Six Nations enhanced by Ireland's efforts

ON RUGBY:  If the truth be told, it hasn't been a vintage Six Nations so far. Too many foregone conclusions. And not enough of the more even matches have stirred the soul. Yet at least the near annual attempts to run down the old competition have been pretty well stifled, and for that and much else, it wouldn't be stretching things to say that however it pans out, Ireland have been the championship's saviours.

Could you imagine it if France had won at Lansdowne Road and Ireland had been down in the nether regions of the table with their fellow Celts and the Italians? Francis Baron (chief executive of the English Rugby Union) and his ilk would have been bemoaning the championship being decided on the first weekend (as he did before England hosted France anyway).

That hoary old chestnut about it being a two-tiered championship would have had more airing. Likewise, rumblings of discontent from Twickenham and a small number of the English media might have led to a revival of the need for England and France to break away and compete in a Super Five championship with their fellow heavyweights from the Southern Hemisphere. Remember that twaddle?

Such arrogance and ignorance permeated through the championship weeks in the late 1990s and at the turn of the millennium. Previously it ignored the competitiveness of the Scots - whose win-loss record in the 1990s was not that far behind the "Big Two" - who won championship titles in 1990 and 1999. Wales even chipped in with a title in 1994.

Of course, a two-tiered championship existed through much of the 1990s, but mercifully, the Scots bridged that gap, and Ireland have since assumed the role. Indeed, this is the first championship Ireland have saved from perceived ignominy and in the 2000s, Ireland has accumulated four points more than the French.

The flip side, of course, is Ireland haven't been such a prized scalp since the mid-1980s. In Welsh minds, especially in Cardiff, only the dreaded English would be a bigger scalp. Not alone have Irish provinces been rubbing Welsh noses in it for the last couple of years, Wales have their backs against the wall, are fighting to avert a whitewash, this is their last home game of the campaign, and they'll be continually reminded of their 20-year winless streak at home to Ireland.

England are even less likely to slip up, for although the Scots have a much better pack than the Welsh, Twickenham is now the most impregnable fortress in the history of Test match rugby. They are also likely to run up a bigger score, which would effectively mean Ireland's only way of winning the championship is to win the Grand Slam.

It was always likely to pan out that way anyhow, and one imagines Clive Woodward and England would quite like Ireland to be in the same boat as themselves for a winner-takes-all shoot-out on the final Sunday 12 days' hence. Unlike the game of two years ago, when all the Grand Slam pressure was on England, and Ireland could swing from the hip, this time the pressure would be just as intense in both camps.

The other blessing, to date, has been Italy's improved showing under John Kirwan. Their win over Wales was one of the more moving encounters in the championship, and has served to stifle talk of the Azzurri justifying their existence in the Six Nations. It would be good for the tournament if they hold up well against a slightly demoralised France (who always struggle against the Italians) and better still if they beat the Scots on the final weekend for fourth place in the final table.

Whatever happens, it would be nice to see more good rugby, but for that to happen in the future will probably require a directive from the International Board. In every game to date there have been compelling examples of defensive lines advancing from in front of the hindmost foot. As defences increasingly suffocate the life out of games, if the law makers are to free up space either side of the gain line, the technology is there for touch-judges to be more involved.

Although they've taken over all the coverage except for games in Paris, it's not the BBC's fault that it has been a non-vintage championship generally. Even so, is it my imagination, or has the BBC's coverage of the Six Nations thus far been decidedly poor? Not so much in their commentaries or analysis, as in their actual camera work at the games. On innumerable occasions over the first couple of weekends and again last weekend, at all three venues, their choice of camera angle or use of replays has served only to confuse.

At Murrayfield, for example, the reverse camera angle was used as Gordon Bulloch threw into a lineout, but then as Stuart Grimes fed Bryan Redpath, coverage had reverted to the view from the main camera. In other words, the Scots were playing from right to left one second, and left to right the next.

This has been a recurring failing, as have slow-motion replays highlighting, say, a penalty incident, which then stops short of the actual offence - making the replay utterly irrelevant.

In its absence from the rugby coalface, has the Beeb lost all its rugby experts behind the cameras?