During this year’s Six Nations the coaches would have had one eye on the Rugby World Cup taking place in England at the end of the year. Let’s have a look at how the teams progressed and how that may impact on their RWC prospects.
Ireland – Champions
Ireland made steady progress through the first three rounds without being spectacular. They did see off both England and France without having to find an extra gear. The loss to Wales would have stung but they redeemed themselves with the victory over Scotland.
Schmidt evolved their tactics as the tournament progressed. It remains to be seen if their play will be more akin to their controlled victory over England or the more flaboyant crushing of Scotland.
The centre partnership still needs a lot of work but there were signs against Scotland that they were finally starting to click. Sexton’s poor game against Wales will have the Irish camp worried about the lack of cover at 10. The trio of Keatley, Maddigan and Jackson should be busy in the warm-up games.
Jonny Sexton – crucial to Ireland’s World Cup hopes
Ireland beat both of their main RWC Pool D rivals, France and Italy and possible Quarter-Final opponents Scotland. Having clinched back to back titles they’ll be in confident mood. The fact they’ve never made a RWC Semi-Final will probably mean that England are seen as a bigger threat. Joe Schmidt will want to set that record straight as Ireland focus on progress as opposed to collecting scalps.
England – Second
England really brought their attacking game to a new level during this year’s tournament. This was mainly enforced due to injuries in key positions. The absence of kicking machine Owen Farrell meant that the more attack-minded George Ford got to stake his claim for the number 10 jersey and boy did he take it with both hands. Again Joseph was only included due to Tuilagi’s injury but he ended up as player of the tournament.
George Ford – offers more to England in attack
Billy Vunipola’s return in such good form will be a real boost ahead of the RWC. England need a settled back row and along with Robshaw two spots look nailed on. Haskell’s patchy form will be more of a worry and we may see other options explored. Overall Lancaster will be pleased by the strength in depth that they’ve developed this year.
Despite Stuart Lancaster playing down the significance of their win in Cardiff they laid down a real marker for the RWC Pool of death. Whoever loses their clash on September 26th will face the prospect of having to beat Australia just to stay in the competition.
As the hosts I get the feeling that anything shy of a place in the Final will be seen as a failure for this England team. If they do go out early what is currently being described as a stirling effort that fell just short will be re-spun as just another failure in a catalogue of failures by the ruthless English press.
Wales – Third
Wales had to come from behind right from the off following their opening game defeat to England. Their defensive display against Ireland will really please Sean Edwards. They grew as the tournament went on and this may be down to Gatland’s decision to focus on the players’ fitness. They seemed to be just as full of running in the final ten minutes against Italy as they were in the first ten.
In Dan Biggar and Rhys Webb they’ve found their RWC halfback partnership. Webb brought a freshness and a zip to the Welsh play while Biggar provided direction and a will to attack space. The injection of new blood in the form of the likes of Liam Williams, Scott Baldwin and Samson Lee has really breathed new life into a squad that was becoming quite stale.
Rhys Webb – maintains a high tempo
The defeat to RWC opponents England will certainly be a set back but there’s been a tit for tat going on between the two where defeats have inspired the losers to claim revenge in the following fixture. With the added motivation of doing it at Rugby HQ during a World Cup their pool clash is shaping up to be a cracker. The variety of performances that secured their wins over France, Ireland and Italy shows they are improving in multiple areas.
Gatland will focus on getting out of the Pool first and worry about the knockout stages later. To do that I suspect they may have to finally put an end to Australia’s winning streak against the principality that stretches back to November 2008.
France – Fourth
France got progressively worse as the tournament went on. Until the final round they had one area that could be said to be a positive, their defence. That went in a major way as they conceded 55 points against England. Yes, they showed some of the old French flair but they were just punctuation marks between periods of terrible play that saw England run riot.
Philippe Saint-André’s obsession with picking big men running straight at the opposition has seen the likes of Fofana, Fickou, Huget and Dulin under-utilised. His pack are not as formidable as they once were but when they’re on song they can still deliver a performance. What price for them to deliver a typical one-off out of the blue performance against the defending champions in a Quarter-Final?
Wesley Fofana – how we miss your dancing feet
The defeat in Dublin won’t have a major effect as I still don’t think that France fear Ireland. They’ve too good a record against them to not think they’ve a decent chance in a neutral venue. Traveling Irish support may make it anything but neutral but it still won’t be the Aviva Stadium.
I pity anyone who has to review the pool of vomit that was their clash with Italy ahead of a rematch in Pool D. It’s unlikely Saint-André will be offered a new contract if France don’t win the RWC and he’s likely to step aside and bask in the glory if they do.
Italy – Fifth
Italy got their one win against Scotland and seemed to have been still celebrating in the final two round. If they’re to make any progress in the team they’ll need to set their sights higher and maintain focus for the entire competition. It doesn’t help that they only have two professional teams and both have been in terrible form this season. That’s not likely to change anytime soon though.
Kelly Haimona – disappointed after a decent November
Brunel would have been very disappointed with the performance of Kelly Haimona at outhalf having showed such promise in November. His goal kicking was truly terrible and for a team that doesn’t get a chance to score that many points it was a real handicap. The fact that Tomaso Allan got injured when he finally decided to change the helmsman didn’t help with building towards the RWC. In the pack they can’t keep relying on Parisse to drag those around him up by their boot laces.
The ease with which Pool D opponents Ireland and France beat them will be a real worry. The fact that France performed so badly in Rome and still won 29-0 will be doubly so. Brunel is staring down the barrel of an early RWC exit but one gets the impression that he won’t be too sorry to head back to France and let someone else have a crack at solving Italy’s multiple problems.
Scotland – Wooden Spoon
The campaign started in such high spirits for the Scots. They had a new coach on board in Vern Cotter and they’d had a decent November in the context of their form in recent years. The performance in Paris would have reinforced their optimism. But then their inability to beat both Wales and especially Italy in games they should have won showed they still had a long way to go. They did get a performance in Twickenham but the fact that no one thought they’d get a result there is indicative of the current mindset.
Stuart Hogg – a few more like him and Scotland would be a decent team
Stuart Hogg has established himself as a star in the test arena in the last year. If only Cotter had a few more like him he might be talking about good results as opposed to good performances. There are signs that Scotland are improving, their lineout was one of the best in the competition where the Gray brothers combined well before Richie was injured. Jonny has emerged from his brother’s rather large shadow this year.
Scotland didn’t face any RWC Pool opponents during the course of the tournament but they would have wanted to get a couple of wins to build confidence. The signs are there that Cotter is improving the performance and ambitions of the Scots but it remains to be see if they can make sufficient improvement before September.
