Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

We’ve really got the tone of this year's championship sorted out. Ireland are woeful, Wales, Scotland and Italy (probably in that order, but still tbd) are clearly improved from last year but 12+ months of professionalism is not enough to catch up with 5+ years. France and England (order also tbd but that’s my guess) are still the dominant forces in the NH. Really, before they started, only one match this weekend mattered, Scotland v Italy, but France v Wales will also show a bit more about Welsh progress and resilience - how will they bounce back after the disappointment of the last 60 minutes of last week? Match Reports Ireland v England When England scored after two minutes I was amusing myself working out what the projected final score was if they kept that rate up (135-0 if you’re interested). Obviously that’s unreasonable, but 27-0 at halftime was based off a pretty poor England performance. Conversions were one from five. Penalty kicks for touch were missed - that s on ki...

Wales v England This was not a battle between equals. This was the world number 1 vs the world number 8, and while the points difference on the rankings is of questionable utility and you really can’t compare across the men’s and women’s, if you did that, England's women would be 3 points clear of Ireland and Wales women would be in 14th place… that might be a better indicator of the gulf between them at the moment than first v eighth. So, when for the first 20 minutes Wales dominated England in every aspect of the game, even leading on the scoreboard, that was notable. Wales continued to be competitive at the scrum and breakdown essentially throughout the game, and patches where the asserted their game plan in other areas too, although they were never really for long enough. The difference between the two was mostly the backs, where England have a load of really experienced players, Wales have a few. However, over time, the extra years of professional experience all round showe...

Having set the scene last week, straight into the match reports. Ireland v France This was another game where the weather, the wind to be precise, played a huge part. So did the dominance of the French over the Irish. So did the ref. Hang on, so far this is sounding the same as last week’s write-up involving Ireland! Well some of that is deliberate of course, and while those are the talking points, they’re phrased a bit misleadingly to emphasise the similarities. The wind was probably similar in strength, and really seemed to mess up the French goal kicking at first (I think it was actually just a bad day with the boot for Bourdon), but it had less impact on France overall than Wales because they didn’t rely on their set piece as much as Wales, running the ball from anywhere (more on that later). Overall, certainly in the loose, the French ran riot. It wasn’t only the backs, although they got most of the tries; the French forwards were enjoying running around too. At times, in the...

If I thought season one of Shadow and Bone was ambitious, shoving two books into one, season two mixes in parts of three and plays with the plot from the original material too. We can all think of shows that have tried that and struggled, if not fallen flat on their faces. Equally, there are shows that have made a success of that - adapting a story requires changes for the medium, yes, but in the case of TV for the episode and season length too. Fortunately Shadow and Bone fits into the second group. There are some changes that we'll have to see how they play out but, by and large, they within this season. The characters remain recognisably the characters we had in the books (sometimes that’s not great, Bardugo was learning her craft when she wrote Shadow and Bone the series, particularly the first book, and it shows if you look at the books she wrote later and the characters in them) but, at the same time, in some ways it is good - we’ve got a lot going on here, fairly simpl...

This year I’d the first year we’ve got every nation with some level of professionalism. Even sides like Wales, which could be fully professional, are going through a transition stage, with some of their players not willing or able to swap to the professional contracts, so it will probably be a number of years until we’ve got a fully professional elite women's game, but we’re definitely moving that way. We’re also seeing a lot of teams in transition as players retire after last years RWC, coaching teams are changed too, and there are the inevitable injuries, perhaps made somewhat worse than usual by the RWC - several teams were missing players from injuries sustained in New Zealand. On to the games. Wales v Ireland This was a game characterised by three things really. Physically the Welsh, particularly the forwards, but honestly all over the pitch were just bigger and stronger than their opponents. The first scrum went back like they’d packed against a scrum machine but there w...

As usual, I’m going to pick my team of the tournament with a few simple guidelines I pick by units, not individuals. It will be the whole Welsh front row (ha, not this year) for example, rather than a French tighthead, an Italian hooker and a Scottish loosehead. I pick players who have played the vast majority of the games, at least four, and while I might bend the rules in the front row, played really means started them. (Because front row players are often subbed so close to half time I’m happier about bending the rules there.) This year, we have a Grand Slam winner, so I will default to picking them, if they satisfy rules one and two, unless there’s a compelling reason not to. Whoever they faced, head to head, they did enough for their team to be better on the day. However, picking Irish players in all the positions has a problem. Ireland rotated a load of players for their game against Italy. Then their game against Scotland looked more like a battlefield than a rugby match -...

So, the final round of games and we have to see if Scotland have strength in depth, if Wales have improved over the championship in a really tough test and whether France or Ireland will win the title this year. Scotland v Italy This was world number 5 against the world number 14. On paper, it’s no contest. But Scotland were missing their first choices locks, both of them, and their first choice 10 and 15. That’s a lot of experience and playmaking to be missing. Despite that, Scotland ran out what the scoreboard will tell you is comfortable winners. A 26-14 bonus point win is comfortable, right? Yes, except Scotland nicked the ball with the clock in the red and Italy about 3m from their try line, then ran the length of the pitch to stretch it out to a 12-point margin of victory and score the fourth try. If that hadn’t happened, if Italy had scored instead as they were threatening to do, this would be a very different write up. As a neutral I’m not sure that Italy winning would have...