THE 2015 Six Nations is up and running, and, if the remaining weekends are as good as the opener, we are in for a vintage year.
It is, of course, still too-early to draw any firm conclusions from the opening forays, but, if it was a case of listing the teams in order of satisfaction with the opening excfhanges, I think the table would look as follows:
1. England
2. Ireland
3.Scotland
4. France
5. Italy
6. Wales.
The Common Enemy MUST be delighted with their win in Cardiff. Considering their lengthy injury list, the way they blew Wales away in the second-half was highly-impressive.
I have long held the Welsh scrum to be way over-rated. Adam Jones cheated for years and now, in his declining years has been found-out and discarded. Paul James also cheats outrageously and is starting to be found-out,thus the decision to stick with Gethin Jenkins, who is on the downward slope of the hill, and the hill he climbed wasn't that high in any case.
England did a job on them, and on the big bullies in the Welsh back division - Warrenball clearly has been if not burst utterly, is deflating - fast. The way George North was allowed to remain on the field, after taking two really big bangs to the head doesn't say much for the WRU's idea of their duty of care to their players - I think we will hear more on this.
But, while Friday's result gives me added confidence for Sunday's Murrayfield clash, we will need to play even better than we did in Paris to beat them, but,beat them we can.
Ireland opened with a confident win in Rome. Considering they were one or two key men short of optimum strength, they must believe they have a good chance of retaining their title.
Scotland are coming good at the right time. I would not like us to give too-much away to the opposition by winning the Six Nations - a near-miss would make me happy, looking ahead to the World Cup. But, we showed enough in Paris to increase my level of confidence in BVC and his squad. OK, we lost, but, it was a case of small margins, and small margins only.
France can improve on how they played against us - the question, as ever, is - will they? If they can build on the confidence of a win, albeit not a great one, and "train-on" from there, they could lift a Grand Slam. They could, however, just as easily, fail to win another match.
Italy may well fail to win any games this year, but, if any of the other five nations go into a match with them, particularly in Rome, with the idea: "This one's won already", then they may come unstuck.
Finally, Wales, having conceded more points than they scored against the Bloody English (you never beat Wales - you only score more points), will very rapidly go through the five stages of grief. They will seek excuses, but, if they come unstuck on Sunday at Murrayfield - cue mayhem in the valleys.
I HAD an enjoyable time on Saturday afternoon. I decided to leave Italy v Ireland to the iplayer, and went to watch some genuine, old-fashioned "Coarse Rugby", taking-in the BT Bowl West final between Cumnock and Millbrae, which is Ayr's social side.
Let me say immediately, I had to agree with weel-kent Millbrae (the ground) stalwart and former World Trials Champion Norrie Lymburn, who declared at half-time: "Rugby at this level is not a spectator sport". And, Norrie had a vested interest, his son Jim, the former Ayr captain, was, aged 48, leading Millbrae from the front, and giving a master-class in how to win turn-over ball on the ground.
Jim wasn't the oldest in the Millbrae team, a couple of the others were in their sixth decade, while centre Nigel Howard, who used to play in central defence for Rangers and Ayr United, is "just a boy" at 44.
They also had three "sons-of"; scrum-half Max Pickeles, son of Andrew - who definitely took one or two kickings which owed much to his lovely Dad's ability to wind-up the lower orders, as only a former Captain of the Fettes College XV can.
Robin Dale, son of Rab, thankfully doesn't have his father's total disdain for the Laws of the Game - although he did pick-up a yellow card (it's in the genes). The third chip of the old block to appear for the side in pink and black was Jack Brown, son of David - from the back,he looks very like his Dad, and is just as enthusiastic.
Cumnock's XV is all home-grown, testimony to the wonderful work that club is doing in bringing through young players. They played the better rugby, including a couple of purple patches of off-loading, continuity rugby, to which Millbrae had no answer.
Cumnock won 14-3, and, having scored the only try, rightly so. They now face Ross High in the BT Bowl semi-final and, the prospect of an invasion of Cumnockians at BT Murrayfield in April, for the National Final, is already causing some sleepless nights at HQ.
I did like the comment of one Cumnock official at the end: "In 100-years' time, the record will not say: 'won ugle'; just 'won', and I will take that".
I also liked the response of another Cumnock official when I sought the name of one of their penalty kickers.
The reply was: "Jungle".
"Aye, but, what's his name?"
"Don't know - he's always just been 'Jungle' about the club".
No comments:
Post a Comment