Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

I don’t normally editorialise about the games in this introduction but Saturday’s matches were both compelling to watch, at least live, yet completely different. Sunday’s match didn’t quite live up to the Saturday matches, although it was still interesting in its own way. The Matches England v Ireland The first ten minutes or so of this game looked edgy and nervous, both sides making silly mistakes. Then England started passing better, catching the ball and boom; fourteen tries later, the final whistle blew and if you don’t like blow out results this match was finally sent to its rest. But if you enjoy watching flowing, attacking rugby, this was a pretty game. Even as a Welsh fan I can acknowledge that. I just wish it wasn’t England producing it. Speaking with my Welsh hat on, I have to wonder what happened to the Ireland side from last week. They were brave, aggressive on both sides of the ball and committed against us. This week they hardly showed up, for 78 minutes a bunch of peop...

With various things (like what passes for a real life) going on, and an inability to tell the time, I watched these matches late and off recordings rather than live. I also knew the first two results before I watched the matches, which has possibly skewed my thoughts a bit. The Matches Scotland v England England are still adjusting to their new systems a bit, and were missing a few of their more experienced players. In the first half it was hard to tell whether Scotland were defending better than we’d ever seen or England were suffering because of the loss of the older heads and just not quite focussed. In the second half it became apparent it was the latter. Mitchell was able to grab the team, shake them by the scruff of the neck and get them to go out and fight. They put 30 (strictly 29) on the Scots and it looked far more comfortable. Scotland have come a fair way since last year, but they still have a fair way to go. England are changing game plans, coaches and personnel, but ar...

Last week we had an interesting opening round, with France looking more like a group of strangers than a team, Wales just losing to Scotland on a heart-breaking last second missed conversion, and England looking very ordinary for the first half. This week, we’re looking for improvements for lots of those sides, plus looking to see how much Italy bounce back after being totally repressed by England, even when they weren’t playing well. The Matches Scotland v France Last week we saw solid defence and a rather one-dimensional attack from Scotland, while France were rather chaotic but far too good for Ireland. I am starting there because France closed down the Scottish attack line from last week, giving up their only try to ongoing pressure close to the line, but in attack they were awful - they did enough to win, and some of their blown chances were down to inspired Scottish defence, but some were down to just plain bad French skills and alignment. However, where last week the Scottis...