The 2015 Six Nations came to an end at the weekend with an unbelievable day full of tension, drama and tries. Let’s take a look back on the tournament and revisit some of the highlights.
Kicking and Concussion
The earlier rounds of this years championship weren’t much to write home about and considering how many players left the field for concussion tests many of them may not have remembered enough to pen a missive to the folks anyway.
The tournament started off with a Friday night game in Cardiff where England got a measure of revenge for their 2013 mauling. The main focus after the game though was how George North was allowed to see out the game having received not one but two heavy blows to the head and appearing to be clearly concussed.
Mike Brown – one of many concussions suffered this year
As the Championship continued through rounds two and three the talk was about the number of kicks from hand. Ireland led the table with three wins based on a game plan of kicking and then retaining possession. It looked at that stage as if we’d returned to 2007 where if you didn’t kick you couldn’t be successful.
Round four brought us a glimmer of hope with Wales’ win over the Irish. It started with Wales dominating an early aerial battle and finished with a massive defensive display. Sandwiched in between was some clinical points scoring from the Welsh.
Wales celebrate a victory over Ireland that made it a three horse race
The Irish might have won if they hadn’t been so narrow in attack but at least we’d had a game that stood above the mediocrity of those that had come before. In addition the result made the Championship a three-way fight and laid the foundations for Super Saturday. We also had the Italy v France game, the most turgid game I can remember seeing in a long time, so the less said about that the better.
Super Saturday
Nothing could have prepared the fans for what took place on Saturday. This year’s Championship was shaping up to be the worst in a very long time with too many forgettable games. Then Wales set in motion a chain reaction that set the final day alight.
Wales went into their game against Italy knowing that a 25-point win would put them in the mix for the title. There wasn’t much prospect of that with a half time score of 14-13. The Irish and English fans and pundits were beginning to think it had already become a two horse race.
Then Wales produced the most incredible second half performance of attacking rugby I’d seen in many a year. They scored seven tries and an amazing 47 points in just 27 minutes. They were back in the title hunt but the game had one final piece of drama to serve up. Sarto scored a long range effort in the last minute to cut Wales’ points differential. 81 points in the game, well over double the average of the preceding twelve fixtures (37), with only the heart rate of the watching fans higher.
George North – got in on the scoring in Rome with a hat trick in just ten minutes
On we moved to game two and Ireland. Wales’ incredible haul meant that they had to win by 21 points or more at Murrayfield. Surely the conservative Irish, who’d only scored four tries in their four games, would look to build a score through penalties.
The Rugby Gods had other ideas and we were off to a flier with Ireland scoring the first try after just four minutes. Three more tries and a total of 40 points were to follow over the course of the rest of the game as the Irish hunted down the Welsh total with an attacking display that many had wondered if they were capable of.
A couple of uncharacteristic misses from the tee, from Sexton, made Irish hearts skip a beat when they were just a single point shy of the Welsh. They finished with a flourish though and overtook the Welsh by 10 points but not before surviving a last minute scare as Heaslip’s challenge prevented Hogg scoring in the corner.
The Irish then had to sweat through the England-France game. England needed to win by 26 points to pip the Irish to the title. Since it had already struck twice, lightning decided it may as well strike thrice and we had an electric contest to complement the electric atmosphere across Ireland and the UK.
Ireland – the champions faced a tense wait to see if it England would deny them
Ben Youngs got the scoring underway with a try within a minute of the kickoff. Glancing at the halftime score, 27-15, you could be forgiven in thinking it was a final score. But there was more to come as the English showed the attacking ability they’d threatened to unleash in earlier rounds and the French stubbornly refused to lie down. The margin see-sawed as they traded tries. One minute it looked like a certainty England would go on to claim the title, only for France to respond and peg them back yet again.
The final minutes saw England pushing for the final try that would clinch it for them. They lost the ball to the French as the time went into the red numbers and all of Ireland breathed a sigh of relieve.
Too early though, the tournament wasn’t done handing out heart attacks, the French decided to try to run the ball from their own line. Surely England would turn them over or win a penalty and get the try they needed. But no, they recycled the ball and Rory Kockott decided to kick it out ending the game and starting the Irish celebrations.
On a day when Rugby truly was the winner all three title contenders can be proud of their efforts.
Next we have a look at how each team fared and what shape they’re in for the Rugby World Cup.
