Three games gone. Four teams equal on four points each, two wins and one loss. Scotland waking up and playing rugby from nowhere.
Listen to any rugby fan born south of the equator and he/she'll waste no time telling you that the 6 Nations pales in comparison to the Rugby Championship. The standard of rugby is better, they'll say. You're unlikely to watch two sides rolling around in the mud, unable to gain foot purchase, much less see the ball for the shit caking their faces. Not for them the 9-6 wins, kicking tennis interspersed with penalties interspersed with collapsed scrums. Not for them.
The other thing that's not for them is any doubt, conjecture or tiniest sliver of uncertainty about who's going to win. Since its inception in 1996 as the Tri Nations, the tournament has been played 18 times. New Zealand have won it 12 times. South Africa and the Aussies have 3 wins each. Argentina, so far, have not got close. The All Blacks are fully 4 times as successful as anyone else.
In the long and illustrious history of the northerners, however, the figures are staggeringly more equal (at least if you ignore Italy, who have never won). They read, for Overall Tournament Wins in all versions (Four Nations, Five Nations, Home Nations etc...)
Eng 26
Wales 26
France 17
Scot 14
Ire 11
Obviously we've played a lot more, but the point stands. Every year most people go into the tournament saying 'any one of those 4 could win it'. As if to prove it, there have been 4 different winners in the last 5 years. Let no one tell you the Rugby Championship is better.
Wales v France
'Can Wales bounce back?' was the question everyone was asking. What they should have been asking was 'Can France consistently string more than 2 passes together?' The answer to this was a rather emphatic 'no'. In fact, the French capitulation made Agincourt look like a monstrously overwhelming victory and had amateur blog-writing type people reaching for the Thesaurus and looking up the word 'inept'. 'Incapable', 'incompetent' and 'maladroit' are three of my favourites. Seriously, the French could not conceivably have played any worse, given the supposed calibre of their so-called players. Mangled at the scrum, out-thought at the breakdown and relying on the laws of chaos to ensure the ball reached it's intended target, they would have been beaten by a decent club side. People pelted Scotland with rotten haggis after their tame defeat to England: they should now be slinging gangrenous snails at the French coaching staff because, given the array of talent they have to work with, that was nothing short of a disgrace. The lot of them want locking up for crimes against rugby.
Wales were better, there's no doubt about that. It isn't easy to force the French scrum backwards, but that's exactly what they did (although the scrums were a return to the bad old days at times. Had Brian Moore been commentating he would have been spitting brimstone). Warburton had a big game, and when their captain plays well the rest usually follow. It was good, but it wasn't vintage, and they're still missing Jonathan Davies in the centres. Can he return for the crucial clash against England?
Italy v Scotland
The traditional wooden spoon decider was only going to be won by one team judging by form so far. Scott Johnson's selection policy remains befuddlingly unfathomable (still no Kelly Brown, dropping Dave Denton) and for the first half, at least, it appeared to be business as grimly and direly usual. They deserved to be 10 points down at the break, Italy deserved to be in front.
Then, finally, Scotland started playing. Their second try was a gem of incisive running and deft off-loading, and Italy had to adjust to being in a contest, which they did. The drop goal was amazing for Scotland and heart breaking for an Italian side that you could not in all honesty say deserved to lose. The questions we are left with are: can Italy get the win their ambition in this tournament has deserved and can Scotland kick on? Italy have Ireland and England left to play, so the answer to the former may well be no, while for Scotland it's all about what happens when Vern Cotter takes over as coach as much as anything. It's puzzling times north of Hadrians Wall, and disappointing ones in Rome. Whether pulling their two teams, Treviso and Zebre, from the Pro 12 next season (for purely financial reasons) helps or hinders Italian rugby in general remains to be seen, but the tournament would be poorer for their loss.
England v Ireland
The big one of the weekend, this was a titanic clash wrapped in a giants punch-up basted in fucking massive gravy. Tenser than a tightrope walk over a piranha tank and so edge-of-the-seat you ended up crouching on thin air. It was brutal, punishing, intense stuff, and the resulting English victory is being billed the length and breadth of the land as the watershed moment for this emerging England side. I'm not sure about that - lose to Wales (again) in two weeks and all that might sound a bit premature - but the signs since the autumn have shifted from promising to encouraging to just downright bloody good. Players are beginning to nail down spots and there are more to come back, especially in the back line with the likes of Tuilgai and Marland of the Yarde, who returned to London Irish duty on Sunday. Mike Brown and Joe Launchbury were both immense.
The performance was far from perfect though. England again left points on the field (Johnny May in particular will be kicking himself) but the only way sides learn to be more clinical is by playing with each other more. This is still a growing side, and where they might be in 1 or 2 years is an exciting prospect.
Ireland, meanwhile, will be frustrated, but will not panic. They remain in the box seat with a superior points difference and Italy in Dublin for their next game. Win their remaining games, and it will take a huge effort from somebody to nick the trophy from them.
Coming up...
So on to round four. England and Wales will battle it out for the right to challenge Ireland, while Scotland will be hoping for a strong home-showing against the topsy-turvy French, who in turn will be demanding an improvement on their own hapless display against Wales. Now we start to separate the wheat from the chaff, and after the next game 4 contenders will have been whittled to two or three.
The question is, who will they be?
Listen to any rugby fan born south of the equator and he/she'll waste no time telling you that the 6 Nations pales in comparison to the Rugby Championship. The standard of rugby is better, they'll say. You're unlikely to watch two sides rolling around in the mud, unable to gain foot purchase, much less see the ball for the shit caking their faces. Not for them the 9-6 wins, kicking tennis interspersed with penalties interspersed with collapsed scrums. Not for them.
The other thing that's not for them is any doubt, conjecture or tiniest sliver of uncertainty about who's going to win. Since its inception in 1996 as the Tri Nations, the tournament has been played 18 times. New Zealand have won it 12 times. South Africa and the Aussies have 3 wins each. Argentina, so far, have not got close. The All Blacks are fully 4 times as successful as anyone else.
In the long and illustrious history of the northerners, however, the figures are staggeringly more equal (at least if you ignore Italy, who have never won). They read, for Overall Tournament Wins in all versions (Four Nations, Five Nations, Home Nations etc...)
Eng 26
Wales 26
France 17
Scot 14
Ire 11
Obviously we've played a lot more, but the point stands. Every year most people go into the tournament saying 'any one of those 4 could win it'. As if to prove it, there have been 4 different winners in the last 5 years. Let no one tell you the Rugby Championship is better.
Wales v France
'Can Wales bounce back?' was the question everyone was asking. What they should have been asking was 'Can France consistently string more than 2 passes together?' The answer to this was a rather emphatic 'no'. In fact, the French capitulation made Agincourt look like a monstrously overwhelming victory and had amateur blog-writing type people reaching for the Thesaurus and looking up the word 'inept'. 'Incapable', 'incompetent' and 'maladroit' are three of my favourites. Seriously, the French could not conceivably have played any worse, given the supposed calibre of their so-called players. Mangled at the scrum, out-thought at the breakdown and relying on the laws of chaos to ensure the ball reached it's intended target, they would have been beaten by a decent club side. People pelted Scotland with rotten haggis after their tame defeat to England: they should now be slinging gangrenous snails at the French coaching staff because, given the array of talent they have to work with, that was nothing short of a disgrace. The lot of them want locking up for crimes against rugby.
Wales were better, there's no doubt about that. It isn't easy to force the French scrum backwards, but that's exactly what they did (although the scrums were a return to the bad old days at times. Had Brian Moore been commentating he would have been spitting brimstone). Warburton had a big game, and when their captain plays well the rest usually follow. It was good, but it wasn't vintage, and they're still missing Jonathan Davies in the centres. Can he return for the crucial clash against England?
Italy v Scotland
The traditional wooden spoon decider was only going to be won by one team judging by form so far. Scott Johnson's selection policy remains befuddlingly unfathomable (still no Kelly Brown, dropping Dave Denton) and for the first half, at least, it appeared to be business as grimly and direly usual. They deserved to be 10 points down at the break, Italy deserved to be in front.
Then, finally, Scotland started playing. Their second try was a gem of incisive running and deft off-loading, and Italy had to adjust to being in a contest, which they did. The drop goal was amazing for Scotland and heart breaking for an Italian side that you could not in all honesty say deserved to lose. The questions we are left with are: can Italy get the win their ambition in this tournament has deserved and can Scotland kick on? Italy have Ireland and England left to play, so the answer to the former may well be no, while for Scotland it's all about what happens when Vern Cotter takes over as coach as much as anything. It's puzzling times north of Hadrians Wall, and disappointing ones in Rome. Whether pulling their two teams, Treviso and Zebre, from the Pro 12 next season (for purely financial reasons) helps or hinders Italian rugby in general remains to be seen, but the tournament would be poorer for their loss.
England v Ireland
The big one of the weekend, this was a titanic clash wrapped in a giants punch-up basted in fucking massive gravy. Tenser than a tightrope walk over a piranha tank and so edge-of-the-seat you ended up crouching on thin air. It was brutal, punishing, intense stuff, and the resulting English victory is being billed the length and breadth of the land as the watershed moment for this emerging England side. I'm not sure about that - lose to Wales (again) in two weeks and all that might sound a bit premature - but the signs since the autumn have shifted from promising to encouraging to just downright bloody good. Players are beginning to nail down spots and there are more to come back, especially in the back line with the likes of Tuilgai and Marland of the Yarde, who returned to London Irish duty on Sunday. Mike Brown and Joe Launchbury were both immense.
The performance was far from perfect though. England again left points on the field (Johnny May in particular will be kicking himself) but the only way sides learn to be more clinical is by playing with each other more. This is still a growing side, and where they might be in 1 or 2 years is an exciting prospect.
Ireland, meanwhile, will be frustrated, but will not panic. They remain in the box seat with a superior points difference and Italy in Dublin for their next game. Win their remaining games, and it will take a huge effort from somebody to nick the trophy from them.
Coming up...
So on to round four. England and Wales will battle it out for the right to challenge Ireland, while Scotland will be hoping for a strong home-showing against the topsy-turvy French, who in turn will be demanding an improvement on their own hapless display against Wales. Now we start to separate the wheat from the chaff, and after the next game 4 contenders will have been whittled to two or three.
The question is, who will they be?
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