After two rounds of the Six Nations, the competition takes a break, allowing us to take stock and provide a report card for each team. Next up, it’s England.

Despite the fanfare and despite the recalibration of expectation, the fundamental fact is that Steve Borthwick’s England have had a rather nonplussing start to their 2023 Six Nations campaign.

Once again, Scotland, a nation with one/sixth of England’s club and player resource, came and picked England apart in the opening match of the season 29-23 winning collisions, defending like demons and producing a finishing display with efficiency that the hosts could only dream of.

Words like ‘rebuild’ ‘new era’ and ‘overhauling’ were bandied about like confetti, until the Scots gave England a lesson in the reality of the quality of their rugby.

Sure, hosting Italy a week later saw something of a turn-around, but at the cost of dropping Marcus Smith and pressing ahead with a Owen Farrell-led attack, which long-term may not be the best policy. Against Italy, a side that had one less day’s recovery, that worked to the tune of a 31-14 win but even then the much improved Azzurri won the second half of that match 14-12 and England needed a card to Lorenzo Cannone to ignite their first half scoring, something that won’t be overlooked by Borthwick.

For some nations, the performance so far might be considered par or just below; for a country with England’s resources, the continued failure against sides at home that they should put away is of huge concern.

Best player so far

Lewis Ludlam has always been considered by some quarters to be some sort of makeshift compromise in the back-row due to his huge versatility. Yet he consistently makes the most post-contact metres of any player in the Premiership, his set-piece is outstanding and above all, he plays with energy and dynamism from the first to the last minute.

In Borthwick’s lineout plan which is broadly based upon a five-man structure around a hinge player he plays a key role as the acting nine or at times, third jumper, making decisions as when to drive the maul or when to dummy the maul and breakaway away at pace.

His versatility can be underlined by his match stats in different contexts; against Scotland with England enjoying 70% possession, he carried 18 times for 104 metres but against Italy in the second half he made 17 tackles as the Azzurri worked off 67% possession for the second period.

With Tom Curry impressing all that saw him on his comeback for Sale against Northampton and with Alex Dombrandt not at the top of his game, expect to see Ludlam’s versatility at number eight in the forthcoming weeks.

A shout out to Ollie Chessum too, who has pushed Ludlam all the way for this accolade and but for a couple of key errors against Scotland, might well have taken the nod.

Unsung star

Max Malins doesn’t ever quite get the appreciation he deserves outside of Saracen’s StoneX Stadium. There’s faster wings, there are more physical wings and there are more elusive wings, but few have the all-round game, rugby IQ and sheer appetite for work that Malins consistently displays.

A high and complete skill set with cricketer’s hands underlines Malins’ game; happy chasing restarts (he’s won four so far this tournament) always looking to come off his wing, his club relationship with Farrell is vitally important for England and together they can work a variety of attacking plays – whether they be aerial kicking, extra carrier coming around on the loop or more traditional wing one-on-one work.

There’s a reason for Malins’ scoring consistency for Saracens – his pure rugby intelligence, honed by playing predominantly as a 10 or 15 for a lot of his formative years. A few eyebrows were raised when he was picked over the likes of Caden Murley and Anthony Watson, but so far he’s been one of England’s standouts, in a very quiet and understated way.

Best moment so far

Jack Willis’ return to the white shirt seems to have been a long time coming. His injury hit career might have seen him win 50 caps by now, but sadly most of his rugby life seems to have been spent in rehab of one form or another.

His form for Toulouse has been dazzling, so much so that the French side, for the first time ever, have reconfigured their back-row structure from the favoured Gallic ‘left and right’ flank to the more traditional method of ‘openside and blindside’. As a result, Borthwick gave him his start against Italy and Willis replied by thundering over in the 13th minute and putting in a thundering performance all around the pitch.

His try might not have been as eye catching as some, but in terms of the hopes of English fans, no moment was bigger than seeing the openside fly over for his third test try.

Biggest weapons

It says something about the state of English rugby right at this moment in time that some serious thinking is required to work out what the best artillery in the English weapons store is.

Ollie Lawrence has certainly straightened up the English midfield, working well with Farrell to get some direction and bite back in attack, whilst Farrell’s situational awareness and temperament continues to impress.

In the pack, the workrate of Chessum, Genge, Willis and Ludlam has been worthy, with all four players adding credit to their personal report card.

Biggest weapons

It says something about the state of English rugby right at this moment in time that some serious thinking is required to work out what the best artillery in the English weapons store is.

Ollie Lawrence has certainly straightened up the English midfield, working well with Farrell to get some direction and bite back in attack, whilst Farrell’s situational awareness and temperament continues to impress.

In the pack, the workrate of Chessum, Genge, Willis and Ludlam has been worthy, with all four players adding credit to their personal report card.