England need to be more consistent

I WAS at last week's game against the All Blacks and as much as I enjoyed my first visit to the stadium since the Six Nations, I couldn't help noticing a different attitude of those in control of the stadium's notification system which puts out messages to the crowd.

- JEFF PROBYN

The continual call for the fans to 'make some noise' and 'make it louder' while at the same time celebrating the England team scores from penalty kicks with fire and music as if they were magical moments, plus ignoring the tries scored by New Zealand while calling for respect to all.

The much talked about haka came in for a vocal abuse from members of the crowd singing Swing Low showing little or no respect for the New Zealand culture.

It may have been a long time ago but when I played the crowd remained silent and you could hear the words spoken by the Maori player chosen to lead the ritual.

However, the game itself revealed a number of areas that Steve Borthwick will need to improve on if his team are going to have a successful autumn.

Both in attack and defence, England will need to step up and show a much more consistent approach to how they play the game.

Having arrived early at the stadium I was a little surprised to see the entire England team on the pitch seemingly undertaking a training session with kicks, lineouts, fake breakdowns, rucks and mauls for almost three quarters of an hour.

As Borthwick has had access to his players for around a week I would have thought they would have known what they were going to do in any of the situations above and surely didn't need to show the opposition how and where they were going to attack from breakdowns.