Six Nations 2014: Brian O’Driscoll’s fairytale finish

It was a brilliant weekend in Paris, capping off a Six Nations which went down to the final play of a thriller between France and Ireland.

Brian O’Driscoll got the reward his career deserved, rounding off his career in the stadium where he first announced his arrival on the international scene.

France were a lot better than they had been against Wales and Scotland, and should possibly have won the game: they would have led with less than 10 minutes to go had Jean-Marc Doussain not hooked a straightforward penalty.

Sitting behind the posts, I also didn’t realise at the time how far forward the final pass of the 79th-minute French “try-scoring” move had gone, and thought Ireland had let another championship slip away in the last minute against France (the video below is of Vincent Clerc denying Ireland a Grand Slam in 2007).

At the Stade de France this time around, Les Bleus had done well to get themselves back into the match, having conceded three tries in the first 45 minutes or so, and Philippe Saint-Andre’s team, which has looked so shambolic in recent weeks, were guilty of pretty awful defence for all three. Just watch the lack of effort the French players make to get back and form a defensive line just before Jonny Sexton’s second.

France’s daily sports newspaper L’Equipe generally wasn’t impressed, awarding its players between 6.5 (Alexandre Lapandry) and 3 (Thomas Domingo) out of 10. Just think what they would have given as ratings for the Wales game! By contrast, three French players were rated as 8/10 by the Sunday Times.

Joe Schmidt’s Ireland certainly deserved the title, though, having been the most consistent team throughout the tournament, giving sport another fairytale ending – in the form of the illustrious career of Brian O’Driscoll – at which it excels.

The only way the game could have been even more exciting was if Triple Crown winners England had managed a couple more tries against Italy (and not conceding the interception score would have helped). If they had managed to bump their points difference ahead of Ireland, both sides in Paris would have been trying desperately to score in the closing stages of the tournament – that would have been epic.

Stuart Lancaster will be pleased with his side’s efforts this championship, and there is plenty to worry the rest of the Northern (and Southern) Hemisphere ahead of the 2015 Six Nations and World Cup. Luther Burrell, Mike Brown and Danny Care have all been excellent.

And, after back-to-back championships, Wales are finally knocked off their perch, thanks to the well-documented horror shows against Ireland and England. It was nice to see the 51-3 thumping of a 14-man Scotland, and a handful of highlight-reel tries, but clearly there is a lot of work to do ahead of the summer tour to South Africa. After Stuart Hogg was sent off, for a shocking bit of foul play, the game was effectively over, so the resulting big win doesn’t mean all is suddenly well, even if there are plenty of positive signs (not least the performance of Liam Williams). We’re still the reigning Grand Slam holders though!

But there can be no complaints that Brian O’Driscoll’s Irish side, scorers of 16 tries while conceding just four, are who Wales relinquish their tournament crown to, and that BOD hangs up his boots in a manner befitting his 141-cap career.

Six Nations: ranking after round four

Top: England, Ireland

These two have been far and away the best sides in this year’s tournament, and their epic clash at Twickenham proved it. England outclassed Wales on Sunday, and, but for conceding two flukey tries and a last-minute one against France, would be going for the Grand Slam this weekend. Stuart Lancaster’s side is looking ominously good ahead of the 2015 World Cup on home soil. Would you bet on any side to beat them at Twickenham?

Twickenham: becoming a fortress for England again

 

Ireland got even closer than England to beating reigning world champions New Zealand in the autumn, and Joe Schmidt has put together a side which will surely win the title next weekend by beating a shambolic France. It will be fitting for Brian O’Driscoll to retire (probably) with Ireland’s second championship of his career – and at the Stade de France, where he burst on to the international scene with a hat trick of tries in 2000.

Bottom: France, Italy, Scotland, Wales

For Wales, Twickenham was a miserable place to be on Sunday, but it needn’t be all doom and gloom. England are a very good side now (although, admittedly, that does make most Welsh fans gloomy), but Wales were mainly let down by poor execution – dropped passes, misplaced kicks, a lack of concentration etc. Yes, England should have won by more: but if we had been switched on enough to restrict England to three points instead of seven via a Danny Care try, and if either one of George North or Jamie Roberts’ kicks had gone out wide, a deficit of 11 points could have been wiped out. And don’t forget three more of England’s points came from a penalty awarded at a scrum which had resulted from Rhys Priestland dropping a dolly. Cut out the mistakes, freshen up, and this Welsh side is not necessarily a lost cause. That said, Wales haven’t dominated a match since England 2013 (Lions victories don’t count). How badly we need a good performance against Scotland.

But Scotland are not just going to roll over. After a miserable start to the tournament, the last-minute win over Italy seems to have a built a bit of momentum. It was heartbreak at the weekend, though, with a dire France again snatching a win from defeat’s jaws thanks to a cringe-inducing long pass from Duncan Weir and a couple of late long-range missed penalties. They have nothing to lose at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, and will surely be confident of taking advantage of a smarting Welsh team.

France: woeful, a squad in revolt and turmoil. Theoretically still in with a shout of the title, it would be an absolutely travesty if they were to win it. Fortunately for the reputation of the tournament, that won’t happen – no way are they good enough to beat Ireland, let alone by enough to overtake an England team that should comfortably dispatch Italy.

Italy: back to the bad old days of the wooden spoon. They haven’t gone dramatically backwards this year, and are still miles better than a decade ago. In the first half against Ireland they played with a real purpose, with Leonardo Sarto scoring a wonderful try before Ireland got into top gear. Michele Campagnaro’s double gave Wales a fright, and on another day they could easily have beaten Scotland.

Six Nations predictions, week four

The Saturday starter before Sunday’s Twickenham main course…

Ireland 36-6 Italy

They’re not going to be holding out too much hope of an upset, but England, France and Wales – Ireland’s championship rivals – will all be hoping Italy keep the deficit to a minimum. With four teams on two wins apiece, Ireland are top thanks to dominant wins over Scotland and Wales. Conversely, Joe Schmidt’s team will be looking to pile up the points, which would mean that any win in Paris in the final round of matches would earn them their Six Nations title since 2009.

Sorry Ireland, Italy, Scotland and France: this weekend is all about Wales’s trip to Twickenham

You can’t see past Italy being on the end of a hiding. In Dublin in 2012, Ireland won 42-10; although Italy have shown glimpses of fight this season, they will not come anywhere near recording consecutive wins over the men in green (they won in Rome last year).

And it will be typical Brian O’Driscoll to score a try – probably the final one of the match – on the occasion of him setting the record for most international caps.

Scotland 16-20 France

It’s the battle of the coaches who are a dab hand at a ludicrous selection policy! Finally, in the second half of their win in Rome two weeks ago, Scotland looked decent. Not championship-contenders decent, obviously, but at least they showed a bit of spark in the backs, with a superb brace of tries from Alex Dunbar.

By contrast, a woeful France regressed dramatically in their biggest post-war thrashing at the hands of Wales. You would not be surprised if there was a surprise result in this one, and while that clearly doesn’t make sense, I think it conveys that this is a potential banana skin for France which they have to be wary about. I can see them surviving this week – just – but not taking enough momentum into next week to beat Ireland and win the championship. And that would surely spell the end of Philippe Saint-Andre’s tenure as coach.

Fortunately, the Murrayfield pitch doesn’t look as though it will be as much of a factor as it was when England made the journey north.

Six Nations: ranking after week two

Boringly, there are no changes after the second round of matches compared to how I ranked them after the first weekend, although the gap between the top three and the bottom three has definitely increased:

1. Ireland

Dismantled Wales with ease, dismissing the defending champions in a similar manner to what they did to Scotland in week one. Joe Schmidt seems to be the difference for this Irish side, who can win the Triple Crown in a fortnight at Twickenham. After two games they’ve not been threatened and have conceded just nine points. Their forwards were formidable yesterday, and to bottle Wales up as much as they did demonstrates both excellent coaching and superb execution.

2. France

Italy’s Tomasso Allan and a pound of haggis

After what you might say was a fortunate win against England last week, the first half today was hugely frustrating, and if Italy weren’t kicking the ball like three pounds of haggis (copyright Bill McLaren) the visitors could have been leading at half time.

But three quick, quality tries sealed a comfortable French win. If they play like they did at the beginning of the second half against Italy, they’ll win at the Millennium Stadium a week on Friday, and the tournament could come down to a showdown with Ireland in Paris in the final game of the Six Nations.

3. England

You can’t really complain about a 20-0 away win in the Six Nations, particularly with the pitch in such an awful condition, but if anything England will be disappointed not to have won by more. Scotland were utterly appalling, and although England didn’t have to hit top gear, they will hope they are able to when they have to – i.e. next up against Ireland, a game they really have to win to keep their tournament hopes alive.

4. Italy

A good first half in which they matched France, and if they had been more clinical and composed they might have made a real game of it. As things turned out, the French were able to show their class in the form of Louis Picamoles and Wesley Fofana, but Italy are still ranked fourth because, despite losing to Wales, they’ve been far less of a disappointment than the Welsh so far this tournament. Apart from England last week, they’re the only side to show some fight in defeat.

5. Wales

Rudderless, one-dimensional and thoroughly beaten. After sneaking a win against Italy you were hoping they would have come out all guns blazing yesterday, but unfortunately they were almost as far away from that as it’s possible to be. It was their biggest Six Nations defeat for eight years.

6. Scotland

Woeful: woe·ful also wo·ful  (wō′fəl)adj… Deplorably bad or wretched. Scotland were indeed both deplorably bad and wretched, rolling over almost without a fight.

Things that were bad today

Not necessarily in order…

1. Wales

Well, I said Ireland would win and would score 26 points. But I didn’t expect this sort of humiliation – we were thoroughly beaten in every aspect of the game (except perhaps goalkicking – 1/1 for Leigh Halfpenny. Hooray). As far as I can tell, it was Wales’s biggest Six Nations defeat since 2006, and we’ve won three championships since then. This was the same sort of defeat we used to suffer in the final days at the old Lansdowne Road in the early 2000s, and if last week was a bit disappointing, today was a total shocker. We’d need to win at Twickenham to have a chance of winning the championship, but that hardly looks likely after such a rudderless performance.

Coach Warren Gatland says Wales’ display in their 6N loss in Ireland was “one of the worst” http://t.co/xWbrZYMSvG pic.twitter.com/HthIwc0XVT

— BBC Wales Sport (@BBCWalesSport) February 8, 2014

 

You have to credit Ireland as well, though. Worryingly, they’re looking formidable under the stewardship of Joe Schmidt.