Hodgson a scapegoat for team learning new tricks.

(From Canberra Times)

Having overdosed on victory for so long, it shouldn't have been a surprise that Twickenham was in need of detox.

However, the extent of the dependence was still troubling. Defeat sometimes cleanses the spirit and clears the mind. On Sunday, we saw something rather different. We saw what can happen when perspective is lost.

In one corner of the ground Jonny Wilkinson, safe from reproach, was signing autographs. In another, Charlie Hodgson's face said he was wondering whether he had scrawled something rather different: perhaps his own death warrant as a viable challenger to the Wilko cult.

He certainly had to consider the possibility that if a week in politics is a long time, the taut seconds it takes to line up and …