5 things you've learnt from this year's 6 nations

[profitius]

1. Lancaster has finished runner up in all four of the 6 nations he has been in charge. He deserves better but its starting to look like Eddie O'Sullivan when he was in charge of Ireland.

2. Ireland have discovered a new center pairing for the medium term. Henshaw and Payne were allowed play against Scotland and they didn't look too bad. We might not see D'Arcy back in green.

3. England have found a gem in George Ford. Forget about Joseph, it was Ford that made the big difference for England. A big step up from Owen Farrell, who himself isn't a bad player.

4. Gatland shows he still has it. Outwitted Schmidt in the Ireland Wales game.

5. Signs of improvement from Italy and Scotland. The Scots played good rugby and if given space they're very threatening. Italy were good but as usual they ran out of gas in their last 2 games. They gave up against Wales in the second half but they were actually leading coming up to half time.

 

[goodNumber10]

1. Lancaster has finished runner up in all four of the 6 nations he has been in charge. He deserves better but its starting to look like Eddie O'Sullivan when he was in charge of Ireland.

The point of difference is that on three of those four occasions the difference of them finsihing 1st and 2nd was firmly in their own hands.

Dont' recall that being the case with EOS or Declan Kidney or Warren Gatland.

 

[Peat]

1. England remain 10pc off of the top teams

2. Wales remain dangerous in a 6N context providing they can get a Jones-less front row to work.

3. France remain a shambolic wreck with some talent but nowhere near enough structure

4. Scotland and Italy remain poor; capable of periods of play to match anyone in this tournament, but incapable of consistent 80 minute periods.

5. Ireland are for me the biggest point of difference. Their pressure game was exemplary. Their running game however, got worse, and let them down when they needed it against Wales. If Schmidt is able to graft that aspect of the game on, they would get truly scary, but I don't think he can in time for the WC without compromising the pressure game.

 

[ncurd]

And if we take the last 10 years, which would be fair enough considering ncurd's argument. SA lead Wales and England 11-1, 1 draw vs England and Ireland lead 3-2 having not played in South Africa in this time period. It's also 6 all in England v Australia, 5-3 to Aus over Ireland with one draw and 13-2 to Aus over Wales with one draw. It would appear as if head to head the Sanzar nations still have a clear advantage over the current NH top three. Wales can't beat the SH consistently, England have their bogey team in SA and while SH sides struggle in Lansdowne road they put Ireland away easily at home.

I think the best the NH can claim is that currently we have 2 sides better than Australia, you can't claim Wales are with their record, and our top three are closing in on SA with Ireland leading the charge. NZ are still out of sight in terms of both head to head and consistency.

Yup pretty much what I would claim, I'd also look at recent results and suggest the teams are not miles away from beating them more regularly just need to get over the hurdle of actually doing it. Come world cup time it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out, you more or less have to win 7 straight games (history tells us coming second in your group is not good enough) now whilst you'd bank money on NZ and SA managing that more than any other team they are so far ahead it's done a deal as any one of Aus, Eng, Ire & to a lesser extent Wal(who have a real problem against SH teams) can beat the others on their day.

But as noted there's a difference between dominance and having an advantage. Dominance is kind thing England have over Italy or Scotland.

 

[Jcb411]

1. Jared Payne starting to show he can actually play 13. Defensively, he is much more sound than I thought, very impressed vs Scotland.

2. Fitzgerald needs to be in the squad somewhere, he looked very hungry and was looking for work constantly. Is he a bit lightweight for 13 though? That being said Payne isn't the biggest either

3. Ageing POC isn't just a leader, he's a bloody great player too. He was just outstanding, versus Scotland and Wales especially, he even carried very well. Crucial to us at the RWC.

4. Jones on the bench is a waste. Earls, Cave, Gilroy to mention a few could have easily had a better impact - in fact he wasn't even used against Scotland. I hope to see Olding there when he becomes fit again.

5. I'm not convinced we can't play a bit more expansive more regularly and still get results.

6 (fight me). O'Mahony - O'Brien - Heaslip is a serious back row, I think it actually has a very good balance to it. Henry to come back, but I can't see him starting.


edit: Also, I don't know where to put this, but I'd like to see this backline sometime:
9: Murray
10: Sexton
11: Earls
12: Henshaw
13: Fitzgerald
14: Bowe
15: Payne

never again should earls wear green, that man has more times than enough cost us. he just always seems to go the wrong way or something, if support has space out left he'll go right, if he has a man open to run in for a try he'll carry the ball into contact for a ruck. he's just either unlucky or just useless.

 

[TheSaffycen]

1.We still can't win big match games. This year v Ireland was always going to be hard but we were no where near the 10 point difference.
2.Lancaster has the guys around him for us too play expansive rugby.
3.We need to change our game to suit the players on the pitch. In defence we still went out with the mentality that Farrell and Barritt were playing. We should've changed the defensive structure.
4.Farrell SNR has dirt on Lancaster. Because the defence was atrocious
5.We aren't smart enough to win a world cup. On ability we would come close but our players can't play what's in front of them.

 

[tituslechmakus]

1. France is crap
2. France has no attacking abilities and no team cohesion after mulitple changes
3. PSA lost all his 6N games to Ireland and Wales in 4 years
4. Ireland & England are still very dangerous
5. France won't even make it out of the pool at RWC

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

In your opinion thats what I said.

All I can add is there are clearly a few seriously bitter and twisted posters in the north..... Some of you just cant handle the truth.

Ok so pointing out hypocrisy now makes us bitter. Wtf is wrong with you? Are you intentionally trying to be as dense as possible?

 

[munstermuffin]

never again should earls wear green, that man has more times than enough cost us. he just always seems to go the wrong way or something, if support has space out left he'll go right, if he has a man open to run in for a try he'll carry the ball into contact for a ruck. he's just either unlucky or just useless.

Isn't that a thing you could say about many players in green?
Guess fact he's scored a huge amount of tries shows he's taken the right option a lot of times too. And well him and Fitzgearld are the 2 showing the can set up tries and pick beautiful lines at moment so again not quiet sure if serious.

 

[tphillipsstl]

My five, as welsh supporter, in no particular order
1. Dan Biggar is the right 10, although I still believe there is a place for Hook in the squad
2. Warren-Ball is not set in stone and never has been. He's a good coach playing to the strengths of his team
3. As we all know, wales have the potential to play with any team in the world, but there's a big gap between potential and reality (2nd half v england)
4. We now have a real chance of getting out of the group
5. Leigh Halfpenny is fantastic, but Liam Williams might be even better. Halfpenny to the wing?
6. BONUS: Rhys Webb is a world class 9

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

5 things I've learned from this year's 6 Nations:

1. Italy is still better than Scotland. @ImScotty

2. Refereeing at international level is still a major problem.

3. PSA is the scapegoat to all of France's problems

4. The term, "Whoa, that escalated quickly" can be used more frequently... Especially after the Italy vs. Wales game.

5. Ireland is peaking too soon, and should be careful that they don't make the knockout stages of the World Cup.

Sure....

 

[lucky number 7]

I think we're putting too much emphasis on beating deflated and poor Scotland, Italy and France sides. What the SH sides will look at and worry about is Wales have the ability to dismantle an opponents gameplan and win without the ball, Ireland can suffocate the opposition and are almost impossible to catch given a 7+ point lead and England have the ability to get through any defence in world rugby.

Scoring 60 points against Italy means nothing, especially when the SH sides can do the same. The NH sides have more to learn from this 6nations than the SH.

Most*

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

never again should earls wear green, that man has more times than enough cost us. he just always seems to go the wrong way or something, if support has space out left he'll go right, if he has a man open to run in for a try he'll carry the ball into contact for a ruck. he's just either unlucky or just useless.

I agree I'm not very confident with him in defence, hence why he's on the wing and not centre. (He had those string of shambolic performances for Ireland at 13). But it's hard not to argue he's one of Ireland's most dangerous attacking threats. I'm sure @munstermuffin can enlighten us on his form this season but from what I've seen he's looked good..

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I'd take Earls over Zebo any day to be honest.

 

[ncurd]

1) England need to learn how to close out a tournament we could of won any of the last 4 iterations but always fail somehow. I don't know what the reason is and I'm fairly sure if you ask 10 England fans you'll get 10 different answers.

2) Ford is the real deal when it comes to unlocking attacking assests in teams. Given time, paitience and a good forward pack (his issues against IRE were due to the forwards being dominated) he could be one of the all time great attacking 10's. His ability in attack makes up for his minor issues in defense.

3) Now England have a potent backline with a 10 that knows how to use the forward pack needs to greatly their game in support running. They're improving if the France game is anything to by (it may not be) but it's one aspect that cost us heavilly in the Ireland match.

4) Wales still feel like they punch above their weight during the six nations. I personally think they are third best of the 6N teams but continually can give Ire or Eng a black eye. Not convinced that they start slow just it takes they need a loss to make them realise they aren't half as good as they think they are and need to up their game against the next big opposition. Case in point they clearly thought they only needed Plan A against England and didn't develop a secondary strategy, weren't really able to rectify this against the Scots a week later but the time they played Ireland/Italy had clearly realised what they needed to do and fair play to them got the wins in the manner required.

5) The RWC still has it's obvious favourite's but it feels like it might be one of the most competitive that I can remember, Group A will be a corker and upsets probably can and will happen at any stage.

 

[munstermuffin]

I agree I'm not very confident with him in defence, hence why he's on the wing and not centre. (He had those string of shambolic performances for Ireland at 13). But it's hard not to argue he's one of Ireland's most dangerous attacking threats. I'm sure @munstermuffin can enlighten us on his form this season but from what I've seen he's looked good..

His form has been amazing since coming back. Defensively he's improved in to a genuine 13 and he's attack play has been brilliant. Certainly good enough and too good to be out of 23. I'd agree he's better than Zebo and certainly too good to not be in 23

 

[Shaggy]

Again you are being a pedant, the point was his hypocrisy.

I clearly see your point, but rewriting what he actually said, with what you said, hardly aides your cause ... Pedantic? Maybe, then again, you could be a little more careful with how you word what you post too, could you not?

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I clearly see your point, but rewriting what he actually said, with what you said, hardly aides your cause ... Pedantic? Maybe, then again, you could be a little more careful with how you word what you post too, could you not?

As could he. He gave his opinion on what New Zealands as a whole though (not underestmianting teams) and in the very next sentence said NHs sides beside Ireland were crap. As a New Zealander, that is a contradiction. It's really not difficult to understand and you have decided to get caught up in whether he is talking for himself or all of NZ, he's being a hypocrite either way! By calling all NH sides ****, he is underestimating them right after he said New Zealanders don't under estimate them.

 

[McTallshort]

Sure....

Scotty I understand your passionate about your team but Italy did beat you didnt they? Did they beat you last year? Honest question I have forgot.

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Scotty I understand your passionate about your team but Italy did beat you didnt they? Did they beat you last year? Honest question I have forgot.

No we won with a last minute with Duncan Weir