Men's Six Nations 2022, Round Five

Wales v Italy

It’s fair to say that not many people expected Italy to win this. Even though they’ve been improving all through the championship, so have Wales, and Wales are in a better place than Italy aren’t they?

Italy’s defence looked much sharper than we’d seen before. Was that the case or was it Welsh attacking frailties making it look good? The Italian kick and chase game looked much sharper too, without hours of analysis it’s hard to be sure exactly why. Was it that the chase was better? Were the kicks better directed? Or a better distance? Was there better communication so the chasers just knew where to go and arrived in better order? Some combination of two or more of these?

The second half made it look as if it might have been improved Italian defence cramping the Welsh attack, as Wales racked up two tries and if not for a call of “on-field no try” would have got a fourth. But they could never pull away and as much as it pains me to say it, Wales' last kick from hand had a poor chase (probably the only one of the game). Italy ran it back, snuck round the edge and scored a wonderful try under the posts. Garbisi converted, Italy won for the first time since 2015. Brian Moore is fond of saying there is no such thing as deserving to win a match but I think a lot of neutrals and, if they’re honest (or once they recover from the pain) a lot of Welsh fans will say Italy deserved this.

Wales have still improved over this campaign, arguably should have beaten England, France and Italy. Their defensive system is keeping them in matches it probably shouldn’t. When their attacking system clicks, it’s very nice too, but it doesn’t click often enough to win them matches that they should, let alone matches they are being kept in by their defence. Something needs to change there.

Italy though, their win doesn’t mean they’re on for a grand slam next year, or even winning a match next year necessarily, although I wouldn’t bet against it. It does, however, cap off a championship where they’ve been improving game by game, with the ultimately most important improvement of all.

Ireland v Scotland

This was the match that really had potential to matter but might not. It wasn’t quite a Schrodinger's Cat situation if Ireland won, they won a Triple Crown and applied pressure to France, but unless they lost, it just meant France had to win the Grand Slam we all expected them to in order to win the championship.

The first ten minutes it looked like the France of old had infected both sides. There was plenty of jouer, jouer, defence was pretty optional, but the skill levels weren’t there either, and neither were the points. Then Sexton remembered he’s old and plays a control game, Ireland imposed some order and… although it wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been, Ireland just relentlessly pulled away.

Are Ireland the second best team in the 6N? Yes, this year, for sure. But France and Wales are clearly getting better, Wales will be more of a threat next year. Italy are too, but are probably not going to be quite there until after 2023. I haven’t seen Ireland improve over this 6N and I’m not sure they’re building to next autumn?

France v England

This really was the big match, saving the most important until last. A French win secures their first Grand Slam for twelve years (Wales have won the Grand Slam twice and the 6N twice more between French victories) but England have had a knack of just pipping the French in recent years…

Honestly, this match should have been over as a contest after about 30 minutes. Not because of a card or anything (although I think Nowell was lucky not to see yellow) but France dropped four passes that they should have caught with players in wide open positions. Two of those were gilt-edged tries, but for the butter fingers, the way this French team plays, two clean line breaks like that is probably two more tries. Do England really come back if they concede five tries in the first 30 minutes? Against that defence? Not a chance.

(Although this isn’t about Wales, you want to know the difference in quality between the two sides right now? They both dropped four passes for scoring opportunities in the first half. France were good enough to go on and win anyway…)

For long periods of play, France kept England at arms reach from their half, from the ball, from any scoring opportunities at all. England picked up off penalties, scored a nice try, but never really exerted enough pressure for me, as a neutral, to believe they could win. The French crowd might have got nervous, the French play briefly dipped in quality, but it was brief and when in the post-match interview Lawes said “the French players ran out of energy” it seemed more like something Jones had told the team to look for than something that had happened. From the outside at least it looked far more like they realised they were going to win and took theirs off actually playing for a minute until someone, Dupont I think, metaphorically grabbed them by the neck and shook some sense into them. They certainly finished the stronger of the two sides, not what you’d expect if they were overly fatigued.

Congratulations to France who lived up to their favourites tag and delivered.

Next year is their hard year, away to Ireland and England, but with no injuries it could be a case of two come along back-to-back…

Happy Coaches

I’m doing two lists of these, one for the week, one for the whole tournament.

Round five

Crowley has to be at the top. Italy’s first win in seven years. Forget all the caveats, all the ifs and buts, the end of that long drought is huge for Italian rugby.

Galthié. A longer drought, 12 years since the last slam for France, but this was a victory everyone expected. More the happiness of a job well done purely on a week-to-week basis.

Farrell. Ireland did everything they could to make it harder for France and, except for that first ten minutes, played well throughout for the first time in three games.

Jones and Townsend it’s hard to separate. Neither side looked like winning and neither side did. England didn’t stay close because of the quality of their defence but because of French nerves in the opening quarter and still got outscored three tries to one.

Pivac dead last. For the second time this tournament his side have outscored their opponents three tries to one, a testament to their defence, but lost. This time they lost to Italy…

Tournament overall

Galthié, of course. The slam was the French goal, yes, but they delivered in style. The match against Wales tested them in one way, the match today tested them in another. Both are great preparation for both the opening match of RWC 2023, but also a final that it’s looking more and more likely they should reach, and win.

Pivac second. Yes, Wales started and ended poorly and only actually won one match. But, barring the Italy match, they clearly improved over the tournament and while that stumble is embarrassing, stumbles as you’re rebuilding are inevitable. They were also the only side to limit the French in any real way and genuinely look like they had a chance to win. There, but for a couple of dropped passes, went the grand slam. There are clear positives and clear things to work on for Pivac, but those lessons are easy to identify if not necessarily easy to implement.

Crowley next. In the same way that Galthié has been building this impressive, young French team, so has Crowley been building his much younger Italian team. They finally paid off with a win. Internally I’m sure they could see their improvement and feel it, but nothing feels better than a win in sport, so the building for the years ahead just got so much easier. They too have clear lessons to work on. Possibly a longer plan than Pivac, but the plan is clearly working.

Farrell in fourth. While I have my doubts about the ability of the Irish to get passed the QF next autumn, Ireland won the Triple Crown, lost fairly narrowly to France and more good things. Apart from beating the French on the scoreboard they did everything they could.

Jones next. He rebuilt his team after last year. It did better - ok, it did better to some extent because Wales didn’t rack up a BP victory against Italy as everyone expected and Ireland did them a solid by stuffing the Scots but it also showed resilience against Ireland so there’s a core of pride there. The advancement we saw with Wales is not as clear for England and that has to be of concern, which is why they’re so much lower.

Townsend last. Scotland started this tournament full of promise and seemed to live up to that promise, beating England, getting back-to-back victories for the first time in years. They rolled into Cardiff full of confidence and were sent homewards, tae think again. But they never recovered from that…