Deja Ow

History has a habit of repeating itself. It's rare for it to do so quite this quickly however. It was only in 2011, after all, that an English Grand Slam attempt left a celtic capital feeling woe-begotten and beaten up. The defeat in Dublin marked the end of Martin Johnson's purple patch and ended up in that World Cup campaign.

The good news for Lancaster is that his squad seems unlikely to implode like that anytime soon.

Lancaster's probably been working very hard on reminding both himself and the players about the good news over the past weekend. As ways to end your Six Nations go, it doesn't get much more demoralising than that, although Ireland and France might both wish to disagree. The Bomber won't want his men to stew in negativity and let the game cast a shadow over them. And there was some good news.

What is of more interest to England fans right now however is what Lancaster does about the bad news. This is no knee-jerk reaction to a defeat and an extremely good performance from Wales. The weaknesses, as I said last week, have been there for some time and it was very obvious how things might go wrong. We'd all watched England get exposed out wide and shunted in the scrum before this Six Nations. Except, this time, it actually hurt.

I am a recent convert to being a Lancaster fan and, despite how its all turned out this year, I remain so. I can live with his decision to keep a relatively settled team throughout the tournament, even if that did mean some obvious weaknesses. However, what happens next will be a big test for him. It should now be obvious that England cannot hope to beat the top teams through good team spirit, big midfield defence and penalties alone. Those things are essential to our hopes of doing so, but more is required. And the results of this Six Nations show that Lancaster's emphasis on these things has led to too much sacrifice in our attacking capabilities.

A good example of this is Brad Barritt, a man constantly talked up for the important role he plays for England. Which is fair enough to a point. The man defends like a Trojan. Unfortunately, he attacks like a horse. As a runner, he straightens the line well and usually makes the gainline, but little more. His distribution skills aren't particularly noteworthy at international level and he's ignored a few overlaps recently. This is not to say he should definitely be dropped, players like him can be very important in doing the dirty work to allow more talented players to shine. But Barritt is typical of a great deal of the team and the team as a whole; outstanding in defence, uninspiring in attack, and seemingly lacking in perception of opportunities on the pitch. We messed up try scoring opportunities against Wales, against Italy and against France. We have not scored when it seemed easier to do so than to not.

Lancaster must fix this. We will not win the World Cup, our proclaimed goal, with such poverty in attack. We won't win the Six Nations either, and its doubtful whether we'll win as many games again next year. We will travel to an improving Italy, a potentially dangerous Scotland and also France, who surely cannot be that bad again next year. Ireland likewise have a great deal more potential than they showed. If we stand still, we will probably fall behind. However, if we are to actually progress, then attack cannot be at the total expense of what we have achieved in terms of midfield defence and mental strength. To a certain extent, Lancaster might be justified in grumbling about where he's meant to find these players. But he has already nailed his colours to the mast as a man developing a team, developing players. If he cannot find them, he must make them. Providing a player has courage and strength, he can be taught to defend. Attack is the more difficult art, the more dependent on natural talent. No amount of training will make Mike Brown as fast as Jonny May or Christian Wade. There is talk that Mike Catt's brief in the England camp is considered a long term thing - presumably bringing technical skills up to scratch and developing decision making in attack. It is an incredibly important role, but also an arduous process. Will it even make Owen Farrell as talented a passer as Freddie Burns, or give him his natural eye for the opportunity? Farrell has advanced a lot in his England career already but one has to wonder how much further he will develop.

It's been a good job until now. Jim Greenwood, one of rugby's original coaching gurus, once wrote that defence and fitness are the first concerns with a struggling team. Lancaster has done that, with the exception of that weird blind spot out wide. But Greenwood's books encourage attacking rugby to the utmost and it is now time for Lancaster to move on to this next step. Or I fear we will all be cursing more missed trophies again next year.