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A well-oiled machine - England

London - England's most settled side for years are eyeing a possible Six Nations grand slam but the other five teams will spend much of this week pondering their lineups for the next round of action on March 12/13.

The only side to have won all three games is the one that has seen the fewest personnel shuffles and, while Martin Johnson has been lucky with injuries, it is form, or lack of it, that has prompted most of his rivals to keep tinkering.

With the World Cup only seven months away it is a worrying sign for Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Italy that, crucially, they do not seem to know who their best flyhalf, is while France's best team remains a matter of complete guesswork.

In their three games so far England have changed only one position as Alex Corbisiero and injured prop Andy Sheridan swapped places. The other 14 players have started each game, all wins, with barely any changes to the replacements either.

After several years of chopping and changing, albeit much of it injury-enforced, England's combinations are starting to work like a well-oiled machine.

Toby Flood and Ben Youngs, who have honed their halfback partnership at Leicester, are now operating at that "knew what you were going to do" level for England and their slick work has injected energy to everyone around them.

When Flood was forced out of England's game against France with an Achilles problem after 51 minutes, Jonny Wilkinson came on and maintained the high-tempo approach despite the world telling him he was incapable of doing so.

Flood is hoping to recover in time for England's next game, against Scotland at Twickenham on March 13, but Johnson is unlikely to lose much sleep if he has to replace him with the sport's all-time leading points scorer.

Declan Kidney opted for experience and proven goalkicking ability when he recalled Ronan O'Gara for Jonathon Sexton and was rewarded with a man-of-the-match display by the 33-year-old flyhalf in Ireland's victory over Scotland.

Warren Gatland delighted the Welsh rugby public when he gave James Hook his head at number 10 for their second game but was then forced to shift him to centre for the third and recall Stephen Jones at flyhalf after an injury to Jonathan Davies.

Hook may return to the playmaker role against Ireland on March 12 but it is far from ideal for the rest of the backline to have to adjust to a different style on a weekly basis.

Scotland coach Andy Robinson was so annoyed with his team's display in their 24-6 home defeat by Wales that he changed seven players, including giving a first start to young flyhalf Ruaridh Jackson.

The new boys did better but still lost to Ireland to make it three defeats out of three.

Italy's Nick Mallett was similarly frustrated after being thrashed 53-13 by England and, having dropped flyhalf Kristopher Burton for the Twickenham game, recalled him in place of Luciano Orquera for what turned out to be another defeat by Wales.

With Marc Lievremont in charge it should come as no surprise that the French team has been all over the place but even seasoned observers raised an eyebrow when, having won their first two games, he made four changes for the England game.

Flyhalf Francois Trinh-Duc has been a rare constant in the backline with Morgan Parra the usual scrumhalf but he has had eight different back three combinations in the last eight games and three Six Nations games have had three different midfields.

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