Six Nations review:A NON-VINTAGE championship, goes the cry. Perhaps, perhaps not. As ever, it depends on which country you come from. France came good without completely convincing that this team has what might be required come World Cup time.
Ireland and Wales took a step back, and only time will tell whether that will be to take two steps forward. Italy stalled, as did England, albeit making moderate improvement in the end, while the Scots progressed as best they could. But perhaps we’re missing the point a little here.
It’s true that little or nothing will have had the southern hemisphere giants quaking in their boots. But the Six Nations is very much an entity in itself as opposed to a World Cup breeding ground, and there’s still a full 18 months and up to 17 games in total for Ireland to play before the global game convenes in New Zealand in September 2011.
The Six Nations is a riotous clash of six different teams and cultures who scarcely have time to draw breath over the course of the tournament. Every match is almost a one-off derby, riddled with historical significance. As the Scots proved in Croke Park last Saturday and so nearly did previously against Wales and England, as the Italians nearly did against England, almost anybody can beat anybody on any given day.
Eight of the 15 matches were one-score games, with the issue in doubt until the final play. Save for Italy hitting the wall in the final two rounds, there were no real thrashings.
Even France’s 33-10 win over Ireland – probably the best performance of the tournament – was not a thrashing; it was nothing like some of the worst treks to the French capital (as recently as 2002 Ireland were blown away by 44-5).
Ultimately, it’s hard to argue with a final table that shows France four points clear of the pack and with a points’ difference 55 better than anyone else’s. Having won nine Grand Slams before, but having fallen short in World Cups, the French Federation afforded Marc Lievrement a licence to experiment for the first two years of his reign which none of their counterparts in the Six Nations would dare do, or would have the playing resources to undertake.
So, Monsieur Tinkerman carried on regardless, taking some hits along the way. Clearly it was always part of the masterplan that the team would begin to take shape from last summer onwards.
Even though France beat the All Blacks and South Africa last year, the nagging suspicion remains that France aren’t quite as good as the final table suggests. Ireland let France away so early and then began playing catch-up so soon that Les Bleus, and especially their cocky if inexperienced young halves, were never put under any pressure.
Wales showed how to do it by first eating into the lead with three pointers and, by the end, Parra was foolishly sinbinned and France were clinging on.
Last Saturday, an English pack as honest and brave as the day is long, along with a backline rejuvenated by the introduction from the start of Toby Flood, Ben Foden and, it has to be said, the evergreen Mike Tindall, threw down the gauntlet to the French. When the rains arrived, France were spooked; perhaps by memories of their implosion in the World Cup semi-final on a similarly saturated night in the same ground to the same bugbears. They simply stopped playing rugby and were indebted to the English blowing a few chances.
No doubt Lievrement and co have done their homework on Trinh-Duc and reckon he has the temperament to come good in pressurized situations such as a World Cup knock-out match, and they may well be proved right. But his and Morgan Parra’s game management on Saturday brought to mind memories of how Frederic Michalak struggled in that aforementioned semi-final almost three years ago.
Granted, Ireland are making a similar investment in Jonathan Sexton, if a degree later. Okay, it’s a sizeable ‘if’, but had Sexton’s place-kicking radar been more accurate the reviews of his first championship would have been almost celebratory. His presence undoubtedly energized Ireland’s running game. In an overall sense, and akin to Wales, Ireland sought to broaden their playing horizons, especially last Saturday, which they have to do if they are to grow. Undermined by setpiece fallibility, it probably was too extreme a tactical shift. That their two most ambitious displays were undermined by a spate of handling errors is the biggest concern of all.
However much they may want to broaden their playing horizons, some things remain cast in stone – for an Irish team as much as any other team in the world. First off they have to win the fight. More ambition is one thing, but, à la Paris, the Scots had more hunger and intensity, for the collisions especially.
The management will have to become more pro-active with regard to using the bench. The presence of Ronan O’Gara and employment of him ought to be a template. Both outhalves may not like it, for different reasons, but it’s for the betterment of the team. Furthermore, the way the French rotate their frontrow is very clever, and ensures both short-term and long-term gains. Ireland seem petrified to do likewise.
Yellow peril was reborn as sinbinnings proved very costly, while the vexed edict about tacklers releasing ball carriers when they go to ground contributed to quicker ball by the last weekend, but it dropped like a grenade on the tournament and was unevenly applied – for which the IRB stand indicted.
Enforcing the offside line and players retreating from kicks to encourage counter-attacking was also inconsistent. And then there’s the scrums. An IRB working party are looking into the problems at scrum time. What with constant resets, some matches have been blighted by over 15 minutes of scrums. The problem for referees is that if, like Marius Joncker, you try to be fair and have re-sets, as he did in that dire Scotland-England game, you’re pilloried for letting the match become farcical whereas if, like Jonathan Kaplan, you whistle for penalties at nine of the 16 scrums at Croke Park last Saturday, experienced front-rowers say he copped out.
Perhaps it’s simply time to do away with the hit which, though the key to a good scrum and an integral part of the game, is assuredly contributing to the number of scrums which have gone down almost on impact.
As a result Scotland-England was the nadir, with Wales-Scotland the high, and all sorts in between. Perhaps it was a vintage Six Nations, and therein lies the rub.
