Six things we will finally accept after England vs South Africa

1. Robshaw or Wood

For all their endeavour it is rapidly becoming clear that England need to choose one of Robshaw or Wood. Both have a huge work-rate in defence and are disruptive at the breakdown. Robshaw is stronger on the ball as a link-man and carrier, with Wood more effective in the lineout, whilst neither are genuine poachers. The truth is they are both blindsides. England need to bite the biscuit and drop one of them. Haskell would provide a better balance as he offers a ball carrying option and power around the park and before his illness was in the form of his life, I would have liked to of seen Haskell at 6 and Robshaw at 7 this weekend. Although my preference would be to play Robshaw at 6 and Armitage at 7, however, I wouldn't mind seeing Fraser given a run out at 7 with Robshaw at 6. It's all about balance and at the moment Wood and Robshaw on the flanks isn't working.

2. We dearly miss Corbisiero and Cole

Marler and Wilson are solid props. You can't take away the fact they have done an admirable job over the past year. But Marler doesn't offer the ballast and raw carrying power which he first displayed when coming onto the international scene, whilst Wilson who has been unbelievable for Bath this season, he seems to struggle with the transition to international rugby. We need Corbisiero and Cole fully fit, as when on form these two players are simply world-class. Corbisiero is technically suberb at scrum time and a handful around the park. Cole was arguably the best tight-head in world rugby before his neck injury and has a big impact at the breakdown.

3. Lawes is over-rated.

Lawes is a handful in a rush defence and he's proving more effective in the lineout of late. But he offers little to nothing in terms of ball carrying, and he almost looks a little feeble at times. Kruis impressed me when he came on at the weekend and Attwood was a man mountain against New Zealand. Lawes needs to have the game of his life this weekend against a very physical South African side, otherwise he might see himself dropping down the pecking order with the return of Launchberry for the six nations.

4. The balance of a centre-partnership is vital

I think JJ must be feeling a little hard done by. He's been the outstanding outside centre in the premiership this season forming an extremely dangerous combination with Eastmond, who has been on fire as well. Partnering Eastmond with Barritt isn't exactly inspiring. I think Barritt is most effective at inside centre with a powerful ball carrier outside him such as Tuilagi or Burrell. However, with Tuilagi injured and Burrell making his comeback from injury this weekend I think England should have gone with the Bath combo of Eastmond and JJ to see if they could cut it at the highest level together. We know what we are going to get from Barritt and he is the safest option to lead our backline defence when Tuilagi is fully fit. I personally cannot wait to see how much of an impact Burgess makes for Bath. A midfield partnership of Burgess and Tuilagi would put fear into the eyes of the opposition. What they would lack in distribution they would make up for in brute force. Could they work together?!

5. There are still a thousand question marks over our back three

From the top of my head May, Sharples, Nowell, Ashton, Brown, Foden, Tuilagi, Rokoduguni and Watson have all been given a go on the wing over the past couple of years. If you can remember correctly in the epic win over the all-blacks on December 1st 2012 Goode was at full back with Brown and Ashton on the wings. I still don't think Lancaster has a clue who his preferred back three are. Brown was tearing down trees last year, however, this season he has looked a little off the pace, Foden has been the form full back in the premiership and I couldn't help but think we missed his killer instinct from the back last weekend. Goode also offers a degree of creativity that we could have used against the kiwis. I don't utter these words lightly but I think Brown must be under immense pressure this weekend to perform, that dropped catch to put daylight between us and all-blacks still gives me nightmares.

6. Is Farrell definitely the answer at 10?

Yes he's a world class goal kicker, yes he's a ferocious defender, yes he has an impeccable attitude. But can he create something out of nothing? Is his game management good enough? Does his tactical kicking put any pressure on the opposition? George Ford has been the form attacking fly half in the premiership this season and he was very unlucky not to be given a starting birth against New Zealand. Even more unlucky is Danny Cipriani, he took his impressive form from the NZ tour in the summer and has really kicked on this season. Stephen Myler has probably been the best all round fly half in terms of attack, defence, goal kicking and game management. Is Farrell really the answer? If he doesn't show significant improvement against the South Africans his place will come under much more intense scrutiny.

Trouble is you’ve just listed the reasons we can’t beat NZ and SA say 50% of the time. And why we won’t win the RWC this time. And why we can’t be sure that we’ll top our pool (or maybe even get out of it!!). I feel the reason Stewie hasn’t the faintest idea what his back line is, is because the choices are all much of a muchness. In other words, excellent depth, limited quality. Add onto that that Stewie has left developing his finalized three-quarters to the last moment (in terms of RWC’15). Role on RWC’19 I say.

As for the other points - Haskell over Wood: definitely worth a try, but not much in it. And get used to Corbs - he'll only be a bit player at best. Cole I'll give you. SR looks ok to me.