Six Nations Week One Review

OK – STRAIGHT IN with the controversial stuff. After yesterday, I firmly believe, Gregor Townsend needs to take the Captaincy off Finn Russell and leave him to just do Finn Russell stuff.

Finn's greatest value to Scotland is as the playmaker, the puppet master, just allow him to do that, without the additional baggage of Captaincy; otherwise, he might simply over-think things and lose his instinctive, off the cuff genius.

It wasn't our best performance, but, we found a way to win and there weere enough good moments to show, as the teeam gels over the tournament, we will get better. If a club winning its league is: “a marathon rather than a sprint” then you might say, a nation winning the Six Nations is: “a half-marathon, or at least a 10,000 metres race.” In which case, you don't go out in front in the first lap, but, wind your way into the race.

Sure Scotland made a lot of mistakes, but, they took their lead from Finn, and even when something didn't work first time, they kept trying and they got their reward. I don't think it will be a case of Toony saying: “same again” when he names his tream to entertain Ireland. Stafford McDowall did nothing wrong, and a lot of good things, but, given how he played when he got on, there is perhaps a case for fielding Tom Jordan at 12 against Ireland.

I would also like to see an all-Glasgow back row fielded and would give a thought to switching my loose-heads, with Rory Sutherland starting and Pierre Schoeman on the bench and I would perhaps give one of the younger locks a spot in the squad, perhaps even a start.

PLEASE, PLEASE, pretty please ITV, but, can we have non-English commentators and punters on England games? You might think, four weeks short of my 78^th birthday I would be used to it and be immune to the growing rage I feel as myopic commentators, seeing a match through rose-tinted spectacles ruin England games with their bias.

Ideally, we would have a neutral commentary, but, other than the Scottish talking heads (Ryan Wilson aside) – everyone, regardless of nationality is a fan with a microphone. Andrew Cotter is head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to neutrality, but, he's on the BBC..

England defended wonderfully in Dublin, but, one or two Ollie Lawrence thrusts apart, they offered next to nothing as an attacking threat. They are a poorly-coached team, who are nowhere near as good as their media cheerleaders try to convince us they are. They are indisciplined and while he does occasionally offer a threat as a runner, the over-inflated Marcus Smith is not as good as Finn Russell having an off day, he crumbled as the game went on.

If, as they should, France thump them them at Twickenham this weekend, the whole edifice might crumble.

Ireland and France remain the teams to beat. I felt maybe one or two of the Irish team were picked on reputation and might no longer have what it takes. However, they still got the job done and put a serious damper on the usual English hype.

Beating them on Sunday, even with home advantage, will be a serious ask for us; it will not be easy, but, if we can find the five or ten percent we were off against Italy, we might be able to finally get the not beating the Irish monkey off our backs.

OK – MAYBE WALES are actually worse than we have perceived them to be, but, that said, France were able to take Antoine Dupont off after 50 minutes, lost Romain Ntmack to a red card, didn't get out of third gear and still thrashed Wales, keeping a clean sheet in the process. The rest of us should be worried.

Wales battled hard, they never gave up, but they were out of their depth and I really fear for them in these Six Nations. To be honest, the game was so one-sided, I struggled to stay awake. Think on this, no Damien Penaud, but the boy who came in looked the part.