The opening weekend of the 2011 Six-Nations Championship went according to plan, despite ample opportunity for the ‘customary’ upsets. England, with a number of injury-enforced changes, could easily have come unstuck in Cardiff, but prevailed. Ireland, riddled with injuries, made awfully hard work of it, but sneaked a win in the final minutes over Italy. France ‘decided’ on the quality performance for this week – it would be a nightmare to coach them – and were too good for a committed Scotland in Paris.
England travelled to the Millennium Stadium without their captain, Lewis Moody, and their key lineout men, Tom Croft and Courtney Lawes. Wales also were hampered by injuries to their three first-choice props and this proved most significant as the England scrum soon got on top and benefitted from their pressure. The two first scrums of the match saw referee, Alain Rolland, rule against England, first for an early shove and then for Dylan Hartley ‘coming out the top’ of the scrum.
I question this propensity, on the part of Hartley, a few weeks back and was pleased to think that the ref agreed, but I was too quick to draw the conclusion. Despite numerous repeats from Hartley, it was strange that Rolland did not penalise him again for this offence. These two early penalties – the second was against Andrew Sheridan for ‘in from the side’ – gave Wales considerable early opportunity, but both attempts failed; the first by James Hook was ‘not difficult’ and the second by Stephen Jones was ‘easy’!
These misses were to prove costly; indeed Wales mounted considerable pressure on England for the opening ten minutes, but had nothing on the scoreboard for their effort. Then, to rub salt into the wounds, England made their first visit to the Welsh quarter and came away with a converted try to Ashton, courtesy of a scything break by man-of-the-match, Toby Flood. I’m not a fan of the currently popular histrionics from some try-scorers and I certainly Ashton’s ridiculous swan-dive. “Get your mind back on the job!”, I reckon.
England’s patched-up forward pack ‘did the job’; Wales had problems also, but could not cover them. That, and the indifferent goal-kicking from the Welsh, told the story. The England scrum was well on top from early in the match and their lineout, led by the most impressive Tom Palmer, was just as dominant. It is well neigh impossible to win a match at this level without at least parity in the set pieces, and it is to Wales credit that they stayed in touch. Indeed, in another time and place, they would have picked up the loosing bonus point!
Another feather in England’s cap, in my opinion, was in their team selection. They could not have envisaged three missing from the back-five in their pack, but intelligent selection made light of their problems, with both their lineout and back-row being significant contributors to the result. Wales on the other hand continue with Stephen Jones at fly-half when they have a potential Toby Flood of their own in James Hook. How much better did their attack look when Hook moved to fly-half with the substitution of Leigh Byrne into the fullback position? I don’t think that it will be long until we see this combination starting for Wales.
For England, Flood and Palmer were outstanding and, as has become the norm for them, their ‘back three’ of Foden, Cueto and Ashton were excellent. I remember that some years back, after selecting Tom Palmer in a Babas match, that “England must be well-served for locks, if they can omit Tom Palmer”.
For Wales, Bradley Davies looks a real find, but the attack looked much sharper – we even saw Jonathan Davies receive the ball – when Hook went to fly-half and Dwayne Peel replaced Mike Phillips.
In Rome, Ireland laboured to a last-minute win by 13 points to 11. The ease with which the Irish came back to set up the drop-goal by Ronan O’Gara, made a mockery of their efforts for the previous 77 minutes. The Irish, like Wales, are suffering from poor selection, notwithstanding their horror injury toll. I’ve always felt that form is the best guide for selection!
For Scotland, it was a good performance with no result. Still, all is a long way from lost. They continued their run of strong recent performances – not many teams score three tries in a Six-Nations match in Paris – but must continue to improve. More accuracy in their positional play in support – they arrive too flat and too wide – would go a long way to reducing their number of ‘bombed chances’. Richie Gray was outstanding, as was first-cap Joe Ansbro. Indeed, Ansbro is outstanding each time I see him!
France got their team selection right on this occasion, although, if we blink, that could change. The team looks miles better with Rougerie at centre, Bonnaire at flanker and Harinordiquy at No.8 – was the last-mentioned ever a difficult selection? Medart was always dangerous and was adjudged man-of-the-match, but my choice was loose-head prop Domingo. His ‘hands’ might let him down at times, but he sure can scrummage!
