England face test of their 'manlihood'

I wonder if any of the French based players will come into the equation. Dave Ribbans would be one I would look at. And the standout would be Jack Willis. He would have to be in most world 23 picks. We will see this weekend if his season will continue to the Europen final, but then there is still the Bouclier de Brennus to come, so his availability would be the issue.

Considering how poor a distributor Ioane is at 13 and the fact he will be playing wing at Leinster next season, Taele should be shifted out one spot to 13 where he will have more space and fewer big collusions.

It is not just the danger of facing a big team in the round of 16: you might also get one of them in your pool. That would be two extra massive matches. No team in that scenario is winning any world cup. Its as simple as that.

Currently Argentina are 5th, England 6th, Scotland 7th and Australia 8th. With a spread of 3.5 ranking points between those 4.

Playing SA first is not bad as it means losing points at the right time. They must beat Argentina twice in subsequent matches and will gain more there. They have England away and may need to win that and another high value win over: NZ in Perth, Ireland in Dublin or France in Paris will certainly help.

Some sympathy for 7th placed Scotland is required. Scotland were eliminated in Pool stage in 2019 and as rankings were frozen at end of RWC 2019 for RWC 2023 draw, Scotland were ranked 9th. They made massive progress to be ranked 5th before 2023 but it didn’t count and they were drawn in their group of death with Ireland and SA and more or less eliminated by the draw. Compare with England who were terrible between world cups but were top 4 ranked in 2019 which gave them a quarter final against Fiji in 2023 to make a semi final.

The swing in ranking points between Scotland to England before and after RWC 2023 was a massive 6.5

Scotland should be sitting comfortably in 5th but are now 7th and will struggle to make top6. If they don’t make top 6 and get an unlucky draw they could be out at the last 16 stage. In other words the farcical draw in 2023 means that Scotland are still being punished for their showing in RWC 2019 and this may last at least until 2027.

I hope for Justice sakes they make the top 6.

Of course, there is the slippery slope argument - which is fair, there can and probabl should be be limits on what a player should be able to do. But winding people up? That’s sport. It always has been and always will be - emotions can and will be manipulated. If we can’t do that, then it’s not sport. It’s called gaining a psychological edge. We are all well aware of the dark arts of rugby and it’s an accepted part of the game. There is no reason a celebration cannot be either.

My belief is that you’re immediately going to a worst case scenario and trying to nip this behaviour in the bud, which is unnecessary. He’s having fun and kids look up to that. Combine that with the respect that the vast majority of professional rugby players show, and you have a winning formula. See my original comment regarding him getting his ass handed to him at some stage or another. Maybe even this very weekend. But to say that Pollock is abusive and humiliating? Calm down, he’s just a talented kid having a good time.