Tom Palmer: Experience against Welsh can only benefit Lancaster’s squad

Because Stuart Lancaster has been brave in blooding youngsters, we now have a number of players in each position who are able to perform at the highest level.

For instance at fly-half, we now know Owen Farrell is a natural No 10. There’s also Charlie Hodgson and Toby Flood competing for that position.

At scrum-half, Lee Dickson proved he can influence a game at Test-match level with how he performed against Wales. Stuart also has Ben Youngs and my old Leeds team-mate Danny Care at his disposal.

In the back row England has Tom Croft, as well as Ben Morgan, Phil Dowson and Chris Robshaw who are all gaining valuable experience at this level.

You add to that guys who have been injured or not available such as Tom Wood and James Haskell, and you’re going to have a very competitive squad.

And that’s what England needs – a 32-man squad full of players proven at international level that Stuart and the coaching team know they can rely on to step up at any given time.

It’s all about gaining experience, and in the Wales game – which was an incredibly good game of rugby contested by two fully-committed sides – you saw how valuable experience is.

England led 12-6 and could have put the game out of reach.

But they missed that chance and Wales managed the game very well from that point on.

Warren Gatland has assembled a high-class outfit. They’re experienced now in those tight, tense situations and that’s something this England team need to pick up and learn from.

Player-wise, I thought Manu Tuilagi made a big impact. He broke the line regularly and gave us a lot of go-forward. He would have a had try but for a superb tackle from Sam Warburton.

It was another excellent defensive performance from England, with Brad Barritt as the stand-out performer. He was absolutely immense, tackling everything that moved.

The boys will be incredibly disappointed to have lost. But I’m sure they will use the hurt they are now feeling as motivation to improve and finish the RBS 6 Nations on a high

International rugby has a knock-on effect at grass-roots level.

Last summer, I attended an RBS RugbyForce event at Wortley Rugby Club in South Yorkshire, along with former England international Jason Lennard.

Wortley had received a grant from RugbyForce to develop their facilities and Jason and I were there to lend a hand and do a spot of coaching with their juniors. We had a great day, and not even the summer rain could put us off.

International rugby matches are great events for grass-roots clubs and we, as players, realise that.

We know that matches are re-arranged to be played before the England match is shown live on the big screen in the clubhouse. The scene at Old Leodensians on Saturday will have been repeated throughout the country.

I mention Old Leos because my best man, Tom Bindloss, will have been there on Saturday. All clubs need someone like him, someone who runs the show.

Tom Palmer and the Yorkshire Post are supporting RBS RugbyForce, the community programme that is improving facilities across the land. Find out more or register your rugby club for the RBS RugbyForce Weekend on June 2 and 3, visit www.rbs.com/rugbyforce.