England v Ireland

How the mighty are fallen...

England look a shadow of their former selves. Not the side that got thumped all over the park in November, but certainly of the 2003 generation and even the 2008 generation. Not helped by a boss who seems to have forgotten the rules of rugby... take it into a maul and it's use it or lose it, and he's complaining because his maul went forward then stalled and they lost the ball.

The total lack of ambition and creativity that appeared against Italy was back, once more, and against a side like Ireland there needs to be both to make space and chances. In fact, if you think back to Wales, there wasn't anything creative there so much as Wales self-destructing.

Ireland deserved to win. England defended for the most part well, but as I wrote only a couple of hour ago of the Italy v Scotland match, a good defence is no longer enough. The better sides, which I'm not sure really include Ireland any longer, can unpick the defences - Ireland really only created 3 good chances because of poor conditions and stiffling (illegally so in my opinion) defence, but those 3 good chances turned into 3 tries and the points that scored the victory.

But Ireland are no longer looking good, in fact I might go so far as to say they are looking poor. I'm not quite sure why - sure the conditions today didn't really help, but I'm suspecting that it's old bones and that experience that clicked so well last year for the "golden generation" is turning more into "golden girls" territory as the spirit is willing but the body is just too slow, taking that extra second or two to recover from the last burst of effort and so on. Rugby is one of those odd games where experience makes a huge difference but it can suddenly click from experience into being too slow. In many other sports you'd expect a player to find their feet after 10 caps or so, in rugby 10 caps is inexperienced still... 25 or so is established, 80+ is experienced but over 100 is rare. Ireland are clicking that 100 barrier with 3 or 4 players and I think they're too old rather than experienced... it's a shame to say it of them but I think they've shot their bolt and they're in decline.

Johnno and Johnny will be under fire tomorrow I'm sure. Johnno won't be sacked - he might deserve it or not, but who would you replace him with at this point in the RWC cycle? He'll stay until the cup and then they'll get shot of him asap unless he pulls off a miracle. He might decide to fall on his sword but I doubt it - my feeling is that the confidence that goes with his career as a player is giving him a false air of confidence, tipping into arrogance, about his ability as a manager.

Johnny Wilkinson though... there is a lot of commentary saying it's up to the 9 and 12 too - which in some ways it is. But he's still making poor choices when it is clearly his choice. Then he's failing to demand quality ball from 10, demand the 12 be in an attacking position. If you watch Wales, Ireland, South Africa, even New Zealand, the 10 runs the game in those aspects too. In France it's more of a 9-10 partnership and the 9 as le petit general, in New Zealand the 12 as second five-eighth can take control but he's often an outlet, other-footed kicker rather than the primary shot caller. Wilkinson seems to have lost his confidence in his ability to read the game properly - or perhaps he's feeling too constrained by the style of play the manager wants - and that is spilling over into his ability to control the players around him.

Apparently Johnno wants stability. He can be stable and pick the same side for France and get stuffed in two weeks time. Maybe that will open his eyes? England really failed to execute from 6 to 15, and struggled at 2 as well. Maybe they just all had a synchronised bad day... it can happen. But you'd have to say that 8, 10, 12 have been poor throughout this campaign and through the November tests. How many chances do you give them?

Italy v Scotland

It's hard to be sure what to write about this match without it sounding incredibly rude.

Italy always have a somewhat limited game-plan and this time was the same. They generally execute within those limits pretty well. Scotland, however, on a hard pitch in the early Italian Spring sunshine seemed not to have a clue. It wasn't a case of Italy dragging them into an arm-wrestle so much as Scotland thinking that Italy would be easy to crack and not really trying.

It has to be said that, overall, Italy deserved to win. Although they stayed safe for most of the match, the real moments of ambition almost all came from Italy and their try came from a combination of a 10-12 scissors that was executed at speed and close to the defensive line making it work really well, followed by Italian players running good supporting lines. It was a move that Graham Henry would have been proud to see his All Blacks execute - although he'd be rather worried if it was the only good move in the game!

It's hard to be sure from one match but you would have to say that Italy are starting to look like a side with defensive structure and maturity, which you might expect, combined with the ability to execute quality attacking moves on occasion. If they can add some of that flair more often and with a bit more skill and/or luck they will develop into a side that can challenge in that tier that the good Northern Hemisphere sides are occupying. The big 3 from down South will still be too much for them, but don't be surprised if they beat England, Ireland and France, at home at least, in the next few years, as well as beating up on Scotland more regularly and Wales if they slip a little too.

Wither away Scotland though? They're defensively sound MOST of the time - but inflexibly so. That inability to adapt screwed them against Wales with the yellow cards, and I think screwed them this week when the attack came in a way they didn't expect. You can argue that good defence wins matches - if you let them score less points than you do, you win after all - but Wales, France, Ireland, now Italy, certainly New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Argentina in a good year - and increasingly after they join the tri nations - are all good enough to unpick defences, in the cases of some of those sides almost at will. Scotland will, if they don't improve their flexibility in defence and even more their ability to score points in attack become the perennial Wooden Spoons - a proud nation in decline.

Wales v France

This is going to sound odd, but Wales in defeat this week were far more impressive than winning two weeks ago.

Why? Because unlocking France's defence with a full 15 men on the pitch twice and nearly unlocking twice them more - but for a dropped pass by Charteris and a pass too late by Roberts is a good result against the team that are clearly the best in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment. Head and shoulders the best you'd have to say and that win against SA in November is looking ominous. Ireland, and remember this is an Ireland we thought would be going for back-to-back Grand Slams, only managed one try and struggled to get that and never looked like getting more.

Wales have an uncomfortably large number of areas where they need to improve - the whole first half, the scrum, line out, passing, offloading, decision making to start the list off, but it isn't all bad - despite the errors they played their part with pride and made for a compelling game. Wales can hold their heads high despite losing.

And, despite the two tries that France scored you would have to say that Wales weren't broken in defence so much as error prone in attack given they were both interceptions. OK, that's harsh on Shane Williams who offloaded reasonably and his team mates didn't react as quickly as Tranh-Duc did, but Hook's intercepted pass was a shocker.

Add to that a wild and exhilarating game with a close finish again and it made for an exciting Friday night.

Can Gatland and Williams get it together for next year - 6 Nations and World Cup? I don't know. But Wales are still breaking in Roberts and Hook as a partnership, and Hook in a 13 jersey. Rees was a lot better than Cooper in the 9 jersey... when Phillips is fully fit as well that could be an exciting clash for the starting berth. Two missing locks, a missing prop and hooker - it's not all doom and gloom for Wales for either despite 2 loses so far.

The Italian Job

England went to Rome and burgled a win that, to be honest, they didn't deserve.

Italy always play a fairly limited game, although in fairness it was both less limited and much faster than they showed last week in Ireland. The problem wasn't with that, it was that England went back into their shells and played an incredibly limited game back at them. This, quite efficiently, played right into the hands of the Azzuri who could kick ball away knowing that England would kick it back. In fact Italy's kickers won those duels time after time, and if Italy's line out had been a little more solid they could have punished England more severely.

Probably the best illustration of this was the sin-binning of Catrogiovani. In the previous 3 6N sin bins this season there were an average of 15 points scored by the side a man up. In this one? 3-3. Why? England, even with an extra player, wouldn't and didn't keep their hands on the ball. They had about 30% of the possession in that 10 minutes instead of 70% and quite a lot of that 30% was in their own half. Stupid, dim-witted and against any side with a bit more ambition than Italy they could easily have LOST the time that they had a man advantage.

The table will show France and England on top, but unless England play a lot better than that, it won't last come next weekend.

Contrasting wonderful matches

Wales v Scotland proved to be a wonderful match because it was so close. For 60 minutes you'd have to say that Scotland were comfortably in control and deservedly so. In the last 20 minutes Wales started to claw their way back, in the last 10 they started to look like they might win. A decision with the scores tied that there was time to restart was made - if Scotland had kicked the ball out you'd have to think there wouldn't have been time to set the scrum but they kicked it properly and Wales scored to win.

Two yellow cards for the Scots over the last ten minutes clearly affected that outcome.

It will be interesting to see what the other commentators think of the first 60 minutes. Wales' vaunted and talented backs failed to fire, to some extent so did their back row. Speaking personally I'm inclined to lay the blame for this at the feet of Cooper, the stand-in scrum half. He had an unfortunate tendency to take a step or two sideways and often slightly backwards before passing. This has the effect of letting the defenders be a step or two closer to the rest of the backs putting them under that much extra pressure. This has the tendency to knock on and cause the backs to dump off to the forwards in bad positions, with the forwards flat-footed and tackled backwards, which reduces the things the back row can do because they're running backwards each time. Other players made mistakes, often frustrating ones, but they were odd mistakes rather than systemic ones and players will make mistakes, it's the nature of the game.

Another thought - Wasps have struggled in the last season and a bit in the Premiership. In particular their defence has been punctured time and again. The Wales squad are more talented than the Wasps squad overall, but so are their opponents and the international sides are working out how to unpick the Welsh defence. Do they need to change the systems to account for this?

France v Ireland was brilliant for a different reason. France were brilliant. Ireland, sadly, were not. But, as always, France in full flow are compelling and wonderful to watch and this game was no different. This France was Les Bleus that put everyone to the sword the attacking was fluid and precise, the defending was aggressive and precise. If France play like this for the rest of the 6 Nations they are going to win. If they can play like this for the next year or so, they could win the RWC even though it is in New Zealand.

It appears from news reports that Tom Evans has a serious back injury. Let us all hope that it is not as bad as feared and that he makes a full and speedy recovery.

A farewell and a new beginning

Rugby, institutionally, does many things badly as well as many well. One of the things it's done really well is say Farewell and Thank You to Bill McLaren. To send off someone called "The Voice of Rugby" with a minute's silence would seem odd at best. A minute, more than a minute actually, of applause and cheers from the crowd and the players to show their appreciation was very moving.

And then we had the rugby. Three hours of it didn't really live up to the hype. Ireland v Italy was turgid and dull. Ireland looked like a side in second gear in the first half, and not even that high in the second half. Italy never got out of first gear by international standards but never looked like they could do more either. It might be a very bad 6N for the azuri but if Ireland play like this again they'll lose their other 4 matches, possibly badly.

England v Wales started where Ireland v Italy left off. That's not entirely fair - Wales defended heroically although you have to wonder how much of that was heroic defence (which Wales under Edwards can certainly deliver) and how much of it was simply dull, predictable England attacking. Some blame must go to the officials too - there's a lovely shot of one Wales line out where there's a gap of about 5cm between the sides rather than the clear 1 metre there's meant to be. Yet the line out was allowed to continue and was disrupted. In another the player had to stretch his arm sideways to take the ball. His outside arm further out to the outside... and this was apparently straight enough to be allowed to continue.

And then there was that moment of madness from Alan Wyn Jones. You could question, given it was so ineffective, if it really deserved a yellow card (although it should really, regardless of that) and for quite a lot of the time it looked like Wales blocked out the worst of it and would go in only 6-3 down. Then a sneak off the side of another breakdown and a try... and one from another quick break just after half time. 17 points rather than 3 due to the sin bin and Wales were always in trouble. However, this seemed to inspire them and if Stephen Jones' pass had gone to a red-shirted hand rather than being intercepted it could actually have been a win for Wales. It made for a good end to the first Saturday and a hope of better things to come.