This from Eddie Butler in Guardian
England’s departure would run the risk of puncturing interest in the tournament.... However, the show will go on and it is not as if England, tangled up in hype, have brought much to the playing field so far.
They are not the England of 2003: they do not have a leader of Martin Johnson’s stature, a general with Jonny Wilkinson’s astuteness or players of the calibre of Jason Robinson, Will Greenwood, Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill and Phil Vickery....
They lack the self-belief that comes with experience and success, slipping up in one match in each of the last four Six Nations. At the start of the tournament, only three players had reached 50 caps, a far fewer number than their rivals in the group, Wales and Australia. How many of Saturday’s lineup would have got into that 2003 side?...
They have Jonathan Joseph back to face Australia and, if fully fit, he should make a difference, but perhaps it says everything about where England are at, that they have come to depend on a player who at the start of the year was the third-choice 13 and was only called on because of injury...
You used to know what you would get with England, a powerful scrum, a strong lineout, breakdown presence, unyielding defence and a deadly goal-kicker. Only the last remains, through the freakishly accurate Owen Farrell, but otherwise they have been inconsistent in the set pieces, they apply little pressure on opposition ball at the breakdown because they lack a specialist No7 and they were badly caught out in defence for Wales’s try. Also, if they kick as aimlessly as they did that night, Israel Folau and his mates will punish them...
Watching Wales play against Fiji five days after beating England – something that in the past, as I well know, would have taken their heads into orbit for a long time – was to see what England lack: a hard-nosed approach, maturity, experience, some world-class players as well as an ability to unearth new ones, like Matthew and Tyler Morgan. In this tournament, where they have devastated by injury, Wales have been both brave and resilient, just what England need to be to beat Australia and make the knockout stages of their own Rugby World Cup.
) wins. 
