Six Nations Round Up

Six Nations: The Verdict

In the aftermath of one of the most poetic endings to the Six Nations yet, familiar foes Jonny Pratt and Tessa Davey give their verdict on the best, and worst, of the Six Nations

JONNY'S WINNERS AND LOSERS

Player of the Tournament

Mike Brown

Try of the tournament

Rob Kearney v England

Best Match

France v Ireland

Breakout Player

Luther Burrell

Worst Moment of the Six Nations:

The try in the 77th minute of the France vs Ireland game, which would have made England the tournament winners, if only it hadn’t been via a forward pass.

TESSA'S WINNERS AND LOSERS

Player of the Tournament

Brian O’Driscoll

Try of the tournament

Damien Chouly vs Ireland… even if it wasn’t given

Best Match

France v Ireland

Breakout Player

Liam Williams

Worst Moment of the Six Nations:

The entire England Wales match, in which my hopes and dreams came crashing to the ground

Six Nations Round Up

Jonny Pratt and Tessa Davey give their verdict on the six teams with the Rugby World Cup in England just one year away.

ENGLAND

It’s far too easy to lament a bad bounce of the ball or some poor last minute defensive lapses and miss the bigger picture. England, with aspirations of a home Rugby World Cup success in 2015, should have won a Grand Slam. The vast majority of knockout matches in the RWC are tight games, so you have to be comfortable closing them out. Some really impressive performances besides the France game leave them very much on the way up.

IRELAND

What is it with Ireland and new coaches? A really strong Six Nations culminated in an intensely stressful final match (for everyone who isn’t Scotland or Italy). Schmidt might not quite have brought ‘Leinstertainment’ to the team just yet, but they looked very good throughout the tournament. Their power game in the mauls destroyed Wales, and ultimately provided the points difference that won the title.

SCOTLAND

To put it bluntly this was a terrible tournament for Scotland, a one-point win against Italy was one of a few high points. Could and perhaps should have beaten France on the day, but sport is judged on absolutes. Hopefully the arrival of Vern Cotter will provide them with some fresh impetus, though Scott Johnson has done little to show why he should be Director of Rugby. It’s hard to take too much from the final game, since the loss of a fullback that early is an impossible position.

FRANCE

A fairly bad year for France; the team never seemed to gel and we didn’t see anywhere near enough flair. Their wins against England and Scotland could quite easily have gone the other way, and Philippe Saint-André needs to take a deep look at his team. The attempt to blood Jules Plisson was admirable, and it was certainly interesting to see France pick a fly-half at 10, but it never took off for the young Parisian. Despite this they were still in contention, and could continue to spring surprises at the RWC.

ITALY

While this was the worst Six Nations for Italy in a good few years there were a lot of promising signs. Michele Campagnaro seems quite an exciting young player in the centres, and I fully expect a number of teams to be sounding him out for a potential move this summer. The old stereotype that when Parisse doesn’t perform neither do Italy is sadly still true, and with their captain out of sorts for the whole tournament the Italians lacked their supply of gain line busting runs. After a few years of punching above their weight Italy face a bit of a rebuilding phase, but with the quality of young players they have coming through there’s real hope for the future.

WALES

It’s hard to get a real judge on Wales this year, they seem to have lost their edge from previous years, with the spikiness of Mike Phillips going past an acceptable point. Wales still have a team with some fantastic players, but it feels like the end of an era. Warren Gatland needs to look at blooding some younger players; otherwise Wales could well be a long way behind England and Australia in their RWC pool.