Well this week the answer is pretty clearly no. The England v France match on Saturday was superb - not because of the result (which was as welcome as it was unexpected to this Englishman) but because it rescued us from the moral and intellectual poverty of the caterpillar ruck and all that mind-numbing kicking predicated entirely on the hope that the opposition will make a mistake before you do. Instead we had pace, pace, pace. Ray Williams (an early and forgotten coaching guru) used to say (and he probably wasn't the first to say it but he introduced me to it) that there is an answer to everything in rugby except pace. It's beautiful in its simplicity but once you have understood it, the rugby world is your oyster. That old nutter, Clive Woodward, understands it. Because France are so good (and believe me this side can and will get better) you can only play them by executing skills ultra quickly - there is no time for that careful and wrong-headed calculation that had become the unlovely signature of this England side. They played as if liberated. A superb match as I say - not a kick at goal missed, four tries, great defence as well as attack.
As a nice dessert, though not of the same high quality, Ireland and Scotland served up another tidy game on Sunday. It's nice to welcome the good old game back
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