Men's Six Nations 2023, Week 3

The middle weekend and chaos on and off the pitch. While it’s not all settled yet, the WRU and the players reached an understanding that averted a strike as late as Wednesday evening, and given Wales were playing England, probably the most eye-catching matchup beforehand, that earned a sigh of relief around the world.

On to the matches.

Italy v Ireland

If you had said before hand that Ireland would be counting themselves as lucky to have won by 14 points, possibly lucky to have won at all, I think everyone would have laughed in your face. But with ten minutes to go, Ireland were seven points up and Italy were pressing the attack. Ultimately it broke down thanks to a tackle making a kick go astray, minutes later Hansen scored an intercept try and Ireland walked away with a flattering 14 point margin of victory.

Italy played fluently and excitingly in attack. They opened up the much vaunted Irish attack on numerous occasions and have showed others a weakness in the green defensive system. Of course the Irish will look to correct that, but that just opens up other gaps.

Now, Italy still have problems. Their defensive systems have got better, and we have to remember they were playing the current number one side in the world, but Ireland scored far too easily on turnover ball. That said their scramble defence saved two tries, so you can argue they’re improving, but there’s still work to do. The same is true in attack but they’re much further along that journey.

Ireland look pretty nailed on for the grand slam, Italy look scarily good - they have Wales then Scotland and will give them both a real run for their money.

Wales v England

If the previous match was full of joy, this match is best summed up as “it was not lost by the least incompetent side.”

That summary is pretty fair. Wales have improved, particularly in defence and in some aspects of their attack, but many of the same old aspects of their problems are there. After a line break or a turnover, the support players are too slow and so the opposition get more players there leading to turnovers, penalties or, at best, a well-set defensive line and the opportunity being blown. Here’s at least one reason Wales create chances and don’t finish them. They did that again. The Welsh lineout was better but it failed at critical moments, again.

However, Wales did look better at times, and their defence looked better. While they’re not going to use it as an excuse, the disruption of the the last week or so almost certainly didn’t help. Some improvement, which was there is a positive. Maybe we’ll see more if there’s less talk of strikes and more attention on the attack system?

England were hardly better. Ireland and Scotland comfortably racked up bonus point wins and lots of tries. England barely scratched out enough points to leave Wales outside losing bonus point range in the last few minutes with their only try. You can argue that they applied pressure on Wales and, when there was a mistake, they pounced and scored a try. That is really the story of how they scored, but begs the question of why they scored so little? The problem is that Wales didn’t make that many mistakes, recovered well defensively most times when they did, and England never showed anything else. Creativity in attack? Absent. Farrell missed a lot of kicks, but he also failed to make the backs fire at all. Sure, good enough to beat the also struggling Wales, but England have France then Ireland remaining and they haven’t shown enough to suggest anything except a sound defeat is on the boards.

France v Scotland

This was an odd match. There was a super hectic start with two French tries and a red card for each side in the opening 15 minutes. The first half remained harum-scarum, and you could reasonably sum it up as both Scotland were unlucky not to be level at 19-19 or thereabouts, but also France were super unlucky not to be 26-12 up (they actually scored from a quick line out, but the ball went into touch about six seconds after time was up in the first half). While those summaries contradict each other, the fact you could legitimately use either really shows just how hectic it was.

The second half was largely as intense and, while the scoring was not a helter-skelter, there were periods of crazy offloads and tap tackles, the stars going out and working their magic. The second half, despite the intensity, also had moments where it seemed slower than the first, or perhaps it’s fairer to say more spacious. The forwards on both sides, having been down a flanker since roughly the tenth minute, got tired and took periods of rest. That’s not to be critical, the game was played at pace and fatigue among the forwards was always going to be an issue. It was just odd to see that it seemed to happen collectively and simultaneously.

As a neutral this was a fun match to watch. There were a lot of incidents, with a huge impact and Nika Amashukeli, the referee, had a great game. He handled the players and all the big incidents correctly and calmly, with good communication as well. There were odd mistakes, sure, but they were few and far between and at a level that they were just meh, ok.

Happy Coaches

Crowley. Honestly, while there’s stuff to work on, Italy looked so good for so much of this match, they went out and played and took it to the Irish fearlessly and for the full 80 minutes. Crowley must be both proud and delighted with what he saw.

Farrell saw a chunk of things to be proud of but an approximately equal number to worry him. The scrum was shaky, the defence was opened up far too easily far too often, and the attack was broken down too often as well. I’m not saying he’ll be worried but not truly happy despite the win.

Galthié. Honestly I could repeat the outline of the text from Farrell, although the details would be wrong. You have to think Hoauas has played his last game for France unless someone starts shooting all their THPs. There are a bunch of stars who keep performing, Dupont and Penaud at almost unbelievable levels, but a whole cluster of them at “best in the world” standard. There are questions though. They look so much better with Jalibert than Ntmack, will they make that change? Who backs up in a host of positions? But it was a decent enough performance.

I hemmed and hawed about this, but Townsend above Borthwick. Scotland might not be winning against the teams above them on the rankings, but they’re playing good rugby. There are things to work on for sure but there are a lot of positives to use as well to build on the strengths.

Borthwick. There is a lot wrong with England still but at least it was a win. Honestly, I think they’ve gone backwards since two weeks ago, but they got that W and the conference that comes from that.

Gatland. I considered putting him higher up. Wales have had a shocking week for off-pitch issues, showed improvement on the pitch so while they lost this wasn’t a disaster. The big issue is that everyone can easily look at the issues and say “look, that” and, for whatever reason, the mistakes are continuing. Maybe there are enough other problems that these have been left. The improvements we’re seeing were deemed more critical and have been worked on first. However, losing at home to England, only scoring from an interception, the attack needs to click soon. That drags him down.

Next Round

Another fallow week of course. Then we have:

Italy v Wales

Honestly I can’t see Wales winning this after this weekend. I always hope but I can’t really see it. However, if Wales continues to improve this could be the closest match of the weekend. That’s more a case that Italy are still the worst of the three sides I expect to win, and Wales can defend and that is getting better faster than their attack.

England v France

Likewise, I can’t see England winning this. France are not firing at full effect in this 6N but they are better, on both sides of the ball, than England and should rack up a big score. England’s attack lacks creativity and the Edwards defence for Wales and France has usually restricted it even in better times for the lily-white boys. England have a long history of beating France at Twickenham, but I don’t see it lasting another fortnight.

Scotland v Ireland

I think Ireland will be just to strong. Scotland scared France before succumbing, but Ireland are currently a level above anyone else. I hope Scotland raise their game and win, it will make the final round of games more interesting with France and Ireland fighting it out for the championship as well granting Scotland the Triple Crown, but I just can’t see it I’m afraid.