Two different tournaments drew to a conclusion this weekend and two teams won something for the first time since 2003, but yet the whole weekend had somewhat of an anti-climactic feel to it. Maybe the media bigs it up too much. But then again my hatred of tabloid media and the BBC is well documented, so any sort of hype gets right up my nose.
To get it done with first, my team of the weekend was certainly Gloucester. For years and years and years they've found themselves as the bridesmaids but never the brides – Finishing top of the Zurich and Guinness Premiership in 2003, 2004 and 2008, then to be finalists of the EDF and LV= cup in 2009 & 2010, they must've felt coming into this season that the world is against them. Compounded by their miserable run at the opening of the season, only the brave would likely have put money on the Cherries to finally bring home silverware in the 2010-2011 season, but that they certainly did.
In what must've been the most one sided game to grace Franklins Gardens since Saints put Bath Bath to the sword, Newcastles heroics from The Stoop were comprehensively dismissed as they were simpley brushed aside by a clinical and unstoppable cider-flavoured assault.
Tries from Voyce, Fuimaono-Sapolu, Sharples, Dawiduck underlined the Gloucester performance as they had the tie all but sealed at halftime (despite the relatively close looking scoreline of 10-0).
A late consolation from Eaves proved to be just that six minutes from time, but to have come so close only to be so unceremoniously dump tackled will be soul destroying for Newcastle. Their never-say-die attitude I was in so much admiration was still evident, but this Falcon was wounded and Gloucester was the cat toying with its prey.
I feel this may be a journey too far for Newcastle now. For their sake, their heads best be put in the right place and sharpish. Leeds have had a weeks rest over them and will be looking to capitalise on what can only be horribly demoralising for Alan Taits men. Gloucester meanwhile can look forward to concentrating only the Premiership and thinking about taking that 2nd league place from Saracens – 2 Games in hand and six points in it, Eddie Griffiths media machine had best be worried about a visit to Castle Grim for the playoff. Unlike fortresses Franklins Gardens and Welford road, Sarries don't win in Kingsholm.
My hat doffs for the Gloucester boys. They were bloody good and deserve the ***le of my Team of the Week.
Elsewhere this weekend we saw the final fixtures of the Six Nations. First of all was the Wooden Spoon decider between Scotland and Italy at Murrayfield. The Scots looking for their first win of the year while the Italians wanted to build on their impressive shock victory over France.
To start with the game certainly looked like the Italians were carrying on where they left off, running Scotland ragged. When Massi scored his breakaway try it looked like the Azzuri would have their biggest season for a long time, backed up by the halftime score of 6-8 as Scotland reverted to type relying on Chris Pattersons boot at home.
What turned out to be the only turnaround of the weekend however saw Scotland rip up their form book and decide to play rugby. Tries from De Luca and Walker saw the Scots run home 21-8 winner, but more impressively was the manor in which they did so. They chucked the ball around with confidence and played expansive rugby not seen by a Scottish side at Murrayfield since Edinburgh were inches away from scalping Saints.
There's still a lot of building to do, but Scotland can now be confident in themselves and believe they can continue 2011 where they left off in 2010.
Following was what can only be described from an English perspective as a f*** up of epic proportion in Dublin. England, with the football-centric tabloid media firmly wedged up their backsides, went into the game and appeared to believe they'd already won the fabled Grand Slam – speaking of which, have to seen the arrogance of Nikes ready-made advert? Right up there with the Liverpool "6 Times European Champions" bus.
To their credit though, this wasn't so much a bad English performance as a good Irish performance (scrummaging and high-tackling aside). Irelands midfield had Hape and HMS Banahan for pace and distribution, Youngs looked a rabbit in the headlights with the Irish back row in his face all afternoon and Deacon clearly isn't up to the standard required (IMO for top flight rugby, let alone test rugby).
Congratulations go to Ireland for winning the game, but I wonder exactly what the Irish fans are celebrating... If I were Irish, I'd be thoroughly f***ed off that it took a team who should have been challenging for the ***le 7 weeks and 5 rounds to put in a good performance. With the quality and depth available to them, that is a level which should simply not be acceptable. Scraping 3rd when France are stuttering, Wales not performing and England going through the motions by round 3 isn't enough for a side who want to call themselves the best in Europe.
It made me howl with laughter even more when that "Just for Men" reject Brendan Gallagher called Ireland the team of the tournament and Declan Kidney the coach of the year!
Despite the result however, England were clearly the strongest team throughout the series and deserved winners. Were the weeks off completely necessary? They seemed in my opinion to go flat before the Scotland game kicked off. Had they played straight through, would they perhaps kept up the momentum? Who knows.
A win's a win though. I'll take it.
As for France v Wales – I was rat-faced by that point so can't remember a thing. Erm… The Scoreline implies France were the best performers of the weekend so... Well done France.
Interesting to note however that Wales could have won the whole tournament but in the end narrowly missed out on finishing 3rd. It's a funny old game.
Most importantly though, the Premiership is back next week and a fortnight later brings us the greatest competition in the world – The Heineken cup returns!
I can live with the sadness what comes with the season nearly being over. The silly international season is done and now the domestic year gets good.
Bring it on.
