England - A sign of how far we have come

There have been a number of posts following this 6 nations about how England don't look like an attacking threat, and how we need to change the 2nd row, half backs, centres etc etc
(Admittedly, there are some that are happy with where we are going)

In light of this, I wanted to have a look at the squad we sent to the RWC in 2007 to see how far we've come in 4 1/2 years.

Below is the team that started that final, with the current players alongside

Andrew Sheridan	Alex Corbisiero
Mark Regan	Dylan Hartley
Phil Vickery (c)	Dan Cole
Simon Shaw	Mouritz Botha
Ben Kay	Geoff Parling
Martin Corry	Tom Croft
Lewis Moody	Chris Robshaw (c)
Nick Easter	Ben Morgan
Andy Gomarsall	Lee Dickson
Jonny Wilkinson	Owen Farrell
Mark Cueto	Dave Strettle
Mike Catt	Brad Barritt
Matthew Tait	Manu Tuilagi
Paul Sackey	Chris Ashton
Jason Robinson	Ben Foden

How many of our current lineup, would you swap with their 2007 counterpart?
I'd guess the answer is not many.
Jason Robinson, Sackey probably (based on Ashton's current form), Shaw for Botha, Mike Catt (although he was well old then anyway)

As for the bench....

George Chuter	Rob Webber
Matt Stevens	Matt Stevens
Lawrence Dallaglio	Phil Dowson
Joe Worsley	Tom Palmer
Peter Richards	Ben Youngs
Toby Flood	Charlie Hodgson
Dan Hipkiss	Mike Brown

Other notable mentions in that 2007 squad were:
Perry Freshwater, Steve Borthwick, Shaun Perry, Jamie Noon
I'm not sure i'd want any of them anywhere near this current squad.


I suppose what I'm trying to say is that this is still a work in progress.
But we've come a hell of a long way within the last 5 years.
Things are definitely looking up.