Six Nations 2013

Kicks off today... wide open I think, England will be expected to build on that remarkable win over the All Blacks but still work to do to find the consistency. France can never be written off but don't have a great record in odd numbered years when they have to travel to Twickenham and Dublin. Ireland are always there or thereabouts, it's a case of the old and the new with it being possibly the final fling for O'Driscoll and O'Gara but youngsters like Gilroy set to make an impression. And what to expect from Wales, defending Grand Slam champions but seven straight defeats since, anyone's guess!

The only way is up for Scotland after a change of coach, and as for Italy as usual their first objective will be to beat Scotland and avoid the wooden spoon, anything else would be a massive bonus.

I wonder if BD went to the Tahs v Rebels match in Hobart today.

Falou scored with virtually his first touch.

Of course the other factor is Lions places up for grabs, which could inspire some from the British and Irish nations - the flipside is that France always piss it the year after a Lions tour when the other countries' top players have had an intense year.

Is the Lions tour a big thing for the players?

I'd certainly think so, even though it's a relic of the amateur days in some ways and it's hard to throw together a team from four separate nations to beat one of the SH giants - it must be a massive honour to be chosen, and it's only every four years, the rugby player's Olympics if you like.

JGK wrote:I wonder if BD went to the Tahs v Rebels match in Hobart today.

Falou scored with virtually his first touch.

I certainly did. Good game with just under 10,000 turning up to watch. Folou played well for his first run. Scored a couple of tries & fed the ball well. Has'nt quite mastered the rules yet though. He was yellow carded in the second half for not rolling away from the ball after being tackled & had to be told by his teamates to leave the field.

I saw Robbie Deans in the crowd. He was obviously interested in seeing how he went as well.

Zebo's touch for the Healy try. Brilliant

tricycle wrote:Zebo's touch for the Healy try. Brilliant

He's in the wrong sport I think, Messi would have been proud of that!

Great opening game though, Wales looked down and out but stormed back to make a game of it in the second half and only strong Irish defence prevented a different story. Now for England-Scotland, traditionally the ugliest game of the tournament... at least it's not raining this time!

Another attacking but also hard-tackling game - this one including England

"It was only Scotland", - but the best Scotland performance I have seen in ages, now they are rid of that crapahula merchant who was sitting on them for years like a clueless toad, successful only in his gurning.

England were refreshingly purposive in almost everything they did, at last. None of that exasperating extra-slow release from scrums, from contested ball generally. And much more passing decisions (with the odd well-judged kick) than aimless kicking possession away as so often with England before. Both Number 9s (Youngs redividus, and also Care) knew what they were about, and set about it.

England's # 11 was strangely awful in the second half - every time he got the ball, there was a mistake and often loss of possession.

But "Billy Tworivers" made a striking debut. Ashton came flying into his own, and Mighty Panface of Steel's sprog seems to have become a young star, both with the boot and distribution (both Ashton and Farrell are very Lanky lads ...).

The biggest impressive thing about England was the purpose throughout the team, though. For all the mistakes (which are part of the open game). I don't know what Johnson had been practising in all his training routines. How to slow play down as far as possible, perhaps? How to drop the ball most dramatically?


Have to say I really don't like that ref - some sort of Irish-French answer to Little Lord Fauntleroy. It didn't matter in the end. The attacking game survived his attempts to stamp his personal mark on it.


Will England move on from here (and the AB game, of course)? So many false dawns before ...

I hope Scotland do continue onward and upward. Freed of their toad, they now look a team.

I'm going to make a prediction here and say that, whilst it's early days yet - young Farrell may well turn into one of the best players we've had since Jonny Wilkinson was in his prime ..... and don't be surprised if he overtakes his achievements before he's done.

His pedigree could hardly be better. His dad Andy, now a member of the coaching squad debuted for Wigan RLFC at age 16, winning his first international cap at 18.
He began at Wigan as stand-off, but became a utility forward. He was one of the clubs best ever points scoreres. Playing for the club between 1991-2004 his record reads thus -

Matches - 349 + 21
Tries - 111
Goals - 1336
Drop goals -19 but worth only 1 point each in RL, as against 3 in union, so not often worth attempting unless towards the end of a tight, important game eg a cup tie.
Points - 3135

He was also capped 45 times for England / Great Britain, before switching codes aged 30. Sadly, a car crash and other injury delayed his debut for Sarries by a year - but that didn't stop him being subsequently capped for England at rugby union. Injury ultimately curtailed his career - I'm sure he'd have won more than the 8 union caps had he been fully fit.

Owen debuted for Sarries just 11 days after his 17th birthday (then a record for the youngest debutant in professional RU in England). At just 21 now, he's still probably 4 or 5 years off his peak. Barring injuries, he has the best part of 10 years at the top ahead of him - who knows what he could achieve. Watch this space .......

BTW, it's just 10 years when old Growlers' almanac made a similar prediction (on the old C4 forum). I suggested that a young bowler may - barring injuries - do OK over time. For a few years I stuck to my guns while being quietly (but in fairness not nastily) ridiculed in some quarters. However, I do now feel vindicated by the record books. What was his name now? Ah, I remember ......... fellow by the name of Anderson

Aye Growler, you're no Trev. His predictions almost uniformly sink without trace! His is a special talent. JGK can stuff individual performances with a single word of praise, but Trev can snuff out promising careers before they've even started.

England played some good stuff today, Scotland despite being a bit outclassed had their moments as well, if they reproduce that in their other games they will do much better - they always seem to save their worst performance for Italy though! A world away from the error-strewn kick-fests that have characterised the Calcutta Cup in recent years. Shame England-Ireland is in week 2 as it's a potential title decider.

Regarding Farrell sr. as a union player - made the switch too late I think, seem to remember he was fast-tracked into the England setup when they couldn't even decide if he was a forward or a back. Not big enough for the former or mobile enough for the latter it seemed.

Half agree with you regarding Andy F, beams. I'm not sure 30 was too old to switch - but there's no doubt 27 or 28 would have been better.

He switched in march/april 2005 - the end of the RU season. He was then (not sure when exactly) involved in a car smash which prolapsed a disc in his back, requiring surgery in December of that year, ruling him out for at least 8 weeks or more. He'd also had surgery on his foot, among other injuries. Thus, he missed all of 2005/06, making his debut the following season. Obviously, a year older and having such injuries, he could never regain the full prowess he once had.

Yes, he was fast tracked into the England set-up ..... but the RFU itself had spent a lot of money persuading him to switch. They were desparate to have a return - any return on the investment. Had it not been for his injuries, they'd have had it too.

Bear in mind that RU had only just gone fully pro when he switched, but he'd been fully professional at Wigan for a dozen years or more. On pure fitness, he could match any player of any age, so that in itself wouldn't have been a problem.

True, they didn't seem to know wether to play hin as a forward or a back - but he could have done either. At 6'3" and 16 stone odd, he was big enough for a forward. Not prop (too technical to learn at that age) - but second row if alongside a 6'7+ giant, and certainly flanker.

As a back - centre without a doubt. I don't know how closely you follow league beams, so if I'm preaching to the converted, apologies. Andy played loose forward, which is the most fluid of positions. His positioning on the pitch, ability to read a game, and ball distribution were second to none. He was fast, and mobile too, but didn't always look it for the simple reason that he had the likes of Martin Offiah and Jason Robinson as his wingers.

I'd have had him at inside centre every time. At full fitness (pre injury) he'd have deen devastating in attack - big and fast. Defensively, he'd have been better still - he spent 10 years putting in one-on-one up-front tackles, and he was rarely beaten in them either.

I'd say for sure that no one is more disappointed than Farrell himself that his international Union career wasn't as successful as it might have been, but as we all know - in its own way, sport can be bloody cruel.

Italy stun the French in Rome for the second time in three seasons! And for the most part it was by taking the game to them rather than just dogged defence, though they had to employ a bit of that at the end. Scotland away and Wales at home - chance for their first ever top half finish?

Best I can recall seeing them play, so its certainly a possibility. The french seemed totally devoid of ideas today. Slow ball (when they had it), and no creativity whatsoever. If France don't improve dramatically they could possibly end up 4th.

On the performances in the opening matches, the winner of England v Ireland will be favourites for the title, with losers runner-up (both should really be too strong for Italy.

Le coq est mort.

(Vive le coq?)

@

England come through a tough game to beat the French and stay on track... Italy and Wales to beat for a first Slam in a decade.

France put up a much better showing than earlier in the tournament, but shot themselves in the foot taking off Parra and Trinh-Duc, they just weren't in the game after that.

Poorest England performance for a while - until the last third of the match. And (unusually for England) they had the rub of the green.

The England squad played, and was, stronger than their counterparts - the French substitutes very much weakened their performance. Until the last 30 mins, they (the French) had generally been more faster into the breakdown, showed better technique when tackled (try and get the ball BEHIND YOU ffs, it's basic stuff), and at least as enterprising as England - which was surprising. Desperation growing wings perhaps for the French, given their two previous performances and poor losses.
Plus, the usual resolve to smash les Rosbifs.


Not quite sure why England were "off" for a half and a bit. Rubbish cloudburst & slippery-jippery conditions were not a reason this time, as in Dublin. Maybe just an off day, the sort you have to win. For a fair bit of the match, even their stars were muted. And even their foundation, crunching defence, was jittery on occasions.

It didn't help that Farrell was limping into his last two kicks, and missed both, otherwise England would have had a sizeable lead by the time he went off.


On the positive side, what an inspirational captain Robshaw is. Leads by example, breaks with power, looks for his men, and even knows what to say in interviews.

England have at least two good sets of half backs. Flood was under orders to kick for position when he came on, it seems. Usually he distributes a bit more. But he kicked pretty well, and was flawless in goalkicking.

Still think Brown is a huge weak link on the left wing. Physically not strong enough nor fast enough, takes wrong options and isolates himself. A hazard.

Not sure about D Hartley's throwing, either. Or generally.


Hard to say if this is the sort of blip from which good, potentially great squads develop greater strength and fluency, or the sort of performance which suggests that once someone takes them on and knocks them rotten, by hook or by crook (in Springbok fashion), they will do as previous England sides have done and become also-rans again.

Maybe even Wales will trounce them with hwyl-full endeavour and mighty speed in the name of Owen Glendower (and Ha'penny's kicks).

Who knows - even Italy. It's a funny game. (As are most sports. ...)

Hi beamer!

Also didn't like the Henry V haircuts (Farrell, Ashton, for example).

Maybe they ODed on inspirational speeches pre-match, and ended up enervated.

Everyone seems to be having a go at Ashton... OK he's not a great defender, drifts out of games and comes across as generally a bit of a tw@t... but he's a try scorer, a finisher, with a strike rate we haven't seen since the likes of Robinson and Cohen in the World Cup winning era. You need someone like that in the team.

This side has plenty of time to develop, look at the way the 2003 side matured. Let's just avoid wholesale changes every time there's a poor result or performance.

I only had a go at his haircut!

Well, I did imply (as an unnamed "star") he was below par, but I wasn't scapegoating him or anyone else.

I have concerns about the #11, and the hooker's throwing, maybe other aspects of his game too.

I quite agree a policy of chopping and changing is not the way to go. (Which I why I was a bit surprised Lancaster made a full three changes - Tualagi being the most understandable in terms of "tackle-crashing" impact against the French.)

PeterCS wrote:I only had a go at his haircut!

Well, I did imply (as an unnamed "star") he was below par, but I wasn't scapegoating him or anyone else.

They seemed to be on Twitter etc.

Not sure all the changes worked. 36 seems to give us a more balanced midfield.

beamer wrote:
France put up a much better showing than earlier in the tournament, but shot themselves in the foot taking off Parra and Trinh-Duc, they just weren't in the game after that.

And we'd thought Lievremont was crazy?! Should investigate the current coach's international phone calls...