I agree. The argies are tough and played well, disrupting England. Credit to them. I believe that they will beat Scotland and move on up. (based on their play so far, who could argue?)
There are no easy games, England came away with a win. easy really

Lydneyian
Agree mate, to many fair weather fans burst in with nonsense on game day and them wonder off back to the wendyball boards.
if that game was a win against SA, OZ, France NZ or any other top tier nation the fair weather supporters would not have been complaining.

I just hate the ridiculous lack of respect shown toward Argentina. And i hate argentina, i believe that they are by a long way the dirtiest team in world rugby but they are a good team nontheless and very difficult to beat. So a win is a good thing plain and simple and for me people who expected England to run away with it by some sort of crazy margin don't know enough about the game and ought to keep that kind of nonsense to them selves. When is the last time we saw a full strength Argentina team been given a massive beating by anyone? not recently thats for sure. too many people don't know enough about rugby before they start mouthing off

The Citing... well cooper should have been cited but wasn't, thats injustice. However Lawes was and should have been so what to say... cooper was guilty and got away with it... lawes was also guilty but got cited, but to be fair just because cooper got away with it should not mean that anyone else does. only a 2 game ban.. could have been worse he will be back for the important games. Silver lining i guess.

I thought we held them at bay well, with our big forwards and good kicking.

Hello Ginger - fancy seeing you here

You are right Dingbat - there is not enough reepect being shown to a lot of teams

As for the citing - we may need to agree to disagree - ive watched it today on the highlights and I just dont see it - I just cant see any intent or malice - just a lumbering lock going toward the man - he slid on his knees - I suppose its subjective and after getting a 2 match ban I have to accept it - but they gave him 2 instead of 3 cos he showed remorse - but he pleaded not guilty - it all stinks of kangeroo court to me - anyway - I know you have your wedding coming up - but have you done your predictions - priorities an all that

Hi Lydne
I had to ENDURE the last five minutes around a friends house on Saturday morning.

A win is a win as the cliché goes

Well I think part of that comment was aimed at me in regards to Wilkinson so allow me to go into more detail as you called it "Ridiculous".
I have been critical of him in regards to him providing a platform for our backs to create breaks, something which Toby Flood does much better in my view. Before you misunderstand me, I am not saying he is a bad player, just that if we want explosive backs (I hope we all do) we need to play Flood. The main reasons I feel are as follows. He isnt a threat running with the ball, this allows the defence to not have to worry and concentrate on our runners more. He stands further behind the gain line which in turn makes it harder for people to break it. His pass is more lethargic and not as accurate in my opinion. The difference is subtle but makes a big impact on our backline.
Since the last world cup JW has played many games, can you name me one where our backs have been explosive, making breaks and scoring tries at will? I cant. Flood on the other hand has many such games, is this a coincidence? I think not.
Now we clearly have different views on this but to say any criticism of JW in his gameplay is ridiculous, is quite frankly ridiculous.
As for the game itself, I dont think it was a disaster at all. Argentina are tough and it was the first game. We won and that is the main point but we could have done better. I am hopeful that will happen but for our backs to flourish I feel we need the Youngs/Flood pair that has been so impressive. This is the team I would like to see if everyone was/is fit:-

Sherdian
Hartley
Stevens
Lawes
Palmer
Croft
Moody
Easter
Youngs
Flood
Ashton
Tindall
Tuilagi
Cueto
Foden

Once more unto the breach!

Oh, on another note I agree with everything else in your article.

Aristo - it wasnt aimed at you or anyone in particular - just a general comment on the JW snipes - you are right we will have to agree to disagree Im afraid - I just dont think Flood is good enough - a good player - but not good enough - I watched the highlights yesterday - and its not enough to make a proper assessment - but I suppose it was backed up by my memories of Saturday - Manu was heavily markedthroughout the game it was difficult to let him rip - a bit more experience on his part will maybe free him up - on the Whole JW did a good job - he is a good playmaker but he needs options to work with - either way I wont be so quick to delete the full game next week - so that I can check out what people are saying - I am happy to take another view if its shown to me

Picking Saturdays team is massivly full of opinions - I suppose it depends on your view of Georgia - I think - as today - they will be big up front but lacking the experience to do anything with it - England need a good experienced pack - battle hardened - but I feel we can rest some of our key players

I would play

Corbs
Thompson
Cole
obviously Sheridan has gone home - Stevens was amazing when he came on last week - and his passion was great to see - he loved coming on you could tell - but he plays both tight and loosehead - do the others? If this was a knockout game or game v a better team - I would go with your front row - but for this game I would play the above

Shaw
Palmer

Lawes is banned - Shaw wont get many opportunities and this battle could be perfect for him

Croft
Easter
Moody

I agree with your back row - but Moody for the same reasons as Shaw - the others we could do with resting at some point - I think the back row v Arg was our strongest - we need to rotate the others around games

Youngs
Wilkinson

I would of gone with Flood if JW hadnt missed those kicks - but he could do with starting and kicking

Hape
Manu

Im starting to realise as I write this (Aristodemus) that in your mind you are looking at playing our strongest team - where as Im looking at resting players - isnt sport great

I think we should take the opportunity to rest Tindall - and get Hape some gametime (even though I dont rate him) - Manu needs the games

Ashton
Cueto
Armitage

Simply cos I want to save Foden

I think your team is nearly the team I would play v the Scots - but the games in between - I would be playing similar teams to mine

What do you think of my logic ???

actually - when I say your front row - obviously Sheridan is un available so is it

Corbs
Hartley
Stevens

or

Stevens
Hartley
Cole

or is someone else coming perhaps?

I would go with Corbisiero from now on yes. The team I stated was just for England's finest, not for the Georgia match or even for the WC. You can watch the full game at itvplayer too, as for the team against Georgia I could go with that but obviously I want Flood playing. Niggles and such have to be taken into account though.
I am curious as to why you think he isnt good enough, did you see our AI game against Aus last year? I thought he was immense throughout the 6nations and in the two games down under last summer too.

Yeah he was immense v australia - awesome in fact - and last summer I agree he played well - very good v Wales and excellent v Italy (which by the way was a totally under rated performance by the whole team) - but he did fall away in the 6N for me - and maybe not good enough is sort of the wrong phrase after my comments above - but Im not sure he can grab a game by the scruff of the neck or come up with something special especially when things are not going well - and his kicking (from hand and for goal) is not as strong as Jonnys - Jonny has really only got back to full fitness at the start of last seasonand has had as good a season with Toulon as Flood has had with the Tigers - if not better - and has proved that he is the man for the big occassion - funnily enough I was talking Fly Halfs with a friend this morning - Im starting to think - when this tournament is over - maybe we should throw our weight behind Farrell.

I am glad you appreciated those performances by him. I think his kicking from hand is better than JW to be fair but he keeps it in hand alot more (which i like). As for changing games that are going badly, maybe you have a case, but I cant think of any instances JW has either. Wilkinson is the man for goal kicking though, which is why he is the perfect guy for the bench. Also you have to tie in the fact that not many games have been going badly with Youngs/Flood.
As for young guys coming through, George Ford is going to be our future. Flood has a few years I think first. You may think I am a Leicester fan now, but I am not.

On the whole my issues with the JW knocking are based on the fact that people these days rarely look at anything other than his goal kicking - and tend to get creative when judging his game based on selective passages of play and conversion ratios. In fact - if people actually watched him on the field outside of this - his positional play and playmaking is first class - as I have pointed out on here before (broken record time) - he was awarded best foreign player in France last season - and that is the most free flowing, open, running league in the northern hemisphere - remenber the injuries that he has suffered in the last 6 years would of finished most players off - give him the chance to show he is the best - and he wont let us down - by the way - i disagree with your kicking from hand opinion

If Youngs is at his best - the quick ball and new ideas that he provides will work well with JW - the only thing I will say is that Flood is obviously used to playing with Youngs