If Rowell wants to play an expansive game, why has he consigned into da rkness the best attacking full-back in the home countries?

When Jack Rowell was appointed England's manager two years ago, there was not one dissenting voice. Indeed, the fear was that, as a character, Rowell was too abrasive, too contentious, too much his own man to commend himself to the men in blazers. They might, it was feared, prefer someone of a more docile disposition, with more emollient qualities. Yet Rowell (it was said) was the only manager fit to succeed Geoff Cooke. Cooke, with two successive Grand Slams, had superintended England's most successful period since the early 1920s. Meanwhile Rowell had been in control of Bath, the most successful English team of the 1990s and much of the previous decade as well. A marriage between Rowell and the English team accordingly seemed the obvious match.

At first all seemed to go reasonably well, though there were a few grumbles, as there always are. On 4 June 1994 England defeated South Africa at Pretoria: an achievement that was underestimated at the time, as it has been since, perhaps because England lost the next and final Test, or because the tour as a whole was disappointing, with only three wins from a total of eight matches.

On 18 March 1995 Rowell's England beat Scotland at Twickenham, so winning the third Grand Slam of the decade. But it was a disappointing match, decided by the boot of Rob Andrew, who scored all England's 24 points. If there was a moment when the tide turned against Rowell, this, oddly enough, was it.

The World Cup did not improve matters. When England beat Australia through Andrew's drop goal, straight out of the Boy's Own paper, there were optimistic citizens who thought England could go on and win the cup. They had forgotten Jonah Lomu.

But England performed even worse in the third-place play off, when France defeated them 19-9. They looked as if they did not want to be there at all. This subsequently turned out indeed to be the case. They wanted to be tucked up at home with their nearest and dearest. I had - I have - every sympathy. But as long as play-offs are part of the cup's structure, so long must players at least try to pretend they want to perform. After that display, a tough manager would have sacked the captain - who was Will Carling.

Nevertheless, in record-book terms, Rowell's regime has been (as Lord Justice Scott would say) not unsuccessful. A win over both South Africa and Australia, fourth place in the World Cup, a Grand Slam at his first attempt: what more, he is entitled to ask, do people want? What the English supporters want is success on the field and entertainment in the stand.

Next Saturday, clearly - not least because of the recall of Dean Richards and the selection of Garath Archer in place of the gentler Martin Bayfield - England intend to put success first. And yet, as France, New Zealand and, in the remote past, Wales have all demonstrated in their different ways, it is possible to be both successful and entertaining. There is no inevitable or necessary conflict. Scotland may try to show this on Saturday.

Under Cooke, England put success first. There was no doubt about where you stood with him. Rowell is a complicated and sensitive character. Cooke may have been one too: but his utterances had a simplicity and a directness which are lacking in Rowell's. He says too many different things to too many different people. He raises too many questions, and leaves them largely unanswered.

If he wants to play an expansive game, why has he consigned into outer darkness the best attacking full-back in the four home countries, Paul Hull? Why has he replaced Andrew with an outside-half who, in Paul Grayson, kicks even more than his predecessor did, though not as accurately? Why is the England reserve hooker, the estimable Graham Dawe, at 36 even older than Brian Moore? Why was that strong centre, Damien Hopley, played on the wing when there were plenty of other wings available and then dropped for not possessing the speed he had never claimed to possess in the first place?

Rowell has at least made up his mind that he needs a mobile No 7 and has found one in Lawrence Dallaglio, though he was, I thought, outplayed in the Welsh match by Gwyn Jones. We shall see how he does against Ian Smith on Saturday. My own feeling is that England will just pull it off, which will leave France champions (owing to the points they accumulated against Ireland) if they beat Wales.