France dominated from start to finish and never looked like giving up their lead. They were hungry, chased every half chance and were rewarded with a record win against a toothless England side. 

To top it all off I had to drive because of the unreliability of the trains 🤬

Hopefully the beer was more enjoyable than the Rugby even at that price! 

Did France excel, or were they merely competent?

Would any of their tries make the highlights reel for National 1?

Every week, excitable commentators praise basic skill as being "superb".

So everyone is world-class - until they are exposed.

I feel your pain. £122 is ridiculous. Not long before people start voting with their feet. 

I voted with my feet away from Twickenham years ago, too expensive for your working class lad

Me too. Awful ground, awful experience, and it seems awful team.

Nothing would tempt me back there short of Cov being in a game.

Me too. Not much chance of Taunton appearing there but might go to see Somerset play there in the County Championship! 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/jersey/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8677000/8677351.stm" rel="nofollow - BBC - Following Jersey to Twickenham

Guess who was captain when England suffered their second biggest defeat (6-42 Nov 22,2008) at HQ? 

I haven't been back to HQ since (2013) I realised what Ian Ritchie was doing to the RFU... and it's only got worse since

In my first posting I forgot to add… France has invested in more than one division, England only has one division according to its governing body!

The rates they are now charging are plain ridiculous.

Will happily join Kimbo to see my faithful Cov there;that is the limit.

I fixed that for you...........................

Grand Slams at senior and U20s levels.

You're comparing apples with banana's Markie, Falcons will have to pull their socks up they'll be in Prem 2 if they're not careful.......................................

Yes, but the regions have limits on the number of foreign players.

They also have to make international players available for training, and rest them.

I believe Munster have six non-Irish players out of 44, including Healy, who played his junior rugby for Ireland before declaring for Scotland.

Bath have 22 foreign players, Exeter 28.

He'll never live that comment down, eh?

How's it working out for Italy and Wales, though...?

The issue is clubs at the bottom of the Premiership don’t invest… why… because they do not have to, they have no repercussions. Failure is rewarded, pressure matches are removed all the things that gave English players the edge in our more dominant days.

The Premiership is poor, the Championship lacking identity and investment.

Surely time for change at HQ,Sweeney and OShea have totally mismanaged the game and they need to move on or we will continue this downward spiral !!!

Therewith lies the problem with the English National teams. Why nurture young talented players when you can simply import ready made models from overseas.

English International Rugby is on the decline and will continue to do so whilst Premiership Clubs carry on in this manner. 

You only have to look at the English Soccer Premiership to see what has happened to their National team using this method of recruitment. 

And all because no one at the RFU was brave enough (unlike in Ireland where the IRFU put Garryowen firmly back in their box) to tell the clubs in 1995 that the future was the Divisional game, controlled by the RFU. Fran Cotton was right.

The only thing is England has 4 Divisions.

Where would they have been placed? 

The size of England would have required minimum of two teams in each Division or like today vast swathes of the country without a top flight rugby team, and like cricket no chance of having one.

Of course the bad management of the game has achieved a similar result.

Quite. Fran's plan IIRC was a small number of professional sides feeding a successful England team, and set up to put their interests below the national side's (and be controlled centrally) to that end. IIRC I think he envisaged matches being played around the grounds within the division, with the clubs continuing to operate underneath. So in the Midlands (of the mid 1990s) you might have had matches at Welford Road, Franklins Gardens, Goldington Road, Coundon Road and the Reddings, for example. 

Wouldn't work now - there would be tears of rage from entitled premiership fans and owners for a start* - but in 1995, when crowds were smaller and no one knew what they were doing - it stood a chance of working IMO.

But obviously we are where we are. Part of me would enjoy watching the premiership clubs being told professional rugby was over for them though!

*and Wales left it too late before trying the same thing too, obviously.