Where are England?

I have been slightly surprised at the reaction to England rugby's two defeats in the men's Six Nations, it has been almost hysterical at times. Hence, I wanted to point out that I do not believe England are far off where they need to be. Am I mad? - not completely!

Let’s take a quick look back at their games so far, and in doing so, I hope we will all realise how fine the margins are between success and failure for a team. We are talking a sports team here, but it applies across the board, the difference between success and failure is often brutally small............

In the Italy game, England put enough good phases of play together to win the game comfortably. But move onto the Welsh game, the famous TMO decision for the Wales try. Underhill's brilliant try-saving tackle. And in the Scotland game, the bounce of the ball for Jones's first try, the decisions around Lawes's tackle and Launchbury's penalty as Danny Care was racing away to score. In the French game, the penalty try and the knock on to end the game. None of these examples are judgements on the referees or the decisions themselves, but they are examples of how fine the line is between winning and losing.

If a number of those examples had fallen England's way, who knows what that momentum shift would have done to the outcome, the same being said of the Wales game.

So cruelly fine margins. But hopefully a lesson to these England players that precision and discipline is so vitally important. Under the most severe pressure, players must still perform their roles with precision. Part of that is training, part of that is fitness and part of that is mental.

I think these players have just relaxed that mental intensity, albeit by a tiny margin, but it has made all the difference. Many are arguing about selections, combinations, and some of those arguments might be valid, but I think this England side have just lost that mental intensity. It manifests itself in poor discipline, resulting in stupid penalties and poor positioning/ execution in many areas of the game.

And we are talking small percentages here. I said at the start, England are not far away. The difference in the last few months has been in their heads. They have just slipped into a comfort zone, and how many of us have done that or been part of a team that has also done the same. If they can increase their intensity in concentration individually and then as a team, I believe the impact on their performance will be huge.

Many tiny moments, that have resulted in two defeats. But could so easily have resulted in two wins. To be World Class, this team must learn to be at their peak mentally every time they cross the white line. They need to understand the processes that get them into the right zone and then replicate those game after game.

Painful lessons, but hopefully once learnt, never forgotten...............