Al's Blog from the Bog

Saturday’s game between Scotland and Italy was billed as the ‘wooden spoon decider’ which, coming as it does just half way through the competition, implies that neither team is any good and the result is unimportant. This is really rather unfair; neither team is likely to win a world cup any time soon, but both have some very talented players and the capacity to play exciting rugby. I was hoping for a close, entertaining game.

Sadly the pressure on both teams – and especially the coaching staff – not to lose was horribly apparent, and led to a match where neither side were willing to take any risks; most of the game was just plain dull. Italian No.8 Sergio Parisse again showed his class, while for Scotland the Evans brothers hinted at the excitement they can bring to a game.

The scoreline at the end flattered Scotland in that they simply didn’t deserve that many points, despite being by far the better side over 80 minutes. Judged on this performance, both teams have a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the 6 nations, although we know that Scotland are capable of pulling rabbits out of hats on occasion – the same cannot yet be said of Italy.

Billed as the main event of the day, the Ireland v England match was also afflicted with the desire not to lose, again stifling much of the play. Ireland went into the game as strong favourites, on paper as well as form. England, by contrast, were under huge pressure to show that they were at least starting to recover the sort of form that they should be showing, given the size of their player pool.

Ireland failed to live up to their top billing, appearing to be hesitant and lacking in ideas of how to break down England’s defence. Ronan O’Gara, Ireland’s No.10, had a bad day at the office and this undoubtedly played a big part in shaping the team’s performance, although it would be unfair to lay all the blame at his door. Ireland currently have a number of players in the very top rank and they must all share the responsibility. Only the ever-reliable Brian O’Driscoll really stood out and it was he who held things together for the Irish.

England, on the other hand, demonstrated once again that they have a phenomenal defence but little to offer anywhere else. There were hints of an attacking strategy beginning to germinate but basic errors, a complete lack of vision and some catastrophically brainless moments undid any good work. Indeed, the best move of the match was a break by Tait from first phase possession that should have resulted in an easy run-in for Flutey, but Tait appeared to forget to make the scoring pass.

Two more yellow cards and several marginal late/illegal tackles did nothing to dispel England’s growing reputation for ‘dirty’ play, and of course meant that they (again) played 25% of the match with a man down. 10 yellows in their last four games says it all.

A fair result, then, which leaves Ireland on course for a Grand Slam, but they will have to do much better to overcome Wales in their final match.

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So Eddie O’Sullivan has gone. Certainly pushed, his departure has been dressed up as a resignation, which will benefit all parties. Whatever, at least Ireland can now move on and, hopefully, regain some of the lost ground. Let’s just hope that whoever takes over is given the same level of support and autonomy as O’Sullivan was, and is brave enough to make some sweeping changes.

Over in England, meanwhile, rumours abound. Will Martin Johnson be brought in to the setup as Team Manager? The BBC seem convinced he will. But is this enough? I have great respect for Brian Ashton but I wonder if he is the right man to be leading the coaching team. When one considers what Sir Clive Woodward achieved, or rather how he achieved it, I wonder if a more significant shake-up and approach might be more productive. After all, with the pool of players in England far exceeding that of any other rugby nation, it should be reasonable to expect a lot more in terms of results.

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So the 2008 Six Nations Championship (a rugby competition between England, Scotland,Ireland, Wales, France and Italy) concluded on Saturday. Congratulations to Wales on their Grand Slam (winning all their matches), their second in four years.

Before the it began, the pundits were predicting the most open tournament for many years, and they were right. All the teams were much closer in the standard of rugby they played than for a long time, but Wales were certainly the best team and deserved their win.

You could argue that this “closeness” made the competition very exciting and, in terms of the results and winning margins, perhaps it was. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. The quality of rugby was far, far from a high standard. Why was it close? In simple terms it was because most teams (Italy excepted) have gone backwards, which made most of the games dull and tedious.
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rugby international, rugby, Six Nations, sport