France 12 England 15

Hayman's Beard made fun of England after their effort against Wales last week. Not because of their huge win over the hapless Welsh, but because of the manner of their victory. 10-man rugby is back, and doesn't it just make you want to kill yourself.
No one could accuse Hayman's Beard of not embracing the glorious battle of the forwards, of not understanding and respecting the intricacies of the scrum, the ruck, the maul. The Bearded One is himself a Master of this very art, and nothing is more pleasing to the eye than to see an All Black forward pack treating the opposition like the ginger kid from primary school.

But there is of course a key difference between the forward play of the All Blacks...or indeed the Springboks, the Pumas, or France.

And that is the understanding that the forwards operate as part of a unit. They are an element of a larger beast, a machine designed to dominate in all areas and win in commanding fashion.

As it stands, England have scurried back to their oft-lampooned style of old. The 10-man game is well and truly alive in international rugby.

Whilst Hayman's Beard would like nothing better than to see Sir Clive Woodward embarrassed publicly by the publication of secret photos of him doing something nasty with a goat, we also respect the fact that he understood the game, and at least had a desire to embrace a 15 man style.

Like most teams around the world, he strived to use the traditional English strength of powerful forward play as a foundation, a basis which gave a team options. No one would expect England to turn from their natural style of play, which demands forward dominance as a goal above all others.

However it seems that Brian Ashton and the others controlling the World Champions have panicked as the date when they will undoubtedly lose their crown approaches.

And when panic sets in, people naturally turn to the tried and true methods.

The match against France was, to be frank, boring as hell. Whilst the forward battle raged, English attempts at backline action were conducted with the same enthusiasm and belief as American attempts at diplomacy in Iraq.

England have signalled the retreat, and established His Majesty Jonny Wilkinson as the front line.

"Thou shall not send thine ball beyond His Majesty's divine boot, lest thy come undone through weak tackling and poor execution in thine midfield"

With Wilkinson being rested, many would have expected replacement Ronnie Barker to try everything to stamp his mark on the spot. There's little doubt that only death will keep Wilkinson from an English WC squad, so there would be little to lose in unleashing the English backs upon the French. You'd certainly enjoy the element of surprise, although that may work both ways...no doubt the wingers would question why they'd suddenly been given the ball. But Ronnie kept to the gameplan, and England attempted to steamroll the French as they did Wales a week ago. That it didn't work is testament to the effort of the French forwards, as there's no doubt England's pack is performing very well at present.

The frustration of not seeing their hard work pay-off seemed to tell on the World Champions, who weren't prepared for Sebastian Chabal's busting run to win the game.

With no time left to change the gameplan, it seems that the old England is well and truly alive, and coming to a TV near you.

How well will the old-school approach work at the World Cup remains to be seen, but for the health of the game we can only hope it fails miserably.