First the good news: by Saturday night the Six Nations will be over and England's dispiriting campaign will have been laid to rest in a shallow Parisian grave. No more worthy tripe dressed up as significant progress, no more fumbling for fresh adjectives to describe the same old dross. Even if England somehow stop France securing a grand slam, it will not elevate their season above the deeply mediocre.For the world's richest union this is, once again, an uncomfortable place to be. Even Martin Johnson, to his credit, declined to spin the unspinnable. His team may have clung on to the Calcutta Cup with this barely deserved draw but they are trapped in a black hole creatively, as far removed from a revitalised world force as when Johnson took over. Avoiding defeat in another tryless exercise in futility – England's last try in Scotland came six years ago – is nothing to shout about.
Most worrying of all is that Johnson's men, challenged by him to outdo the Scots for energy, urgency, passion and emotion, could not do so. If the same happens at the Stade de France against opponents who ripped Italy to shreds yesterday, it will be carnage. "It can be a very long night in Paris if you don't get it right," said Johnson, looking as deflated as he has done in months. From somewhere he has to inject impetus and acknowledge that his side are worryingly short of real quality.
The issues go far beyond a temporary loss of confidence. The only area of the team which has shown up well in the past few weeks has been the scrummage, under Graham Rowntree's tutelage. If there is an English player of the championship it is Dan Cole, whose Test career is in its infancy. There is a moral there somewhere: rather than soldiering on with willing but limited club stalwarts and settling for damage limitation Johnson simply has to shed his innate selectorial caution. No one is suggesting he take half a dozen teenagers to Paris but the painful head knocks suffered by Jonny Wilkinson and Ugo Monye (happily neither suffered lasting damage) offer an excuse to experiment. Ben Foden and Chris Ashton should start and with Mathieu Bastareaud in mind there is a case for inviting Shontayne Hape to add some edge to England's midfield.
