Writing in the Guardian, former England and Lions lock Martin Bayfield puts the criticism of Steve Borthwick's England captaincy into perspective.
"Steve's case isn't helped by the fact that as a second-row he is compared with his now manager, Martin Johnson, and his captaincy during the victorious World Cup campaign in 2003. But, as is often quoted, there were five or six captains in that team who had responsibility for different aspects of England's game plan.
"Johnson could draw on the abilities of Back, Dallaglio, Dawson, Greenwood, Wilkinson and Hill. If you look at those areas now the players selected have no experience. Take the backline, from Danny Care at scrum-half out to Danny Cipriani or Toby Flood and across the three-quarters; they have hardly any caps between them. Jamie Noon is the exception, perhaps, but he hasn't been a regular in the England team.
"Maybe, the balance is not as good as it could be but let's face facts: we don't have world-class performers at the moment. They could grow into that but at the moment they aren't, and South Africa exposed that cruelly."
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