ON RUGBY:Remember, the Six Nations is a seven-week tournament, not unlike a World Cup, and given to swings in
performances and results, writes
GERRY THORNLEY
THE OLD order would appear to have been restored with the Anglo-French axis on course to re-establish their duopoly. For Ireland and Wales there was disappointment in victory and defeat, inspired in part by the giddy heights of three Grand Slams between them in the last six years, while for Italy and Scotland, disappointment in defeat but encouragement in the performance.
The thing to remember about the Six Nations is that not all six teams will start at different levels of performance and simply remain there, on an even keel, over the ensuing four games. It is a seven-week tournament, not unlike a World Cup, which is given to swings in performances and results.
Take Ireland. History has taught us they often play to the level of the opposition, and they certainly need to next Sunday, while we the public disrespect their opposition. Recall Samoa last November, and how they pushed England and Scotland every bit as hard.
True, Ireland have issues in the balance of the backrow, the speed of service from scrumhalf and perhaps at inside centre, but the options aren’t plentiful.
They also need to broaden their brush strokes. Only one throw to the tail, only one pick-and-go (and by Brian O’Driscoll), only once did they explore a truly narrow blindside which created the space on the other side of the pitch when Luke Fitzgerald almost put Jonny Sexton over.
And, a tad ominously, recalling how he refereed the Toulon-Munster game, Dave Pearson follows Romain Poite. It appears to be open season on Irish teams and especially their scrums among some in the refereeing fraternity, one of whom, along with former frontrowers, couldn’t understand some of Poite’s poorly-communicated interpretations in Rome.
Leaving aside Italy’s laughable scrum feeds, a referee needs to keep the loosehead scrummaging straight (and not up!) while ensuring a tighthead is able to bind long on the loosehead’s jersey and not on the arm pit or lower. Both Salvatore Perugini and Andrea Lo Cicero pushed across and up all day with impunity, yet Poite gave four penalties and three indirect penalties to Italy in the scrum, to two indirect penalties for Ireland, once without even a signal or a comment.
IRB sources maintain Poite did not send a written apology to the Italians for his refereeing of last year’s scrums in the same fixture, but you wonder whether Poite had any pre-conceived ideas going into the game. There is a danger in referees over-analysing games beforehand and not refereeing what they see in front of them. In any event, the penalty count was 13-5, with Ireland, incredibly, not being awarded one full penalty after Sexton’s 26th-minute three-pointer.
Another issue arising out of the weekend is the use of replacements. As with his predecessor, Declan Kidney has never been a particularly active user of his bench. Sometimes, it can be just as brave to stick with those on the pitch in the belief they can be just as well-placed to have an impact later on. It served Kidney well with Munster and as recently as the autumn when Ireland snatched a draw in the last minute against Australia. Apart from Keith Earls replacing an injured Luke Fitzgerald, the only other replacement that day was Denis Leamy.
However, Italy were clearly revived by Nick Mallett’s use of his bench, six of whom were introduced before the 70th minute. Over the weekend, Wales had five of their bench on the pitch by the 70th minute, and England, France and Scotland all had six replacements on by then.
By contrast, Ireland (who were the only team, other than Wales, not to use all of their bench) had only two replacements involved by the 70th minute. Although injuries have hit Ireland, Italy should not be getting more out of their bench.
In Cardiff on Friday night, at times you could have thrown a blanket over England’s pack, Toby Flood ran the game well and they possess a real cutting edge, though they are far from the finished article. They won’t be until Tom Croft and/or Lewis Moody return, and it will be astonishing if Shontayne Hape (admittedly an outside centre by trade) is still in situ come the Aviva. Riki Flutey returned for Wasps at the weekend, and Martin Johnson should bury the hatchet with Olly Barkley.
Scotland v Wales next Saturday already has the look of a defining, do-or-die mission for both, with the losers then two defeats from two. Of all the losers, Scotland will assuredly derive the most encouragement. They never looked like lying down even when a rampant French, determined to atone for their sins of last autumn and inspired by a typical early breakthrough off a turnover, were at their imperious best. The Scots also kept playing, scoring three tries and forcing the French to miss 25 tackles.
That makes it 11 tries conceded in France’s last two games, both at home.
Alas, the same cannot be said of their attacking cohesion. Marc Lievrement has, publicly, adopted an “uno duce, una voce” (though in French) stance since their autumn debacle and the coach’s more hands-on approach has yielded a swift dividend.
It helps when you have a scrum that dismantles the opposition and a lineout featuring five jumpers which stole four opposition throws and lost only one of their own, not to mention the ballast of their forward carriers.
Even so, this was French rugby with all its traditional elan. As one AIL coach observed, some of their depth and width was like a throwback to the late 1980s, while the depth of their support play was a lesson to all. No support player came too flat, all of them arriving at pace from deep.
There was also a better balance when Damien Traille moved to inside centre and Clemont Poitrenaud to fullback; another likely portent given Maxime Mermoz is injured.
Sacre bleu, the French are back and, strictly on the form of last weekend, Ireland will not beat them.
But the Six Nations, and for that matter Ireland v France, rarely operates like that.
gthornley@irishtimes.com
