What to make of the England Rugby team?

Before the Six Nations (and even after the first few rounds) Ireland was nailed on to have about ten starters for the Lions test side. Their tournament badly petered out, and England (improbably) finished above them.

As an England fan, I'm not getting carried away. As impressive as we were in demolishing a sorry Welsh team, we are still a level below the best teams in the world; On most days,, anyway/ We were lucky against Scotland and France. Ireland beat us convincingly in Dublin.

Borthwick still has credit in the bank, but the team has become heavily dependent on Kickinfg. The Wales game was the first time they didn't kick a lot, and they ran in a load of tries. Tom Curry is one of the best flankers in the world, and Itoje is back on form, but our forwards generally lack the power of the very best teams. It's a young team tough, and generally heading in the right direction. As Ireland is about to go through a transition phase, we should be in a place to start competing to win the Six Nations again.

Also, picking the Lions just got a bit harder: with Alex Mitchell, Finn Smith and our entire back row now in serious contention to start. Other players will be knocking on the door, too.