teams under Gregor Townsend.

83% v Italy (12 games)
80% v Australia (5)
67% v England (9)
67% v Fiji (6)
57% v Argentina (7)
50% v Japan (2)
44% v Wales (9)
38% v France (13)
0% v Ireland (11)
0% v New Zealand (3)
0% v South Africa (4)

Am starting to get annoyed with the negatives being piled on England for losing to a very good Scotland performance.

15 v 15 England won, just for context. England are not in a dark place or having to reconsider everything. They lost a guy to the bin and were punished by an excellent attack.

Obviously possible that this is the case but as I have said, it isn't the manager and coaching staff that are the key things at clubs like Brentford. Those people are not uncovering and signing the players they have.

I actually forecast that Frank wouldn't be successful for exactly this reason. The coaches aren't the important factors at these teams.

The data driven IP is but that remains at the club - and is kept secret from anyone who is likely to depart.

I will give you the France game but he is a target for most opposition if playing 15 (France didn't do this). Also if England had lost - which was possible - the narrative would have been different.

As for 2024, yes the team is in development.

Perhaps the Brentford manager and coaching staff aren't the important part of their success.

Similar happens when Brighton's manager/staff go elsewhere.

"The challenge for Scotland is to replicate this level of execution and energy every week."

This comment can be copy and pasted into post England v Scotland articles in pretty much every year after a Calcutta Cup game under Townsend.

The Scots haven't managed it yet in 9 years. Maybe this time.

Marcus Smith is a gamechanger is right up there with England kick too much and Henry Arundell is an international class winger as the the biggest myths in modern rugby.

If you don't agree, please let me know which game Marcus Smith changed in the comments.

There is one stat* (other than the scoreline) which has been won by all six winners of this year's Six Nations matches so far.

Kicking metres - the team with the most kicking metres in each match has won EVERY SINGLE TIME.

* There is probably more than one

Too many people talking too much shit.

The information is all out there too. People don't even have to collect it themselves like I have over the years!!

Co-commentators who don't understand what is going on is a blight. Mind you Jiffy is a genius in comparison to the Dutch commentators.

England didn't lose against Scotland because they kicked too much. In fact, of the 12 match-team combinations to date, only Italy (v Ireland) kicked less in a match than England did on Saturday.

England lost because of turnovers (50% of their possessions ended with one) and losing the aerial battle

Interesting that England are being caned for scoring 1.4 points per 22 entry at the weekend.

Obviously this isn't good but the fact that they had 12 entries into the 22 in the first place is far more significant.

There are things wrong but 26 entries into the 22 in two matches is not one of them

I think that the difference now is that I really have no idea what a foul is. Pushing someone hard enough to put them out of balance when in the air and trying to head a ball seems like a foul to me but it generally isn't one. This makes no sense to me.

No one understands fouls anymore. One of my biggest issues with football at the moment.

Also the change from the 2018 World Cup - which admittedly went way too far the other way in the box - is remarkable.

It wasn't enough for PSG or Newcastle, and it wouldn't have been for Tottenham either.

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

Even if the prediction is being made when the games are already being played!!

It is the release day for Attacking the Space!!

If you haven't pre-ordered you can now pick-up a copy in your local bookshop.

Not in this case and this IS the way to win as we both know. Subsequent series are going to be interesting now.

The other thing that struck me was how bad Harry (S2) now looks.

He could have just won with Andrew (they were in the last four) but instead utterly humiliated his friend on national TV.

This is in the shops tomorrow.

I am mentioned in it.

Buy it.

They might still do all of that. Also it may be edited to give us a wrong idea.

Applying reasonable probabilities/betting odds to each competition implies a 2% chance of the quadruple which shows how hard it is.

Maybe I am missing something but I'd have thought that it is also worth saying that Arsenal are guaranteed to finish 1st or 2nd, which means a theoretically easier last-16 match than other direct qualifiers.

1 win - against Inter or Kairat - guarantees Arsenal 1st or 2nd place (probably 1st).

This means a last-16 fixture against a team finishing 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th in the league phase (currently Barcelona, Marseille, Juventus, Galatasaray but likely to change a lot from that).

#INTARS

To be fair they have absolutely nothing to go on but yes, sometimes they choose some odd reasoning.

I never watch reality shows but there is something fascinating about this. I have lots of stuff I could write about on it.

The psychology of it and the different interactions as well as the mirror of our society make it very very interesting and dramatic.

You should watch the UK celebrity version. It was brilliant but in a different way.

It was created here, in the Netherlands, like an enormous amount of TV entertainment.

I have heard that the British one is streets better than the Dutch original which I have never seen.