Not really, it was only the two late tries when England ran out of steam that makes it look like that to anyone who didn’t watch the game. England played well and made a game of it considering the sending off after two minutes

Made in Bromley

England cannot compete with this indiscipline. They will go toe to toe with France next game but concede untold penalties in kickable positions and lose players on yellows for unforced error after unforced error. They are tough to watch right now.

Brian Moore often quoted the statistic that a side reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes because of a yellow card on average conceded 7 points during those 10 minutes. England were down to 14 for 78 minutes. I thought they were magnificent.

I will be in Paris next weekend and I hope that we can reproduce the tenacity that we showed today.

The French will be worried, and rightly so.

...another point, we won 6 penalties off the scrum, where was Irelands yellow for constantly infringing?

I find the general standard of reffing in Rugby Union is ruining the game. The TMO time wasting. The needless reds. The inability to do anything if you do win the scrum: you can't drive it on anymore. It's more and more rugby league minus the 30 minutes the four or five scrums take. Add in 20 for the lineouts and penalties and there's about 30 minutes play in reality. So much game management rather than game play.
One thing I do find is the political refereeing in the six Nations doesn't usually pop up in the World Cup - until maybe the final. That means Ireland, Wales and Scotland lose any ref advantage they might get against teams like England, France, Argentina. I expect France to win next year as if South Africa win it, I think we may as well all give up.

Red and Blue Army!