Start of the Six Nations

France beat Italy in Paris. Not really any surprises there, although seeing a French side play very much like the All Blacks is a bit scary. They defended and as soon as their was a critical mistake from Italy they swooped and ruthlessly scored tries. The verve and fire from France, the élan that we associate with them - and with the All Blacks in fairness - was absent and they didn't seem to really create but the coach and the players will, I suspect all be happy. It will be interesting to see how France do against Ireland and Wales though.

Italy seem to be still improving. Starting your campaign in Paris is not easy for anyone but despite a number of new players in this "just after the world cup" season Italy look better than they did overall last year (despite their famous victory over Les Bleus).

Scotland and England ugh. A poor side with a surprisingly porous defence managed to win over a side that created all the opportunities (Hodgson's try was good defensive play, not anything creative) because the more creative side seemed, en masse, to panic in the last 22m. Passes weren't thrown, when they were thrown they weren't good passes, when they were good passes they were still dropped.

Scotland have real problems. They really seem to lack composure in the attacking 22. They don't support attacking players well and they don't score their tries. But that will, I feel, paper over the cracks that were present in England's performance. I'm listening to pundits prattling on about how good the English defence was. The trouble is, it was at times, but watch the match and watch how often Scotland broke the defensive line - if they hadn't done that I would have commented on their poor play with the offloads and support play. England would have deserved their win if they had defended that well, because Scotland would never have created the chances that they blew.

Again it will be interesting to see how these two perform against the better sides. Wales, Ireland and France will rip these two apart. They might blow the odd chance but they will make plenty and convert most of them. There could be several 25+ point blow-outs this year.