Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

Every game this week has questions on the line. Can Wales finally win a game? Will Ireland rue their performance against France and have to settle for third or can Scotland upset them too? Can France finally defeat England? Wales v Italy In the first half this match was very much tit-for-tat. Italy would score and Wales would hit back. The difference between them was marginal, in all aspects of the game, Italy edged turnovers, Wales edged territory and set pieces, and thanks to slightly better kicking, the scoreboard 19-17. Then came the second half. It wasn’t quite one-way traffic, but Italy scored four tries before the Welsh replied. They scored one and were a bit unlucky not to score a second. Brian Moore always says you don’t deserve to score, but seven tries to five feels to me, as a biased Welsh fan, like a fairer reflection of the balance of the match. Italy were markedly better, but not that much better. Wales seem to have a weird problem. Overall their second halves have b...

Really there probably aren’t any interesting matches this week. England should sweep aside Italy in Parma, even on the road France should beat Scotland and whilst Wales are improving, Ireland at home are probably still a step too far. England v Italy England tried to make it interesting, with multiple changes to their tight five. Some were forced through injury, some were selection choices. In most aspects of the game it really didn’t seem to affect them. Italy scored a try from a driving maul, it’s debatable whether a more experienced group of forwards, familiar with each other could have stopped it or not. Italy also scored a penalty try when Kildunne deliberately knocked the ball on out on the wing and 5m from the try line, absolutely killing an overlap. The former Red Rose commentator was outraged, saying “but there was cover there,” which might have mattered if they were 15m out, but given the cover tacklers were pretty much on the 15m line and the person who should have received...

This week feels like the week that is probably the most predictable, at least going into it, in terms of results. England are going to beat Wales, the only real question is, can we continue to see signs of Welsh improvement, even against the Red Roses? Italy have been poor, Scotland mid, but mid beats poor, even away. And whilst Ireland are trying to challenge for second place, doing so in France, and with Ratier keen to have a big improvement after last week’s terrible first 25 minutes feels like a bridge too far. The Games England v Wales So one side of the ledger you have England scoring 10 tries in a comfortable victory. That should be measured against the 12 they scored last week against Scotland as a benchmark, and the four missed conversions are an indication of how wide many of those tries were dotted down which, in turn, is a reflection of hard the Welsh defence kept working, kept making the English make another pass, and another one. Most of the time they were good enough to...

There were questions after last week. Were England just rusty or disjointed with all their changes? How good are France with their new systems? How good are Ireland? After a result against Scotland that was very similar to the men's although at a different point in the championship, will Wales' women have a similar journey? The Matches Scotland v England One of the oldest adages in rugby is that the forwards decide who wins, the backs decide by how much. England’s forwards dominated their Scottish opponents in every aspect of the game, almost completely. Scotland won odd lineouts and scrums, but it was usually bad ball, and England stole a lot of it or won penalties on Scottish put ins. English rucks averaged under two seconds across the game, which doesn’t always lead to winning, in the M6N Wales then England has the fastest rucks across all the games but finished sixth and fifth, with one win each. France had the slowest average ruck speed, but won. But for the Red Roses it ...

As the first Six Nations after a World Cup, there are changes galore. Ratier has replaced Mignot and Ortiz in charge of France, Fukofuka is in charge of Scotland, and although Mitchell, Bemand, Roselli and Lynn remain the men in charge for England, Ireland, Italy and Wales, I know at least England and Wales have had pretty major shifts in their assistant coaches as well. Players have, inevitably, retired. This seems to have mostly affected England, but everyone has probably lost a few. The English squad has also been hit by a rash of post-world cup pregnancies, I’m not sure I’ve got them all, and I’ve got four on my list. Most teams have injuries as well, I’m not sure it makes much difference to the squad if they’re RWC winners or not, but the British media certainly reports it that way. The Games France v Italy In the early part of this game both sides looked better than last year. Some of that was little things, Italy have shifted Dinka in to 13 to replace Rigoni (of the yellow scru...

Final places will be determined this weekend but the normal procession of matches on Super Saturday has been disrupted by outside events. Italy were meant to host Wales in Rome but a slightly more important event, the funeral of Pope Francis, was also taking place so the rugby was pushed back 23 hours. The part of me that is an atheist rugby tragic might want to grumble, but the part of me that avidly consumes the news every day thinks that the pope’s funeral is just a bit more important. Anyway, on the reviews. The Matches Scotland v Ireland I wanted to like this game, but for large periods it seemed to promise much and not really deliver. That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of effort but it felt like a game where both sides were well matched and, rather than producing an interesting tussle, they largely nullified each other. Even when one side or another crossed the try line, the ball was held up several times. I can enjoy a good defensive tussle, but this didn’t feel like that ...

This should be a weekend of buildup for the big showdown and jockeying for final positions. But the rugby gods are fickle, and several of these matches have wider ramifications, France and Italy face each other again in Pool D of the RWC for example, in August, so there are a lot of subplots. The Matches Italy v France Sometimes clichés exist for a reason. “It was a game of two halves,” may be a cliché, but sometimes it’s just accurate. In the first half we saw 33 points, in the second half only 8 until the last five minutes when the Italians were chasing the game and conceded two soft tries. In the whole first half Italy conceded only two penalties, they’d conceded twice as many in the first ten minutes of the second half, and whilst you wouldn’t say that they were profligate, there was a steady trickle of Italian penalties throughout the half, I think 10 in total. In the first half Italy had a million lineouts (I think it was 16), won them all, routinely took that into a driving mau...

This week Scotland and Wales are the sacrificial lambs, Ireland visit Italy for the competitive match of the weekend. The Matches France v Scotland If you only look at the final score you might think ☑️ job done by France, next please. And, at the very highest level, that’s fair. France scored four tries, kept Scotland to two, one after the clock had gone red, and kept the scoreboard moving with penalties and a drop goal as well. But the French coaches will not be completely happy. Les Bleues dropped try-scoring chances like a drunk trying to pick up a €1 coin when they can’t stand unaided. Three of their tries came in a ten minute period when everything clicked for them and the Scots just couldn’t live with them. For the rest of the match, the Scots might have been hanging on by their fingertips, but they essentially denied the French attempts to score tries, or forced them into silly mistakes. On the plus side, the French continued to dominate territory and possession and were tak...

The biggest question, the perennial question of recent times, is can anyone beat England? But, that’s not the only question. At last year’s WXV Ireland were the surprise package. Did they flatter to deceive as other teams blooded new combinations before the World Cup later this year or was it a real improvement? Whilst I have a lot of sympathy for Cunningham, who paid the price for some terrible off-field behaviour by the WRU and the uncertainty that sewed throughout the squad, we have a new Welsh coach, literally hot off last week's PWR victory, and a fresh team. How will the Welsh Women go? The Italians also have a new coach, although not quite as minty fresh as Sean Lynn. The Matches Ireland v France This was a game with a lot of effort and good moments, but a lot of inaccuracies. France will rue the penalties, and particularly the red card, that they gave away. These conspired to keep the Irish close for longer than they probably deserved. Equally, the Irish will look at the...

Super Saturday is here. There are quite a few questions this year. Can Wales win a game and do better than the men? Can they avoid the wooden spoon? Who will finish third and not only play in WX1 but guarantee a place at next year’s World Cup? (The other three teams can still make it, but the team that finishes third will qualify today.) The Matches Wales v Italy The match was played at The Principality Stadium as part of a huge day of Welsh rugby, four matches in total. While I think this is a great thing in general, the women’s fixtures have been packing out the Arm's Park and the same crowd (actually a somewhat larger one) is lost in the Principality, which is a bit of a shame. This was a nervy match, it’s not right to say that neither side wanted to win, they both tried but the shortcomings that have been on display throughout the championship haunted both sides. The Welsh pack were superior, although far from faultless, the Italian backs were superior but the Welsh defence c...

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...