Six Nations 2015

Kicks off tonight, with an injury-hit England visiting a settled looking Welsh side. Wales perhaps have the best chance of dethroning holders Ireland, while the enigmatic French will at the very least ruin someone else's chances.

Scotland have shown signs of a revival recently, so maybe will leave the annual wooden spoon battle with Italy behind them this time?

The Friday kick off is bit weird.

So I see Wales managed to blow it. Doesn't augur well for the WC.

Surprising, bearing in mind England's mass of injuries, also that they started with a technically very poor front row (well, 2/3), and are still persisting at 11 with a powderpuff jinker and constant hazard to his own side's line. How on earth is he the best England-qualified man in that position??

Also surprising that Ford was awarded MoM. A cool and clinical final kick, yes. Just as he had started well in the eye of the storm. But he had missed a couple of not difficult ones, and made a number of bad decisions. And as for three charged-down kicks in short order: rank at any level. Okay, so nerves? Maybe. Come back Owen Farrell.

On the bonus side for the visitors, Burrell immense, Robshaw as usual inspirational by example (though a bit carthorsey!), brilliant input from most of the backs: Brown, Watson, Joseph and (brief though it was) Twelvetrees, Ben Youngs turning it on in the second half  ... and perhaps best of all for them, a battling approach with skilled handling notably in the second half (13-0 the net score), with the sort of resolute tackling, excellent ground cover, and line-scything running rugby with well-executed offloads, that exemplifies England rugby in its strongest aspects.

As Gatland was quick to point out, you can't extrapolate much about the World Cup from England's win. More than that: you can't even read much into this match for the deciding of this Championship. There seem to be five sides with potentially some sort of shout this year.

England made a lot of errors, esp in the first half, and carried three substandard players for much of the match (ironic that Hartley was now whistled up for a crooked lineout throw that erred too far towards the Welsh - thankfully substituted very soon after).

Let's hope the half-army of injured return soon, and press for places. And that will give some indication if England are progressing beyond 2014's plateau, or not. PLEASE, Lancaster, drop Jonny May! He's a tonic to any opposition. Give him ten minutes at the end of a game where England are 15 points ahead, if you love him.

Looking to the World Cup, however, all things considered, I'd sooner have England's shortcomings at the moment than Wales'.

North is very very good. Biggar too. And Halfpenny a superstar. But NZ or South Africa's forwards would take such a pack apart.

(By the way, what an extended load of razzmatazz before the match. Multicoloured swirling anti-aircraft searchlights, bigscreen videos of Welsh heroes smashing the English to the ground in 2013, and a strategem to expect England to go out on the pitch (through a corridor of frenzied boos - nice), to wait in the virtual dark for as long as possible, and then - after the suspense was killing, the great Let There Be Light, and hysterical conquering heroes acclaim. I'm glad Robshaw coolly insisted on delaying his men's entry for as long as possible, to combat this whipped-up nonsense. Reminiscent of David Sole's deliberate, resolute march with his men out into the arena in 1990. I hope the fantastic spectacle cost the WRU a fortune.... and some sort of lesson is learnt, that inflated hype can dwarf performance.)

England struggled early on against Italy but ran away with it in the second half, reminds me of the pre-millennium "Two Nations" days when the lesser teams gave it everything for an hour or so then conked out.

Ireland had to hang on against the French who were a different side in the second half... their backup front row was dominant and no idea why they don't start Parra, he's one of their best players. Sexton's return was a difference maker for the Irish though, and we have a potential title decider in two weeks' time. Only one team will have a Grand Slam in their sights (unless it's a draw!) after that anyway.

Oh and one for the Italians, though I've said it before - stop picking third rate Aussies, Yarpies and Snoozers and stick with the home grown. They've taken backward steps in the last few years and I really fear for them once the inspirational Parisse retires, although they have a couple of promising centres in Morisi and the currently injured Campagnaro. If they could go back a decade or so and have Dominguez and Troncon in their prime they'd be really competitive... I guess for the time being they're probably always going to have a handful of quality players in whatever position and a lot of fillers though.

Scotland monumentally fark up Il Spoonico... after looking comfortable early on and not pulling out a substantial lead, they let the Italians have two bites at the cherry for a winning try, and ended with 13 men as a penalty try won it. After promising signs in the autumn they appear back to square one... big result for Italy though as they looked potentially set for a long run without a win in the championship.

Aye. Big kick up their own arses by the Scots. They'll be wanting independence next, so they can finally take their proud place among the successful nations.

Questions for beamer, taipan, or anyone.

1) Is it just me, or are rugby players getting more (and more) like their football counterparts in appealing to the referees repeatedly during play, in hopes of getting penalties and other sanctions against the opposition? (And it is no longer channeled each way through the captain, as was previously generally supposed to be the protocol for cases raised.)

If it's not my mistaken impression, it has to seem they are abusing a system of greater (democratic) transparency/accountability over refereeing decisions in a media age.

And if so, maybe a further card would make sense (!) - not sure what colour (yellow striped? blue? sky blue pink with yellow dots on?) for persisting with frivolous appeals or mischief. Two of those, and it could be a yellow.

Rugby used to pride itself on its unquestioning adherence to refereeing decisions during the game. Not sure this still holds true. Pity.

2) The bloody scrum - still not fixed!!! It was slightly better in France v Scotland than Scotland v Italy, but not great. Not good at all. Massive wodges of time wasted and spectator patience tested by endless reorganisation and farting around with collapsed, and otherwise illegitimately contested scrums, as well as involutary fiascos.

It's like a competition sometimes: let's open a book over how many minutes will be taken up this time, and/or how many attempts made, before the ref blows up and awards a penalty one way or the other.

Is this naive, or couldn't a system be introduced where the two front rows have to bind and engage first, at a proper height, before the respective second and back rows join the "fun"? Surely that has at least some better chance of reasonable success than the last three, four, five  WR/IRB reconfigurations and "ingenious" new solutions that have been applied, with a resoundingly low success rate ("Crouch! - Set! - Pause! - Engage! - Lock! - Pause! - Penetrate! - CRAP!! Collapse! - Punch!! - Brawl! ~ okay fellas, let's try that for the fourth, or is it sixth time ...!!!")?

Decent performance by the Welsh. Well drilled, played to their strengths and the French weaknesses.

Mind you, if the French kicker had had his boots on the proper feet, ....

That's 5 years without a title for the French then, a sequence not seen since the '50s (or the 70s if you consider only outright wins before they scrapped the shared title). They've never really mastered the kicking game, though it didn't used to hold them back too much...

No idea on the scrums, guess that's one for the insiders to work on, those who have played front row at the top level. If they can't solve it then it's time to go uncontested.

PeterCS wrote:Questions for beamer, taipan, or anyone.

1) Is it just me, or are rugby players getting more (and more) like their football counterparts in appealing to the referees repeatedly during play, in hopes of getting penalties and other sanctions against the opposition? (And it is no longer channeled each way through the captain, as was previously generally supposed to be the protocol for cases raised.)

If it's not my mistaken impression, it has to seem they are abusing a system of greater (democratic) transparency/accountability over refereeing decisions in a media age.

And if so, maybe a further card would make sense (!) - not sure what colour (yellow striped? blue? sky blue pink with yellow dots on?) for persisting with frivolous appeals or mischief. Two of those, and it could be a yellow.

Rugby used to pride itself on its unquestioning adherence to refereeing decisions during the game. Not sure this still holds true. Pity.

2) The bloody scrum - still not fixed!!! It was slightly better in France v Scotland than Scotland v Italy, but not great. Not good at all. Massive wodges of time wasted and spectator patience tested by endless reorganisation and farting around with collapsed, and otherwise illegitimately contested scrums, as well as involutary fiascos.

It's like a competition sometimes: let's open a book over how many minutes will be taken up this time, and/or how many attempts made, before the ref blows up and awards a penalty one way or the other.

Is this naive, or couldn't a system be introduced where the two front rows have to bind and engage first, at a proper height, before the respective second and back rows join the "fun"? Surely that has at least some better chance of reasonable success than the last three, four, five  WR/IRB reconfigurations and "ingenious" new solutions that have been applied, with a resoundingly low success rate ("Crouch! - Set! - Pause! - Engage! - Lock! - Pause! - Penetrate! - CRAP!! Collapse! - Punch!! - Brawl! ~ okay fellas, let's try that for the fourth, or is it sixth time ...!!!")?

IMHO both are caused by the same problem, and can be solved the same way. Rugby has become professional and is officiated by amateur referees. I am sick of listening to crap about NH and SH interpretation of the rules by referees. The fact is that it is the same game wherever it is played and should be officiated the same way. Even worse different referees in the same hemisphere blow offenses differently. We have reached the ridiculous stage where teams are coached to play the way a different ref will blow.

I have various solutions, the most radical of which is two referees.

And then there are the poor and ambiguous rules, the waste of space that are AR's, the inconsistent citing regulations

There is so much wrong it is hard to know where to start.

So, another year without a Grand Slam for England... Ireland just more disciplined and their experience told.

That late disallowed try could be the title decider though, as if Wales beat Ireland in Cardiff (a tough ask for them to go there and win) it will in all probability be a three-way tie decided on points difference.

Comprehensive win by Ireland. Man of the Match for me (using a bit of licence) was the remarkable Joe Schmidt - England were out-thought by a carefully devised winning strategy, to maximise Ireland's strengths and quell and neutralise England's.

Having said that .... Ben Youngs was down to zero again. Way too slow a feed, like in the bad old days. When Ireland's defence was drilled in the Fergus Slattery method (run hard, keep tackling like wolves ... errrr, can wolves tackle? .... and disrupt any promising possession they have, better still, get them to spill the ball and generally make errors), this slow feed forfeited all hope of England turning their three-quarters' talents into points. It's one detail, but it counted for much.

And England don't half miss Farrell and Brown these days .... also eyebrow-raisingly, Jonny May was at last thankfully replaced, but Jack Nowell pretty much morphed into him for 2/3 of the game. Slurred jinking nowhere in particular, except trouble. Jack Nowhere?

I've no doubt Wales will try to nail Sexton - by hook or by crook - before he can dig their graves too. But I think they will find the remarkable Paulie O'Connell a handful nevertheless. An absolute bloody inspirational lead-by-example skipper, and forager, driver and marshal supreme. He's difficult even to take out! And he is a bloody Golem in any close-quarters play. His bald head popping up time and again from mauls and rucks as he propels his forwards forward and barks instructions to the backs.

I used to think he was grinning throughout the game, as he took Wales and England in particular apart (his favourite foes). A sort of grinning skull of doom for his opponents. Less melodramatically though, I think it's probably just constant grimacing and heavy breathing with all his heroic efforts for his team and country.

Plus, Ireland have blooded a decent new set of players for the fight. Where England's talents are still few.

It should be a tense and intense decider between Ireland and Wales. And between their coaches.

Well, Farrell was shit for most of last year, other than off the kicking tee, and unfortunately they don't allow "special teams" placekickers in rugby! Ford has shown plenty of promise so far and looks a more creative player, but just isn't in the class of Sexton yet (who is perhaps the best 10 in world rugby at this moment in time). Give him a few years though and he might be.

Agree Brown was a big miss and the winger debate rumbles on (what happened to Marland Yarde, he was the next big thing a couple of years ago?) Youngs was lacking in spark, where's Danny Care at the moment?

Well! Wales won that off the back of - or perhaps better, on the strength of - some heroic defending. Particularly during a period of about ten minutes constant pounding by the Irish from around 50 minutes. When the men in green really had to score a couple of tries ... but achieved very little. The strong men really came to the party for Wales - Warburton back to his best (good marshalling in defence as well), even the limited battering ram Jamie Roberts showed his best assets for the cause. Which says a lot about the thrilling, physically arduous, tackle-intense nature of the match.

Ireland were desperately disappointing for 40 minutes - they played without any of the fire of the previous match (like one of those minor teams that "play their cup final" to rise to one big occasion, then flop back to mediocrity in the next round). But after the break, they really turned it on. If there's one player who was a liability for them, it was Best. For his throw-in alone, which was diabolical: telegraphed, or askew, or both. Wales didn't need the fillip, but it effectively set Ireland right back - territorially and morally - when they were advancing.

So the Championship is still to play for ....

Funnily enough (jk), I wouldn't put too much on England to come up trumps against Scotland.

England should have been 21 up in a few minutes, and instead go in 13-10 down. Unbelievable.

No Grand Slam or Triple Crown for anyone this year, but Wales have the momentum now, expect them to put 50 past Italy and take the title.

Strange game, frantic and scrappy but could have been any number of tries... England have a 4 point lead over Ireland in terms of the points difference that seems certain to settle a 2 or 3 way tie for the title, with Wales having a further 21 to make up but they go into bat first next week against the Italians with a chance to set a target for the other two.

A convincing scoreline in France's favour, though an awful game by all accounts.

The French are still mathematically in contention, though they would need a couple of unlikely favours from Italy and Scotland before beating England by a margin of more than a converted try... think I'll stick my money on Bangladesh for the CWC instead.

Four teams in contention then - who takes the honours? Amazed Wales are available at 5/1. I see them setting a target in the manner of NZ last night, and piling the pressure on England and Ireland. A raw front row for the Welsh but that shouldn't matter, an Italian side minus Parisse could implode if they concede early tries.

Wales starting to put some points on the board.

Yeah, some turnaround after that first half. Italy capitulating, with help from the ref - two or three more tries and it's all over in terms of the title.

That Italian try will cost them dearly.

Well, it gives the others a glimmer of hope, but I can't see England beating even this disjointed French side by a double figure margin, and the current Irish side are too pragmatic in approach to blow away the Scots.

A 14-point swing in the last couple of minutes though as the Welsh messed up a chance for yet another, that would really have been game over for their rivals.