By Nick Powell
Ugh.
England beaten. The slam dream over. But Wales march on and are just two games away from clinching a fourth grand slam in 14 years.
Meanwhile injury plagued Scotland were beaten by the resurgent French in Paris, and Ireland edged out gutsy Italy.
But what were the big takeaways on a weekend where I wish I'd stayed at home...
________
Elliot Daly. He can’t do it
I’m surprised this features in the key lessons, given that
we all knew this already but Elliot Daly isn’t a full back, he can’t cope at
international level and the way he was exposed so brutally showed that.
After failing to gather a high ball, Wales built the phases
before going wide and scoring their first try, as they established control, he
was beaten to a high ball by Josh Adams for their second.
Beaten
Mike Brown is in superb form for Harlequins, he simply has
to be the man that Jones considers for the World Cup.
_______
An Early Lead in an England vs Wales game isn't necessarily a good thing
If you take the last six competitive games between England
and Wales it is quite staggering how big leads get eroded in the second half.
In 2015 and 2017 England stormed back from 16-8 and 16-11
down respectively to win 16-21, In 2016 England led 25-7 before clinging on for
a 25-21 win, in the World Cup a few months prior to that game they led by 10
points only to be beaten, and last year their 12 point lead was halved by full time.
England led Wales 22-12 with 18 minutes left of their Rugby World Cup Group game, we all know how that finished
This year, England were 10-3 up, and should have been
further clear, but as the game tightened up and Wales found their rhythm,
England seemed to panic. They lost the second half 18-3.
Perhaps it’s the nature of the contest between these two
sides but they always seem to panic and go into their shell when they lead.
So if these to meet again at the World Cup and one team is looking good in the first half, give it
some thought before you stick a bet on them.
_______
Biggar > Anscombe
Briefly on 50 minutes, England seemed to lose their heads,
but after Farrell slotted his side into a 13-9 lead with half an hour left, it
seemed the men in white had regathered themselves.
As Biggar came on a woman in front of me, who seemed to like
English people in the stadium about as much as maggots in the fridge, leaned
back and said, “he’s gonna stick it up you.”
Biggar was absolute superb
His high balls exposed Daly, his organisation whipped Wales’
forwards into shape and his testing of the English defence caused them to
panic. I doubted his credentials as Wales became increasingly boring around
2017, but he was magnificent.
_______
Scotland must keep their first team fit
Make no mistake, Saturday represented an enormous step back
for Scottish Rugby. They weren’t just beaten, they were hammered, and it
could’ve been a lot more than it was.
It means that after three games Scotland have a narrow
victory over Italy, a defeat against Ireland (who did very little to earn a
win) and a hammering at the hands of the team that were blown away at
Twickenham.
Rampant Wales and hungry England are next for Scotland and
unless they get their players back from injury it could be an ugly finish for
them.
If they are to do well at this year’s Rugby World Cup, they
simply have to keep their first team fit.
_______
Hope for Les Bleus
We’ve seen it all from the French at this year’s tournament.
A superb start followed by the most generously gift-wrapped victory of all time
to Wales and a staggeringly poor performance at Twickenham has now been
accompanied by a really solid win.
They had their moments. A brain fade allowing Scotland their
sole try and some errors in key areas both stopped it from being more but they
controlled the game, defended well and actually looked like they had a plan.
Ntamack had a tremendous game for France
It really was the worst time for Scotland to play them, as
they’d been given time to re-group after their shocking opening rounds, and
they will hope they can repeat that performance in at least one of their
remaining two games.
_______
Italy are the victim of bias
Massive, massive point to finish. As I’ve written more and
more articles I’ve always tried to avoid controversy but I never refrain from
speaking with my heart and as much as I despise many of his outrageous journalistic
opinions, Sunday Times writer Stephen Jones’ analysis of minutes 40-60 in Italy
vs Ireland couldn't be more accurate:
“In Rome, Glen Jackson
expected Ireland to win this game and is reffing to fulfil his own prophecy.
Twenty appalling minutes.”
The only thing wrong with that tweet was the failure to
mention, as one reply-er pointed out, that he actually got worse in the last 20.
When home crowds get the better of referees, it is only
natural. England massively got the rub of the green with Nigel Owens against France a fortnight
ago, Wales’ vocal fans can sometimes get them a few of the 50:50s in Cardiff
and had this been at the Aviva, I’d have focussed a lot less on Glen Jackson’s
performance.
But a string of really harsh penalties kept on going against
the Italians and that, combined with some rotten luck, meant that from the
start of the second half the writing was on the wall.
I have often advocated for relegation in the Six Nations,
but this game changed my mind. Perhaps Italy’s insane discipline is not just
because they are prone to giving away silly penalties, but because the referees
wholeheartedly believe that they are.
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