J wrote:failing that ship in the whole of leeds rhinos league side
You may laugh, but that might be on the cards at some stage. Sinfield has already been approached once, and said maybe in a couple of years. McGuire has also said that he'd like to play union at some stage, and rumour has it that Walker and Bailey have been looked at on more than one occasion.
And Coconut, if only it was just Johnson that they miss in terms of leadership. I think it's much worse than that. It's bad news when you lose Back, Wilkinson, Johnson, Catt, Leonard, and Dallaglio. That's almost all the natural leaders from the world cup winning side. Plus the side have lost some dependable replacements through retirement, and have injuries to other key players.
I must admit that I thought before the six nations started that England's young players were still good enough to win the whole thing. Unfortunately they have suffered through lack of experience, direction, and also perhaps unrealistic public expectation. I don't think that you can change three quarters of a team and expect it to be as good as before. I don't think we'll see a really competitive England team until the middle of next year.
Although I've been surprised by how good the Welsh have been, I don't think that they'll finish top. They might well be good enough to split the Irish and the French though.
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