As the autumn internationals loom, England are facing a crisis in the scrum: what is the future of the tight-five? So asks Paul Ackford in The Telegraph.
"Intimidation comes in many guises. Joe Worsley has it in the authority with which he culls targeted runners. Lewis Moody has it in the reckless, kamikaze-like way he approaches every contact situation on a rugby pitch. Even Steve Borthwick might be said to possess it in the intellectual accuracy with which he can deconstruct line-outs. But the best intimidation of all, the kind that is crucial to all aspirational international rugby teams, the kind that causes palpitations in opposition hearts, England haven't got.
"Consider. Who, from England's front five, frightens you? They're all big and butch-looking. They are all more or less good at their jobs. Yet there is no one, with the possible exception of Simon Shaw, and he is knocking on 37 these days, who plays with a sustained rage that Martin Johnson and Fabien Pelous demonstrated in their pomp, that Bakkies Botha, the wonderful South African lock, still exudes."
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