Quite a satisfactory start by England in the Six Nations to defeat Wales in the Millennium Stadium
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/9386391.stm#top and England at last seem to be developing a new team out of the shadow of the 2003 generation. I heard somebody mention that it takes eight years to rebuild a team from past successes and that is proving about right despite England making the final in 2007 and this year's competition a little too soon for this latest incarnation. The 2007 result always felt like a bonus from a team in transition and going so far in the competition on the back of Jonny Wilkinson's boot hid a number of cracks. We were over reliant on Wilkinson and players such as Dallaglio and Robinson were coming to the end of their careers and as dependable as Martin Corry was as a player and captain, the impression was always that he was not Martin Johnson. This is probably unfair but he was always a substitute until Johnson retired along with Richard Hill and Neil Back and as he was not a young player starting out it meant we were weaker than we had been as well as losing Matt Dawson at scrum half where we have especially struggled to find a replacement.
   Eventually younger players have come into the side so that Ben Youngs looks assured at scrum half with enough distance since Dawson last played to avoid comparisons and we have also settled on Toby Flood at fly half, who started out ass understudy to Wilkinson at Newcastle, but who was young enough to develop and who has matured enormously since the last Six Nations. A man of the match display this evening making all his kicks, picking up where he left off fro the autumn internationals. I must also commend Nick Easter who was another who I thought to be a good solid professional whose best position was on the bench who continues to put in international class performances, but the big difference is that England are also more clinical now and with Chris Ashton we have a player who can finish of moves by scoring those crucial tries.