Eddie Butler is looking to England for answers in the seemingly endless debate on the state of the game in The Observer.

”At the start of the decade that has just ended, England were the worry. And so it is that rugby, as played in and by England, sets the agenda for the new age. Wales have had their two Grand Slams in the noughties and Ireland are the force of the moment, but where we go from here depends on England. “Ten years ago, the question was posed - with barely disguised mockery - of Clive Woodward: 'Can you ever win the Grand Slam?' Wales, Scotland and Ireland, at various stages of the Six Nations around the turn of the millennium, were in the process of making the England coach's job an ordeal as much as a pleasure. “His answer, delivered in 2003, was an emphatic 'yes', which was the source of the concern. England trounced Ireland in 2003 to take the Slam and then travelled to New Zealand andAustralia, in the summer before the World Cup, to deliver a style that left everyone scratching their heads. Now that England had finally mobilised their rugby forces, would anyone be able to live with them?”