^^^Depends what you mean by competitive?

They're currently favourites for the current competition they are in and are already one of only two teams who can win a Grand Slam. He can only really prepare for the event he is in

You seem to have a real agenda with the England Rugby team as a whole because a few players from your own club (who aren't even in Europe's Premier Club competition) aren't selected

I wouldn't let it bother me as much tbh, life's too short!

I know full well what it's like having barely anyone from my own club selected for Ireland!

Look, I'm 100% behind you on the current situation not being good but it's fitting his game plan right now. Personally I want to see us win, I don't care how we do it. I'd rather us keep winning and be boring than have a lovely expansive game and never beat the SH teams (Wales).

Haskell is not even close to a 7, he's a 6, or a 6.25 at best... Similar to Robshaw. Haskell's workrate is phenominal and although I don't like him at all, he did put some serious hits in the last 20 minutes when others were tiring.

I'd move him to 6 and have Clifford on, I just don't think Kvesic is good enough around the park. He may win a couple of turnovers, but if he's giving the ball up 5 times a game, you just can't do that at international level.

Team news

Wales team: Liam Williams (Scarlets); George North (Northampton Saints), Jonathan Davies (ASM Clermont), Jamie Roberts (Harlequins), Tom James (Cardiff Blues); Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Gareth Davies (Scarlets); Rob Evans (Scarlets), Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Luke Charteris (Racing 92), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, Capt), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).

Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Bradley Davies (Wasps), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), Rhys Priestland (Bath Rugby), Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues).

Scotland: Stuart Hogg; Sean Maitland, Mark Bennett, Duncan Taylor, Tommy Seymour; Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (captain); Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford, WP Nel, Richie Gray, Jonny Gray, John Barclay, John Hardie, 8-David Denton

Replacements: Stuart McInally, Gordon Reid, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Blair Cowan, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Duncan Weir, Sean Lamont.

I can't help thinking that Jamie Roberts represents a weakness as well as a strength for Wales. Whilst everybody was lauding him for the performance against Ireland, the Welsh back-line still remained predictable & one-dimensional (ie Warrenball) except for a couple of touches by the more skilful Jonathan Davies.

more....

France: Maxime Medard, Teddy Thomas, Maxime Mermoz; Jonathan Danty, Virimi Vakatawa; Jules Plisson, Sebastien Bezy; Jefferson Poirot, Guilhem Guirado (capt), Uini Atonio, Alexandre Flanquart, Yoann Maestri, Wenceslas Lauret, Yacouba Camara, Damien Chouly.

Replacements: Camille Chat, Rabah Slimani, Eddy Ben Arous, Paul Jedresiak, Loann Goujon, Maxime Machenaud, Jean-Marc Doussain, Hugo Bonneval.

Ireland: Rob Kearney, Andrew Trimble, Jared Payne, Robbie Henshaw, Dave Kearney, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Rory Best (capt), Nathan White, Mike McCarthy, Devin Toner, CJ Stander, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip.

Replacements: Richardt Strauss, James Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, Donnacha Ryan, Tommy O'Donnell, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan, Fergus McFadden.

To play devil's advocate, I still think England's World Cup campaign is being a bit overexaggerated all round.

2 other tier one teams in the group and they were a bounce of the ball away from advancing. They would have waltzed through any other group.

For example Ireland only had (It really is a stretch to include that farcical French team as a "tier one" side to be perfectly honest) one "tier one" team in their group, and then got well beaten by Argentina. Both campaigns were pretty much equally as disappointing imo. France themselves were miles worse than England. Scotland had one inspired showing but were as toothless as ever bar that. So compared to the other NH sides England didn't fare much worse at all tbh (bar Wales slightly)

Over the last 5 six nations seasons England only lost one match in each six nations campaign. So all in all they've been the most consistent NH side over the past 5 years (they actually topped the table taking the 4 6n's combined between RWC 2011 and 2015).

I don't actually think England are as far away as some are saying. There is some great talent coming through, the club game has now elevated to possibly its greatest state ever and there is a fresh coaching staff appointed (it's a statement getting the first foreign coach in). the next step is to start grinding out home wins v the SH in the Autumn series

However domestically for now, as much as I don't want it to happen ( ) I can see England picking up at least 2 slams in this 4 year cycle, starting in 5/6 weeks

Joe at his conservative best

If Declan Kidney picked this team he'd be obliterated for it

Come on, why not give young McCloskey a go and move Payne to FB. I know for some reason Rob Kearney has untouchable status but he has been atrocious for leinster.

Fergus McFadden on the bench, really? Again no Paddy Jackson in the 23, the best outhalf in the country on form

It should be ok against this awful French team, but then again I've rarely ever seen a poor French performance against us in Paris. The feckers will typically raise their game no doubt.

Vakatawa scares me greatly. i can't shake off an eerie 2007 like feeling about this one

Pity Henson has had so many injuries as he's still a super fit 34 year old. Himself and Scott Williams could have been a beautiful partnership

England: Mike Brown (vice captain, Harlequins); Anthony Watson (Bath), Jonathan Joseph (Bath), Owen Farrell (vice captain, Saracens), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs); George Ford (Bath), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers); Mako Vunipola (Saracens); Dylan Hartley (captain, Northampton Saints), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), George Kruis (Saracens), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), James Haskell (Wasps), Billy Vunipola (vice captain, Saracens).

Replacements: Jamie George (Saracens), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Paul Hill (Northampton Saints), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Maro Itoje (Saracens), Jack Clifford (Harlequins), Danny Care (Harlequins), Alex Goode (Saracens).

Marler drops to the bench, Itoje in line for his first cap

hmm, why on earth didn't Mako start last week so if his role won't be impact sub all the time? he's on a different planet to Marler

One outside back on the bench is odd, especially when Care only covers 9. Don't tell me EJ is going to start messing both Care and Youngs around aswell? Just pick Simpson and Care and be done with it

I think we could see Farrell moved back to 10 for the Ireland game and Burrell into 12 after his exploits last weekend for Saints. Big game for Ford to stake his claim- he's not in great form really

Anyhow, pretty uninspiring weekend of matches on the face of it, given it's the "big 3" against the "Lower 3"

However Ireland v France is always one to whet the appetite. France have been apparently spending all week on their defence, which should ensure they are more solid. 2 years ago they tore up the form book and very easily could have beaten Ireland in Paris (An Irish team light years ahead of this one due to injuries and form). On that note I rarely remember a subpar France performance in this fixture in Paris

Backrow aside that Ireland pack worries me up against a brute of a French pack with some serious options to call on in reserve (White's scrummaging a particular concern).

In theory even an understrength Ireland should win this but it would not shock me one ounce if France came out all guns blazing and snuck it. Ireland ain't winning in Twickenham anyway imo so I've written off the championship (never fully get excited about a Grand Slam-less Championship anyway), so I'd at least like to see some good expansive rugby and a positive performance to build on

Wales should beat Scotland with a bit to spare. Last week was Scotland's "cup final", while Wales will have their sights on a Championship

England Italy is actually an interesting one imo (though unlikely to be ever in doubt). Last year England set up to try and put up as many points as possible and Italy really made things tricky for them. But with last week's draw it looks like PD is not going to come into it (no repeat of last year's glorious final day). Will England just go over to grind out a win or will it be real expansive stuff trying to blow them away? Will it depend on the result in Paris tomorrow?

Either way I could actually see England winning this by less than 15 or even less than 10, I think Italy can really turn this into a real up the jumper contest and nick plenty of penalties off the English pack. They're traditionally more competitive earlier in the tournament so this could turn into a good scrappy affair

Anyway roll on Paris tomorrow

Joe is sadly out injured at the mo', we might get him back for the last few rounds of Premiership.

he was fit when the initial squad was picked though, as far as I remember?

Youngs is a fine club player but as proven in the RWC he's all at sea against top opposition. They should really just look to move forward with the more exciting care and Simpson imo. I always thought Dickson was very underrated too, but at 30 his ship has sailed tbh

He got injured in the first 5 minutes of our game against Leinster, he's had an op and is out for 8 week.

He hadn't made Eddie's EPS squad before the injury, which was annoying.. I'd have had in England squad since post 2011 RWC, but for some reason he kept on being overlooked.

Aye that's what I meant

I'm surprised they keep going with Youngs. he's pretty reliable in fairness but you'd never get any sort of magic out of him. very conservative choice

Care and Simpson are match winners on their day

I think we can only really start reading into EJ's decisions from the Autumn tests this year onwards though. The Summer tour will have too many players unavailable to provide any sort of meaningful selection analysis

By the AUtumn he'll have a far better idea as to where he wants to go and there's not enough at stake to go uber conservative

The weird thing about the Care/Youngs axis is that both players seem to be better than the other when they've been dropped. Granted I'd have Simpson over either of them, but chopping and changing between the two is confusing.
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final team news

Italy: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Francesco Minto, 5 Marco Fuser, 4 George Fabio Biagi, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Ornel Gega, 1 Andrea Lovotti

Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Matteo Zanusso, 18 Martin Castrogiovanni, 19 Valerio Bernabo, 20 Andries van Schalkwyk, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Edoardo Padovani, 23 Andrea Pratichetti

Pathetic by Ireland. Can't say I'm surprised though as I said in my preview this campaign was always a write off. Wel prob finish 5th now. Dare I say will joe actually be questioned by the media now?

Saw some of it - looked like they were just trying to hold on and never looked like getting back into it once France scored.

This Wales - Scotland game is a belter!

Great game.

I can honestly see Scotland winning the rest of their matches

Those BBC commentators are a negative lot aren't thyey.

Fine start by Italy!

England have run riot and taken their chances now. Italy looked good until ten minutes into the 2nd half but a missed pen and intercept try shattered them mentally. The strength of the bench has made this a cricket score.

Not reading too much into England yet. Much better than at the World Cup but have played two of the weakest teams so far. I felt Ireland and Wales both suffered from a heavy intensity game last Sunday and only a six day turnaround in matches.Recovery time is much tougher in a mid season tournament like this one, than at the World Cup where complaints were made by tier two teams about a short turnaround.

Their are weaknesses in the England scrum and line out, Dan Cole needs to be picked up more for his boring iin antics. Hartley's throws are also susceptible to being noticed as not straight and being stolen. They are also susceptible to poor defence when attacked down the narrow side.Something that hasn't been greatly improved since the World Cup.

A lot of positives for England to.Ford making the 10 shirt his own and Vunipola stepping up to the plate again. Excellent midfield and wingers to, always good to see wide men looking for work. Something George North has also rediscovered in his game for Wales in this tournament.

Oof!!!

Care brings so much more than youngs

Joseph fairly silencing the pro-Daly brigade in fairness!

Ford looked a lot better this week

Itoje and Watson are two serious prospects altogether.

Can't see them having any trouble with Ireland but the Welsh game will really show where they're at. Championship decider