The morning after...

Having slept on it I have come to the inescapable conclusion that England's defeat in Paris yesterday, narrow as it was, was almost entirely of their own making.

Not only were the first couple of French tries of the somewhat soft variety from a defensive perspective, having hauled themselves back into the game and established a winning position, England then promptly shot themselves in the foot.

Instead of continuing with the dynamic and direct ball-in-hand rugby that had seen them dominate the 3rd quarter, England appeared to switch to defensive mode, attempting to contain France and defend a 5 point lead - a ploy which ultimately failed.

The England cause also wasn't helped by the seemingly obligatory emptying of the bench. Yes, Ben Morgan and Tom Youngs made inroads into the French defence, but the control that England had exerted for previous 30 minutes was lost and the French were able to re-establish not only momentum but, crucially, self-belief.

The rest, as they say, is history - and I only hope that England learn from this.

Meanwhile, in Cardiff, Italy showed again that they are no longer pushovers in this tournament whilst Wales were very, very, ordinary. On this form there will be no third straight championship for the men in red - although having said that Wales were still several notches above their performance in the  opening fixture last year and we all know what happened then...

Phew!

Heartrate just about back to normal, enough to make the following observations:

• this England team are clearly uncomfortable with being favourites - which is a good thing because after today there's no chance of them travelling to Cardiff carrying that burden.
• with Manu Tuilagi shackled by the devious tactic of tackling low, England have precious few ball carrying options. If Ben Morgan isn't fit Billy Vunipola needs to be handed his debut.
• fine footballer that he is, Alex Goode is simply not quick enough nor strong enough in the tackle to be an international fullback. Mike Brown to fullback please, with Ben Foden onto the left wing.
• seriously, today has to have been Chris Ashton's last chance, doesn't it?

My 23 for Cardiff (which will of course never happen):

M. Vunipola, T.Youngs, Cole, Launchbury, Parling, Wood, Robshaw, B.Vunipola

B.Youngs, O.Farrell, B.Foden, B.Twelvetrees, M.Tuilagi, D.Strettle, M.Brown

Bench: Marler, Wilson, Hartley, Lawes, Croft, Care, Burns, Barritt

Dunderhead of the Week

It's time, after a seemingly endless hiatus, to re-introduce the coveted title of Dunderhead of the Week.

And the deserving receipient is, of course, Sig. Sergio Parisse.

The Italian skipper denies that he used insulting language towards referee Laurent Cardona in Saturday's match between Stade Francais and Bordeaux-Begles. Whatevever he did say, however, was sufficient to persuade Monsieur Cardona to send him off, a decision the official is unlikley to have taken lightly.

It appears that Sig. Parisse will now, at the very least, miss Italy's encounter with Wales in Rome. For all his undoubted talent and quality, he does sometimes come across as a bit of a knob.

Highlights, lowlights

A verdict of sorts on today's events...

Difficult to know what to make of today's Scotland v Italy encounter. For a start, what on earth were the Scots wearing and who gave the go ahead for the teams to wear virtually identical kits? I actually thought that the Italians played very, very well, undone only by critical mistakes at critical times and by a clinical Scottish performance. And the words 'clinical' and 'Scottish' have never previously appeared in the same sentence.

Highlight of the match? Signor Venditti's airshot when attempting to hack the ball clear - an effort which made me look like Pele.

And on to Paris. Now, I watched the game from beginning to end and heard what the BBC pundits, Clive Woodward included, had to say about how well Wales played, but for the life of me I'm not sure I can recall a worse Six Nations game. Ever. Wales were abjectly terrible. And France were worse.

Highlights? None. Seriously, none. It was that bad.

The only things of vague interest were the hookers' hairstyles.

Italian Job

I've just read a quite superb preview of England's chances against Italy tomorrow, written by some bloke who can only be described as some kind of rugby genius.

For inspirational enlightenment click here.