Harsh lessons to be learned in the aftermath of abject defeat

If the old sporting adage of only being as good as your last game rings true, then England are in dire straits.

Pulverised up front, beaten at the breakdown, out-scored and out-fought in every area of the pitch, Stuart Lancaster’s side left Wales with very few positives following such a desperate performance.

Having come into Cardiff seeking a first grand slam in a decade, they left the Millennium Stadium looking some way short of winning another one.

Having been 80 minutes from etching their names into the rich tapestry of this great competition, they ended up in a state of soul-searching and utter despair.

England have been close to a grand slam before since those all-conquering days of 2003, never more so than two years ago when they went to Dublin and surrendered meekly to Ireland.

But at least they won the title that day, as hollow as that triumph felt at the time.

They won nothing in Cardiff; losing the slam, the title and the respect of their peers.

Lancaster has worked wonders in transforming England from the wreckage of the 2011 World Cup, but this performance shows there is so much more work to be done.

In fairness, they had been running out of steam since before Saturday’s crushing defeat, as the underwhelming victory over Italy six days earlier demonstrated.

They started the tournament well, running four tries past Scotland in an adventurous display, before defending manfully in Ireland.

The victory over France was their last performance of note, and that was only functional. It was also the last time they crossed the tryline, when Manu Tuilagi bulldozed over. Worryingly, England have scored one try in four games.

Wales, by contrast, scored two in 10 minutes through the opportunism of the jet-heeled Alex Cuthbert, as they swamped England in the second half at a rocking Millennium Stadium.

A remarkable statistic shows that the hosts finished the tournament with a winning score of 30-3, exactly the deficit they faced shortly after half-time on the opening weekend of the tournament.

But Rob Howley’s men have shown it is how you finish, not how you start.

As for England’s shortcomings, where do we start?

That inability to create tries, let alone score them, is a growing concern.

Chris Ashton has only crossed the whitewash twice under Lancaster and is so out of form he doesn’t look like scoring any time soon.

Mike Brown is industrious but not potent, although he has had a good tournament. The same can be said for Alex Goode.

The midfield pairing of Manu Tuilagi and Brad Barritt are too defensive, particularly the latter, who should make way for Billy Twelvetrees if England want more punch on offence.

Owen Farrell matures with every game and hopefully he will take a great deal from this sobering lesson.

Ben Youngs and Danny Care are head and shoulders above any other scrum-half in England but neither is immune to an off-day.

Where Care adds a little zip from the bench, Youngs still does not generate the quickball sufficient to repeatedly get opponents on the back foot.

Then there’s the front row, particularly the loose, where Joe Marler was pulverised at the Millennium.

Wales were always fancied to dominate in the scrum, but the extent to which they did must have left scrum coach Graham Rowntree horrified.

England’s lineout was hit and miss, and their second-row partnership of Joe Launchbury and Geoff Parling – perhaps out of their depth on Saturday – have shown enough encouraging signs throughout the tournament.

In the back row, the need for a recognised No 8 is stark. Ben Morgan was a big miss. As hard-working and tough tackling as Tom Wood is, he is a better flanker.

When a team is thrashed in this manner in such a big game, attention naturally turns to the captain. Chris Robshaw, who was in danger of losing the armband through indecision in the autumn, had shot to the top of the betting for the Lions captaincy in leading England to the brink of a grand slam. Yet defeats shine spotlights on weakness.

A quick glance at Robshaw with 15 minutes to go, as England trailed 20-3 and retreated for a penalty, showed the flanker back-pedalling with his team-mates as if he were one of the foot-soldiers, not the lieutanent.

England needed geeing up, needed a kick up the backside, but words of wisdom and encouragement were not forthcoming from their captain.

As a collective, that is not necessarily the order of the day.

There are weaknesses but there remain plenty of positives about this group.

That starts at the top with Lancaster, who will not allow his players to forget this harrowing defeat, without burdening them with it too greatly.

He is a meticulous reviewer of matches, whether England win or lose, and he will brood over this defeat until he regathers his players – minus the Lions contingent – on May 21.

Yesterday aside, they have become hard to beat and have developed a knack for problem-solving and finding ways to win games.

There is a character about the group, which will be tested over the coming months.

Remember, they still won four out of five games and finished runners-up in the championship for the second consecutive year.

If any more straws are needed to be clutched at, then another adage in sport is that timing is everything, and the time to hit top gear is two years from now, when a World Cup on home soil looms on the horizon and a marker needs to be laid down.

But that is for the future. For the here and now a grand opportunity has been ripped from England’s sight and it is hard not to wonder whether Lancaster’s men really are only as good as their last game.