England’s current crop of quality players are under-appreciated by their fans: Paul Williams column

For a team with a red rose on their shirt, the England men’s team rarely gets their flowers – from the media or their fans.

It’s a strange situation. However, their 45-22 win over Australia in the Nations Championship it was not as numerically expressed as Ireland’s victory over Argentina (42-12).

And it certainly wasn’t as devastating as South Africa’s win over an injury-riddled Italian team – it was like watching a blender with a bunch of blue stuff whirring around.

But England’s game against Australia was very good and the lukewarm response to that was unusual. England’s tight five were as dominant as the law allows on the rugby field.

Forward grunt

England has always had a close five industrial level. I’m 49 years old and have been watching rugby consciously since about 1987, and throughout that period England have always had a solid back five that can fight, clean hands and go throat-to-mouth with the best of them. This current squad is no different.

While many nations struggle to find legitimate props who can cope at Test level, England never do. In this current squad they have Joe Hayes who is as hard to move as a four seater sofa and has also really made history – think of him as a vintage Chesterfield.

Behind him they have the extremely underrated Maro Itoje and probably the most important player in the English pack – Ollie Chessum. Chessum is a quality lock/six that could even turn the heads of Bok supporters.

Behind that tight England five is the hugely underrated Ben Earl who is about as complete a 6/7/8 hybrid as you’ll find in the Northern Hemisphere.

Some people tend to get caught up in his ‘fake celebrations’ when they should be looking at his very real carries – he was a career best in the entire competition last weekend and is the best for the entire Nations Championship overall.

It may not be the heaviest or tallest, but if you’ve ever had to dig into concrete posts after a storm (I recently did), you’ll realize that a quality hammer drill is often just as effective as a massive hammer – because you can use it for longer.

Stacked at the back

But it would be unfair to reduce England to just a solid pack. In Fin Smith, they have the perfect blend of control and grace – a player whose passing from close range is as impressive as his distance. In Seb Atkinson, England seem to have found the piece they have been missing.

In recent seasons, they’ve been trying to pick a carry center or a pass center—they have a little bit of both in Atkinson.

Then there is Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. Against Australia, he only played 40 minutes, but made more breaks (4) than guys who played the full 80 minutes. His speed with the ball is matched by his power through contact. He’s so hard to tackle, even when players go low. IFW is like a rugby version of the Greek god Pan – except the top half is far more handsome and the bottom half is like a speedy bison.

As you can see from the above, England have a good squad of players and have a solid fifth place finish. Granted, fifth is a bit low for a team and country of its size, but they are very close to 3rdrd if you look at the table – and being third is no joke when only New Zealand and South Africa are above you.

World Rugby Men’s Rankings – Top 10 (as of 9 November 2026)

Source: World Rugby, rankings updated 9 November 2026.

So with England competing with every team except South Africa (who nobody can really compete with in the long term), why are they constantly being scrutinized like they are table wine at the Toby Carvery.

Why are we so harsh on the England rugby team?

The reality is that many members of the public are still holding on to the 2003 Rugby World Cup like it was yesterday. That 2003 team was one of the best assembled anywhere.

He had a team of eight attackers who could probably defeat a single gorilla – Neil Back would take her to the floor and then the others would beat her to death. But 2003 was 23 years ago, it was the year before Facebook was invented, and a lot has changed since then.

The reason England can get constant moans of pain instead of moans of pleasure is probably Steve Borthwick. For whatever reason, a bad feeling keeps leaking out of that camp like a poorly laid out wet room.

Staff turnover in England is high and in a normal company would set off a bunch of alarm bells and laser beams in the HR department.

As of 2022, 11 members of staff have been involved to varying degrees, including Richard Wigglesworth (attack / senior assistant coach / defence), Kevin Sinfield (skills and kicking coach), Felix Jones (defensive coach), Aled Walters (head of strength and conditioning), Matt Bretts Cougdson / Matt Proudfoots (defensive coach), Richard Cockerill (Scrum/Forwards), Martin Gleeson (assistant), Tom Harrison (Scrum Coach), Lee Blackett (Offensive Coach), Joe El-Abd (Defensive Coach) and Andrew Strawbridge (Coach Advisor / Assistant Coach).

England have a very good squad of players and, outside of South Africa, they are competitive. Could they do it with a new coach? Probably.

To mix the two metaphors, it appears that a lot of spilled milk went under that bridge and a fresh start at the head coaching position may be needed. But as for the players, they are good.

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