Brian Dick says England's reaction to defeat by Scotland poses as many questions as answers...
Having watched his team labour so pitifully against a Scotland side built on little more than technical competence and unstinting spirit, Andy Robinson thought he'd follow his players' cue and make a few cock-ups of his own.
Where Ben Cohen dropped the ball with only one man and two yards between him and the try-line, England coach Robinson rejected any suggestion that his team suffered from a lack of creativity.
As skipper Martin Corry talked about defeat being a major setback, his coach attempted to reduce its significance to nil.
Instead, it was dismissed as 'a one-off' and he effectively asked the public to believe that England's wins are all part of a brilliantly clever masterplan that will inevitably lead to a defence of their world title.
The defeats, meanwhile, are statistical quirks for which there can be no legislation.
Where Lewis Moody, Jamie Noon and Julian White were penalised for rucking other than in accordance with the referee's wishes, Robinson mumbled something about Scotland living on the edges of the law.
The law doesn't have edges, actions are either legal or not and England could have fought fire with fire.
All of which begs one to wonder where the present England squad is going. At this stage in its development, when only 15 games remain before France 2007 kicks off, there are as many questions as answers.
The style of play is an area of great concern. All season, Robinson has talked about winning matches in different ways, yet his side have moved away from their forward-oriented gameplan only when they have established that their opponents cannot hurt them.
They might point to the ten tries they scored against Wales and Italy but subsequent results have put those two performances into context. In six games, those two teams have one win between them.
Even when England did open up, not that they did so particularly expansively, it was only when the Italians tired and Wales revealed themselves to be a pale imitation of the nation that claimed last season's grand slam.
Most worrying at the weekend, as it became apparent the Scots would not wither under the forwards' onslaught, England lacked the nous, skill level and composure to move the home team about. Robinson claimed they made a couple of breaks but to what effect? They didn't score any tries at all.
As long as the forwards insist on holding on to set-piece ball until they have done their bit, the backs will have no chance. Penetration relies on fast recycling over four or five phases, not a 20-yard maul ended by a loopy pass to the stand-off.
It's plodding rugby. It's not likely to get any faster either. As a back row Moody, Martin Corry and Joe Worsley are all too similar.
None of them has the pace to get to the breakdown first and, as a result, they were routed by Ali Hogg, Jason White and Simon Taylor - a trinity whose balance is well beyond England's.
At scrum-half, Harry Ellis is not doing enough to keep opposition back rows honest. A fearsomely competitive pocket warrior for Leicester, Ellis has shown neither the confidence, nor the composure, to take a close game by the collar.
He was out-thought and out-fought by Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter on Saturday and couldn't lay a hand on Dwayne Peel a month ago.
One decent display, against Samoa, does not a season make.
Every Scot inside Murrayfield was relieved when he returned from his spell in the blood bin and Matt Dawson stood down. Time, perhaps, for something bold at No 9; if not Shaun Perry, then why not Peter Richards?
Richards' team-mate at Gloucester, Mike Tindall, came in for some fearful flak in yesterday's national press - and deservedly so.
His kicking from hand was way below that of the Scottish half-backs, his distribution was poor - one second-half pass inside hit the turf without a white shirt in the same postal district - and his angles of running were rudimentary, to say the least.
Without the necessary guile beside him in the centre, his presence is becoming increasingly prosaic.
Jamie Noon is not that man. Once more, he was found wanting at the highest level and he, too, looked for space down a tunnel. After an hour of bashing, why didn't he try something different?
The struggling centres and ball-hogging forwards have started to erode the contributions of a genuinely world-class back three. Mark Cueto has stopped backing himself to get round the outside, Cohen hasn't played well for most of this season and what have they done to Josh Lewsey?
The full-back looked the complete modern three-quarter under the coaching of Clive Woodward; now he's dropping high balls, missing tackles and choosing poor lines of running. It looks as though his confidence has been shattered.
Which is where leadership comes in. On Saturday, there were either too many chiefs or not enough. When Martin Corry went off after an hour and was replaced by Lawrence Dallaglio it left a power-vacuum.
Tindall was supposed to be skipper on the field but the elongated discussion that followed the awarding of an 75th-minute penalty revealed his grip on proceedings to be something less than total. It looked, for all the world, as though Dallaglio told Charlie Hodgson to go for goal and not the corner, as the fly-half had intended. Inevitably, discussion ensued as to whether Dallaglio or Corry should be in the side from the off.
Robinson needs to decide who's his best No 8 and then select his captaincy accordingly, not the other way round, as he appears to have done.
Corry and Dallaglio won't get sucked into a public spat, they're both too decent and too canny for that, but Saturday's meeting between Wasps and Leicester in the Power-gen Cup will be intriguing. They won't be able to avoid each other for long and comparisons will be drawn.
For his part, Robinson is swinging on his own petard. He made Corry captain for the entire Six Nations but the Stourbridge-born loose forward has not responded by producing his best form.
Few could argue he had been ineffectual in the defence of the Calcutta Cup and is it entirely unreasonable to wonder if either of them will be around to lead a challenge for a second world crown? Dallaglio will be 35 and Corry 34. But then that's just one of many issues Robinson needs to resolve.
