State of the Six Nations
Just want to clear up a few things right off the bat.
1.) The Italians first try was never a try and there were at least two angles that showed it. Why then did the TMO not have access to ALL the camera angles available to television? He's there to make correct decisions due to the extra time and replays on offer, not screw up like the other three officials.
2.) Neither England nor Scotland have scored a try in two consecutive games and Ireland have gone one game without scoring a try. This is why I have chosen to post about the state of the Six Nations today and not gloat over England getting thumped ... oooppsss :)
In a weekend of international rugby where there were three matches played, only half the teams managed to score one or more tries. This mediocrity was summed up by my father who said after the France vs England game:
"I can't wait for the Six Nations to finish so the Heineken Cup can restart and we'll be able to watch some quality rugby."
Now for the other countries involved in last year's Six Nations, Wales's glorious Grandslam may not have been much fun, what it wasn't short of though was good quality rugby games. From the very first match where England vs Wales went down to the last kick, to that insane comeback by Wales against France, the games were exciting. Being a Welshman obviously I attribute this to the style of play we adopted and used so successfully.
So naturally this current Six Nations was never going to be the same, with Wales' rabbit well and truly out of the hat there were going to be some changes. However I did not expect anything like the kind of backlash against the Welsh style of play we have seen. England have always been forward orientated, they can't escape that, but Tindall, Noon and Cohen doesn't say 'We want to score tries" to me, and they haven't. Scotland have found a style that wins them games at home and keeps them competitive, but it's based purely on defence and keeping the other team out. I'm glad they've had some success this season but it's a step backward for the tournament. Ireland have been a mixed bag for several seasons now and despite a world class backline there is one problem, Ronan O'Gara. Say what you want about his points tally etc but it comes down to the simple fact that with several Lions in the back division, as well as talented youngsters, they aren't performing. ROG's first instinct is to sit deep and kick behind, ask him to play off the cuff or what's in front of him at any given moment and you'll see a robot trying to bypass it's programming, It's ugly to watch.
The reason for this is that too much of the game has come down to set patterns, set plays, pods etc Very few teams or more significantly No 10s can simply play without all this conditioned structure in their heads. Stephen Larkham is the best exponent of it at present, closely followed by Dan Carter and Stephen Jones. Charlie Hodgson does it for Sale but has been 'reconfigured' for his role with England. I don't rate Dan Parks at all. Freddie Michalak is great to watch but tries too much all the time and Pez is decent enough for Italy. Contempomi is a really good player imo and South Africa don't know week-to-week who they are going to play at outside-half. Thus out of all the major rugby playing nations of the world, only five at most possess the consistent ability to score tries, which is very depressing.
As a solution to this situation I would make penalties and drop goals worth two points again. That way two tries would be worth five penalties or two converted tries be worth seven penalties. Not only does this balance the overly fussy refereeing where penalties and three points are given for the most minor of offences, but it puts the emphasis back on attacking. Maybe that is a harsh option, but something has to be done to wake up the Six Nations, because right now no Northern Hemisphere team is going to come close to winning the World Cup.
1.) The Italians first try was never a try and there were at least two angles that showed it. Why then did the TMO not have access to ALL the camera angles available to television? He's there to make correct decisions due to the extra time and replays on offer, not screw up like the other three officials.
2.) Neither England nor Scotland have scored a try in two consecutive games and Ireland have gone one game without scoring a try. This is why I have chosen to post about the state of the Six Nations today and not gloat over England getting thumped ... oooppsss :)
In a weekend of international rugby where there were three matches played, only half the teams managed to score one or more tries. This mediocrity was summed up by my father who said after the France vs England game:
"I can't wait for the Six Nations to finish so the Heineken Cup can restart and we'll be able to watch some quality rugby."
Now for the other countries involved in last year's Six Nations, Wales's glorious Grandslam may not have been much fun, what it wasn't short of though was good quality rugby games. From the very first match where England vs Wales went down to the last kick, to that insane comeback by Wales against France, the games were exciting. Being a Welshman obviously I attribute this to the style of play we adopted and used so successfully.
So naturally this current Six Nations was never going to be the same, with Wales' rabbit well and truly out of the hat there were going to be some changes. However I did not expect anything like the kind of backlash against the Welsh style of play we have seen. England have always been forward orientated, they can't escape that, but Tindall, Noon and Cohen doesn't say 'We want to score tries" to me, and they haven't. Scotland have found a style that wins them games at home and keeps them competitive, but it's based purely on defence and keeping the other team out. I'm glad they've had some success this season but it's a step backward for the tournament. Ireland have been a mixed bag for several seasons now and despite a world class backline there is one problem, Ronan O'Gara. Say what you want about his points tally etc but it comes down to the simple fact that with several Lions in the back division, as well as talented youngsters, they aren't performing. ROG's first instinct is to sit deep and kick behind, ask him to play off the cuff or what's in front of him at any given moment and you'll see a robot trying to bypass it's programming, It's ugly to watch.
The reason for this is that too much of the game has come down to set patterns, set plays, pods etc Very few teams or more significantly No 10s can simply play without all this conditioned structure in their heads. Stephen Larkham is the best exponent of it at present, closely followed by Dan Carter and Stephen Jones. Charlie Hodgson does it for Sale but has been 'reconfigured' for his role with England. I don't rate Dan Parks at all. Freddie Michalak is great to watch but tries too much all the time and Pez is decent enough for Italy. Contempomi is a really good player imo and South Africa don't know week-to-week who they are going to play at outside-half. Thus out of all the major rugby playing nations of the world, only five at most possess the consistent ability to score tries, which is very depressing.
As a solution to this situation I would make penalties and drop goals worth two points again. That way two tries would be worth five penalties or two converted tries be worth seven penalties. Not only does this balance the overly fussy refereeing where penalties and three points are given for the most minor of offences, but it puts the emphasis back on attacking. Maybe that is a harsh option, but something has to be done to wake up the Six Nations, because right now no Northern Hemisphere team is going to come close to winning the World Cup.
posted by Owen at
1:05 AM
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