Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Brendan Gallagher takes aim at certain England fans' selective memory when it comes to their side's Six Nations record.
"Gladys Knight, and indeed her Pips, do not often appear in our rugby coverage but let me rectify right that now by unashamedly borrowing from her classic 1975 worldwide hit The Way we Were. "Hey you know," intoned Gladys, "Everybody's talking about the good old days, always the good old days."
"Well let's talk about the good old days. Except that, more often than not, they were no bloody good at all. In fact on more occasions than some care to remember they were rubbish. Utter rugby twaddle. Martin Johnson's current England may have their critics, the ELVs might raise the blood pressure of some and the modern game generally might irk the blazered tradtionalists but don't ever take it as gospel from the clubhouse bore that nothing in modern day rugby compares with the good old days. Rose-tinted glassses can distort things horribly.
"Let me take you back exactly 50 years to the "good old days." England were supposedly in prime form having won the Grand Slam in some style in 1957 and the Championship again in 1958. This was a seemingly classic England team - legends behind the scrum such as Peter Jackson, Jeff Butterfield - superb Lions tourists both - Malcolm Phillips and Bev Risman while up front John Currie and David Marques and Alan Ashcroft took no nonsense. This was not a Mickey Mouse side."
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