After another frustrating and poor performance at Twickenham on Saturday against Ireland, is it time for Martin Johnson to shuffle his pack against Scotland and finally start looking forward to next year’s World Cup? Johnson seems to have been picking his team on a game by game basis and not really looking to the future and the possible rough diamonds that he has in his ranks.

Players such as Ben Foden, Chris Ashton and Courtney Lawes are desperate to get some game time in their beloved country’s white shirt but Johnson seems reluctant to pick them. All three of these men belong to a Northampton team at the top of the Guinness Premiership and the only English representatives in the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup this year.

Ashton is currently the top try-scorer in the premiership, eclipsing his nearest rival by 4 scores and Foden’s running lines and ability to go through a gap are one of the reasons that this partnership has been so successful this season. To put this into perspective, the current English back three of Armitage, Cueto and Monye have not scored a try between them in an England shirt since last year’s Six Nations.

This could now be the perfect time for Johnson to try some new options at the back. Observing the French team in this tournament proves how much young talent that Marc Lievremont has at his disposal, but more poignantly how the French manager is not scared to use it. Matthieu Basteraud, Morgan Parra, Francois Trinh-Duc, Benjamin Fall and Alexis Palisson are all under the age of 24, and every single one of them has started one or more games in this year’s Six Nations.

In attack, when the ball is kicked to someone like Clement Poitrenaud at fullback the first thing that he and his fellow attackers try to do is change the focus – run a switch, throw a miss pass or attack the short side in numbers. England on the other hand have been one dimensional in abjectly kicking long and hoping that the opposition make a mistake.

England go into the Scotland game without Delon Armitage at fullback, and the likelihood is that Simon Shaw’s shoulder will not heal in time to take up his usual berth in the second row. This is the perfect opportunity now for Johnson to have a gamble. He should forget about challenging for the championship and look forward to the summer and beyond. It is time to give the fearless Ashton and Foden combination a start at the expense of Monye and Armitage and blood players such as Lawes in the pack.

Lawes would not only add size but also mobility to an ageing second row. He has back row qualities with his pace and power and may just be the kind of edge that the English pack requires.

The catalyst for England’s performances however has to come from whoever is playing in the number ten shirt. As much as it pains me to say it, maybe it is time for King Jonny to abdicate and let Toby Flood and Shane Geraghty fight it out for the fly-half jersey. If they are not to claim a starting position then either of them should at least make an appearance after fifty-five or sixty minutes, should the game plan not be working.

Wilkinson is simply not playing flat enough at the moment and England’s obsession with throwing a pass that floats twenty metres behind the gain line is not going to unlock any defence in world rugby. A move like that needs to be played at the highest of pace and the runner needs to dictate where that ball is going by running at a gap. At the same time, the first receiver needs to attack the said gain line to force the defence into leaving opportunities out wide. Flood and Geraghty demonstrate these qualities week in, week out for their respective clubs and now is the time to unleash them onto the international scene.

Scotland and France have become massive games for Johnson’s England now. Not only for result purposes but to also set out a stall on exactly where England are heading in the future. They need to start afresh, with new purpose, a new game plan and more importantly, some new faces. The world cup is only a year away and to save being embarrassed in the biggest rugby arena of them all, an overhaul of the way England approach their rugby needs to be made.

By Andrew Daniel

Andrew Daniel writes for The Rugby Blog