Go for it, England, and don't play safe

SPORT can be about small margins, and it is amazing how quickly the public mood can go from frustration at England's run of narrow losses to it still not being good enough when you win two games by one point.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

However, if you put this England 23 up against South Africa, New Zealand, France, or Ireland in turn, man-for-man, there would not be too many of the men in white in any of the combined teams. If you then did the same against Scotland, Wales, and Italy, there would be many more.

My first instinct is to say just enjoy the Scotland win first rather than picking at it and finding fault. It's almost as if the two recent victories were worse than the seven losses, so let's start by looking at the glass half full, rather than half empty.

What England have done in both instances against France and Scotland is kept themselves in it, and just crossed the line ahead of the opposition. Now, what we want is for England to build. However, before that, the English rugby public has to realise that their team is not at the point where, like South Africa, they can bring on a bench which in every position is as good as their starters, or France, who can call on multiple match-winning individual talents, or Ireland, who are a consummate team.

If you think of England 2003, when they were the best in the world, to England 2025, where they are sixth in the world, there is a gulf that will not be bridged easily. Expectation is high, but you cannot start with the concept of Steve Borthwick's side being as good as the top four sides in the world.