Mens Six Nations 2022 Round 1

The M6N is back and so are the crowds. But Covid is still here and affecting the coaches and the build up to the matches. It’s going to be an interesting year.

On to the match reports.

Ireland v Wales

Wales have a side decimated by injury and filled with players who would normally be third, fourth or fifth choice. Honestly I was worried before the match they’d ship 40, so I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Ireland looked on top of their game, Wales were soundly beaten and have a lot to work on but they have positives to take out of the game - they kept scrambling and making their tackles - they completed 89% of 209 tackles which is perfectly OK, 95% of rucks and so on.

Their problem was they were playing a better team, with both more cohesion as a team and much more experience of test rugby. Ireland are really at the top of their game (however boring I find it to watch) and they executed it well. We know, when they do that, they’re capable of beating the All Blacks and a weakened Wales side was never going to challenge them.

Basham looks to be the real deal, Wales have a second row that functions without AWJ, LRZ looked better defensively than he has in any game so far. We were being told how world-class the Irish pack is, and against the replacements they looked it. But for 60 minutes or so, it was pretty even-steven, at least in the scrum. That’s not a bad thing to see. Adams is not a centre, he didn’t look terrible but he looked ordinary. Once he was able to play on the wing he looked like a star again. Wales will improve, Ireland really don’t need to.

England v Scotland

Even before the weekend this looked like the one to watch and so it proved. Scotland beat England last year, but haven’t beaten them back-to-back for 40 years, give or take. England are rebuilding after last year and finally have unleashed some of the youngsters the public have been crying out for. We don’t really know what their identify will be but we hope it will be more dynamic. Scotland have started to work out how to play around Russell and support his flair, but he’s also worked out how to tone that down and play some structured rugby when it’s needed. They’ve also taken the defensive structures that have been in place and built on that, making it hard to score against them.

This was quite a ding-dong battle, back and forth. Smith played mostly within himself, which seems to be what Jones expects of him, but directed the traffic and took the opportunity that presented itself to score a try that shows he’s still got that individual flair. Scotland were certainly not intimidated and this could have been, with the utmost of respect to all involved, a Wales v England match in one of Gatland’s Grand Slam years, with them going toe-to-toe and slugging it out - not the way we really expect Scotland to play but encouraging to see. Scotland played with heart and flair of their own. They thoroughly deserved to win. I’m not going to pick out individuals because it felt like a team effort.

For England though, a few thoughts. Itoje was a nebbish - the only times I heard his name mentioned, until almost the final play, were negatively. He was a net negative on England’s game and although I don’t like him, it was shocking to see. Maybe he was doing a lot off the ball that didn’t get called out, but he normally contributes more, both positive and some negative than that. The back row overall looked outplayed and given I thought Simmonds was a positive on the match that looks really bad for 6 and 7. I don’t even remember who they were! (After checking that might not be entirely fair, I remembered who they were with prompting, but I remembered all the Scottish backrow without and their stats looked better too.) Smith looked good and while I’m sure Jones had a reason to hook him with 15 minutes or so to go, England went down after he left. It’s impossible to say that cost them the game but it seemed to deflate England and inspire Scotland and that can certainly make a difference. England’s discipline seemed poor. It’s really easy to point at LCD and say his slapping the ball into touch for a penalty try and yellow card was just dumb and the turning point. Certainly dumb, certainly a big influence, but the penalty count overall seemed high and too many of the penalties were just dumb. There’s a count that is just inevitable - scrums going down, the odd offside when they’re rampant in attack, a number of not rolling away when you’re just caught on the wrong side. It’s why coaches aim to keep the penalty count under 10 instead of under 5 or some lower value. But if England are going to bounce back and compete this year, they need to improve here.

France v Italy

This was, to use an old cliché, a game of two halves. Those halves were determined largely by the weather. France didn’t appear to adjust how they wanted to play, and in the first half it was raining, sometimes pouring down, in the second half it wasn’t. They tried to play dry weather, attractive rugby and the passes didn’t stick, the ball got spilt and, except for one try that would have been glorious in the dry, was truly insanely magnificent in the wet, couldn’t keep the ball for long enough to build the pressure. In the second half, once the grass was a bit drier as well, they were irresistible. They racked up three tries in that second half and looked good value for it.

Italy have improved. Their defence is not tier one but, unlike last year, it is structured, organised and they work for each other. France were able to build the pressure and beat it. They scored a beautiful try off ball France spilled, one any nation would have been proud of, and threatened at other times, only being held out by a defence that has had three years working under Shaun Edwards. The only thing to see will be how Wales’ babies do against it this year. But, like Wales Babies, this is an incredibly young side and come 2027 they should be targeting a RWC QF spot. They might not get it, depending on the luck of their draw - in Japan NZ and SA were in the same pool for example, they wouldn’t qualify out of that pool - but in a decent pool they could qualify for the QF.

Happy Coaches

Townsend has to be top of this list. I don’t think you can say it was an upset, it was a tough call before the game, whereas the other two results were all too predictable (even if in my heart I hoped for Wales to pull off an upset).

I think it’s hard to choose between Farrell and Galthié. Ireland played better at first look but France seemed to play to the plan and once the weather let them execute the plan, they looked good. How do you choose between those situations? I’m going to put Galthié a smidgeon ahead. Teddy Thomas, who he? Villiere grabbed a hat trick in the rain and looked like another one for the ages. Just what the rest of the world needs to see, another really potent French winger who doesn’t drift off into his own world.

Of the losing coaches, I think Crowley and Pivac will be more or less on a par. Italy have clearly improved, still have clear areas in which to improve but that’s OK. Wales are nothing like the team of last year, but they have nothing like the players of last year either. Pivac is probably looking for a small number of these players to be fringe players in next year’s RWC and the rest to gain experience for 2024 and beyond. They’re doing that. He’s learnt Adams is not a centre (I’m not sure why he thought he might be tbh) and he’s learnt Balham is holding his hand up. I saw one or two others who weren’t disgraced. They definitely aren’t up to pace yet, but they didn’t look out of place on a test pitch early in their career.

Then we have Jones. You would think he should be the happiest of the losing coaches but actually he’s got real issues. Lingering discipline issues, too many established players not playing well and not contributing.

Predictions

1. Wales v Scotland. While I think Wales will improve, and I think Scotland will not be as charged up to beat Wales as they were to beat England, Scotland have arrived, Wales are still full of youngsters. This could be a banana skin, but my head says Scotland.
2. France v Ireland. Ireland started with a bang, full on. France didn’t, but played themselves into the game. Can Ireland maintain it, and play that well against what should be a hostile crowd, at least at first? Can France play as they did in the dry against Italy? I don’t particularly trust seven day forecasts for Paris, but it says cold, dry and probably not bright by that time in the evening. That should help the French. This match probably decides the championship (it’s never all over, but probably). Allez les Bleus!
3. Italy v England. England are not playing in a cohesive manner and are trying to sort out their identity. Italy know their identity but they have no old heads to pull them together and help. While I would love Italy to beat England, I just can’t see it. I can see England failing to get a bonus point though. They’re not organised enough yet.