Gutted.

I need to go for a lie down, England v Scotland encounters do nothing good for my blood pressure.

I was beginning to wonder when Ashton was going to pull one out of the bag, damn him.

Wasn't a pretty match, but bloody engrossing.

Gratz England. Now lets see another win, ugly or otherwise, against the Kiwis.

This seems to be the problem for Scotland, they can raise the game for any match against England but fail to do that against other teams.

Well they definitely didn't do that.

I think they might have preferred that. It would of been easier to take the defeat if they had come against an England side in full flow, rather than being so close and yet so far.

That's pretty much the story with Scotland really though. Other than on very rare occasions, they've always been 'good but not quite good enough'. There's no shame in that, IMO, given the pool of players they can pick from compared to 'the big teams' but it really means other than when they get very lucky and manage to pull couple of really world class players out of the hat to just give them that extra edge, they're always going to be 'so close and yet so far'. They're rather doomed to be 'the best of the rest'.

It's not a bad place to be, to be honest with you, if you take it with the right philosophy. Assume you're not going to beat the real world leaders very often but will always give them a game and just enjoy the days where you DO manage to just get that bit of luck or someone just manages to play out of their skin and you pull it off. You more or less get the highs without the lows. Compare it to New Zealand, who are just expected to win every game, get little credit when they do and get slaughtered when they don't. Where's the joy in that?

Jon

Are you suggesting that wasn't England in full flow? (Allowing for the fact that the words "England", "rugby" and "flow" rarely go together.)

Happens often enough to win the Six Nations.

Six Nations?

Six Nations?

Oh yes, I know it now. You mean that little provincial comp.

Yeah, that's lovely that they have a competition England can win.

I'm sorry? RWC Champions 2003 and runners up 2007?

Runners up in 1991 as well (when they lost to two-time champs Australia).

But winning the 6N, while nice to put on the Christmas card to mum, isn't really a challenge. Winning a series between the teams ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd is a little more of a challenge than winning between teams ranked 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 11th.

Just saying.

The mother country is always best.

To beat? Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.

Bloody convicts.

Convicts with two World Cups - obtained legitimately, I might add, not pilfered.

That should also include the RWC seeing as of the last two we've won one and been runner up in the other.

Just saying.