1) England sorely lack wit and guile
Two weekends at Twickenham have taught us much, plenty of it sobering. Is there are more frustrating international team to watch than England? When they click, for 10 minutes here or there, they look genuinely impressive. When they perform with as little wit and accuracy as they did with a greasy ball in the first half against South Africa, their chances of beating the southern hemisphere’s finest in 2015 seem as distant as they did when Stuart Lancaster took over from Martin Johnson. Selection in the same key areas – midfield, half-backs, back-row – grows ever more problematic. If Danny Cipriani or Freddie Burns had created as little or kicked from hand as Owen Farrell did on Saturday it would be a while before they won another cap. Compare and contrast the regularity with which France and Australia threatened the gain-line in Paris with England’s inability to do the same in London. The set-piece is good but when England come up against opponents with a clever counterattacking threat the difference is stark. Farrell’s goal-kicking and defensive edge makes him a hard man to leave out but England badly need a pair of halves who can navigate their team out of trouble and manipulate defences more expertly. Saracens’ Richard Wigglesworth, the best Premiership scrum-half at releasing pressure for more than a year now, must be wondering what more he has to do. George Ford, meanwhile, may not be quite ready for Test rugby in all respects but England urgently need his rugby brain. Quite why it took so long for him to be introduced off the bench was another of Saturday’s conundrums. Robert Kitson
• Lancaster issues World Cup warning
• Speed of thought defies England’s superior stats
2) Reinach continues Springbok scrum-half tradition
South Africa have come over the years to rely on the tactical acumen of their scrum-halves. They floundered in Dublin without the injured Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar, the former a scourge of England in the past, but the performance of Cobus Reinach at Twickenham, in his first Test start, was encouraging for the head coach Heyneke Meyer. Reinach was not flustered by having an early clearance kick charged down and showed more composure at the breakdown than his opposite number, Danny Care, who was winning his 50th cap. Du Preez is the heartbeat of the Springboks and his influence was missed in the Rugby Championship after he suffered a serious ankle injury playing against Scotland at the end of June. Reinach has some way to go in comparison, but he made a promising start on a day when South Africa did no more than they had to.
• Player ratings from Twickenham
• England 28-31 South Africa
3) Move along please, nothing to see here
This was a performance so divorced from the daunting business of preparing for the All Blacks that the best thing to do is laugh it off. Seriously. Take the spills in the tackle, the fumbles, the passes that sailed wide of their target, the lineouts that were wayward and the scrum that was lost against the head and assemble into one long edit. Then pour the shots, down them, press play, watch and have a chuckle. There, the blood has been let, the poison released, the engorged leech has dropped off … everybody feeling better? Then let’s move on. It happened, but only you, Liam Williams, will ever be allowed to mention the experience again. The rest of you: have a laugh and then prepare to have your memories wiped. You may feel a little discomfort, perhaps a sense of disorientation and panic. But try to relax. Close your eyes and repeat: “This never happened. I am better than this.” Eddie Butler
• Match report: Wales 17-13 Fiji
• Jenkins: Wales lacked basic skills in narrow win
4) Edinburgh must help Scotland side
It’s early days and there could be another false dawn, but Vern Cotter is building on the work of Glasgow and Gregor Townsend. Ten of Townsend’s squad, currently second in the Guinness Pro 12, started against the All Blacks on Saturday as opposed to just two from Edinburgh. Just think what might happen if the capital club started to pull its weight rather than look to South Africa or Australia for its hired guns. A Scottish coach, someone like Bryan Redpath, might help. Mike Averis
• Scotland 16-24 New Zealand
5) Has Carter had his day?
Even the All Blacks don’t have a bottomless pit of talent, as they proved at Murrayfield on Saturday. Apart from the captain Richie McCaw and Ben Smith, it’s hard to think of any others who might come into Steven Hansen’s thinking for Wales next weekend – and that includes Dan Carter. After a year off through injury, the former superstar fly-half understandably looks rusty and there are at least a couple of No10s above him in the pecking order. Mike Averis
6) Why bother with technology if it’s not used to punish violence?
Ireland will have been satisfied enough with the way a much-changed and inexperienced XV eventually overwhelmed Georgia after a clumsy start, but rather less content at the way the presence of technology failed to offer them redress after Viktor Kolelishvili’s vicious stamp in the face of the debutant Dominic Ryan went unpunished. The Ireland captain Eoin Reddan’s pleas for a Television Match Official review were ignored by the referee, JP Doyle, which invites the question: why bother with technology at all if it isn’t used to assess, and punish, ugly behaviour such as this? Tom Davies
