Six Nations Betting: Simon returns but England are not on Shaw footing

Six Nations Betting / Ralph Ellis / 14 March 2009 / Leave a comment

There are so many uncertainties surrounding England at the moment that even the reassuring presence of Simon Shaw may not be enough to inspire a win against France on Sunday, says Ralph Ellis.

The rest of the world never seems to make too much fuss about picking a captain. Their attitude is invariably to find the best players at any given sport and then choose a leader from among them. For some reason we're different here. Being handed the armband in football is considered an ultimate honour - when it's the England armband even more so. Just consider the rivalry between John Terry and Rio Ferdinand.

It's an attitude that has frequently caused problems when the skipper has lost his form but stayed in the team regardless. Think of a half-fit David Beckham in the last two World Cups and the debates that raged around his value. Go back in the mists of time and remember of Mike Brearley whose batting wasn't up to the job but whose leadership made him essential.

The same row is happening now around Steve Borthwick, retained as captain of England's rugby team by Martin Johnson despite a horror record that now reads just three wins in ten games, with 13 players sin-binned. Man mountain Simon Shaw is fit to return at lock for Sunday's RBS Six Nations clash with France and that means Nick Kennedy has been left out. On form it should have been Borthwick - but Johnson won't drop his captain.

It's a decision that underlines the scrambled state of the England rugby team after the best part of a season under Johnson's leadership. And Borthwick's confidence won't have been helped by a less than ringing endorsement from former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio.

"Martin probably feels that changing the captain now will do more harm than good and he's probably right," says Dallaglio.

"There are plenty of people who don't think he is right, but the time to make those decisions will come at the end of the championship.

"It has been difficult because your captain normally comes from one of he best two or three performers in the team. Steve hasn't hit those performance levels yet and so his selection is going to come into question."

Borthwick himself is still talking about England's discipline, and admits: "We have put ourselves in high risk situations by chasing too many lost causes. Perhaps we've had our preparation wrong at times and we are addressing that."

Too late. England were supposed to be addressing their lack of discipline at the start of the Six Nations series, but the same faults have kept recurring. And while Borthwick himself hasn't been guilty of giving any penalties away those around him have conceded 42 in three matches. Can they change all that now? It's hard to believe. France are [1.92] favourites and close to even money for them to follow up their win over the Welsh looks good value. It will almost certainly be tight, so the best bet of the lost could well be [2.78] for the French to win by less than 12.5 points

Five things you might not know about Simon Shaw...

1. You sometimes wonder if any current England players in any sport were born in England. Shaw wasn't - he was born in Nairobi in Kenya in 1973.

2. He didn't start playing rugby until he was 16 when his parents moved back to England - within a year he was playing for Bristol.

3. His nickname is Gentle Giant - he's 6ft 8ins tall and weighs 19st 4lbs.

4. He's the only second row forward in the history of the Premiership to score a drop goal - it came for Wasps against Bath in August 2000.

5. A keen cook, when he retires from rugby he plans to open his own restaurant.