15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland)
There were blemishes on Hogg’s evening in Paris, sure, but the sheer excitement you felt radiating from him right from the moment he wore that grin during the anthems meant this was a performance that recalled his groundbreaking initial season for Scotland. Plus, that offload was just too good.
14. Anthony Watson (England)
His try took a lot more finishing than people might realise; to cleanly collect a bouncing ball from around the ankles at full tilt is one of the most difficult things to do on a rugby pitch. Other than that, he was solid under the high ball and showed off his quick feet on a couple of occasions.
13. Jonathan Joseph (England)
Sure, there was some powder-puff tackling from North and Webb but his try was still sublimely finished. He also did exactly what England need their 13 to do: get over the gain line. Through a combination of quick feet and intelligent lines, he always made metres.
12. Robbie Henshaw (Ireland)
It wasn’t really a vintage weekend for inside centres, with no-one wearing a 12 shirt particularly catching the eye. Henshaw may not have impressed overtly in attack, although he did show some flashes of his powerful running, but finished as his side’s top tackler with 15.
11. Teddy Thomas (France)
Similarly, there weren’t that many especially good performances from left wingers. Thomas showed all that raw potential again, though, with a few powerful and pacey bursts when he was given a bit of space.
10. George Ford (England)
Lopez kicked well for France and Keatley grew into the game for Ireland, but Ford usurped them both by conducting a win in the most pressurised environment of his career to date. There was a missed kick and a charge down, but the stones he showed to kick two vital late penalties went a long way to dispelling the doubts that surround his ability to kick under pressure.
9. Conor Murray (Ireland)
Ben Youngs was a nuisance around the fringes all night in Cardiff, but Murray was even more so for Ireland. With the absence of Sexton, it was the Munster scrum-half who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half and scored an important try to take the game out of the Italians’ reach.
1. Joe Marler (England)
Perhaps finally we can stop talking about the fact that Corbisiero is always injured and acknowledge that, this season, Marler has been by far England’s best loosehead prop. He enjoyed dominance over Samson Lee, who has already built a fearsome reputation, at the scrum, and was typically busy in the loose.
2. Guilhem Guirado (France)
France’s lineout ran at 90% and given they had a whopping 20 of them, that is no mean feat. It was the highest percentage of any set piece at the weekend, and for that Guirado deserves credit. He also put himself about to good effect in the loose.
3. Mike Ross (Ireland)
Ireland fans who began to question Schmidt’s decision to start Ross before the game must now be accepting that, actually, the Kiwi is some sort of selection genius. Ross has been out of sorts this season – at times third choice for Leinster – and yet he not only held his own against, but had the better of, Matias Aguero.
4. Jonny Gray (Scotland)
Scotland were brought back down to earth in Paris but the younger Gray brother did exactly what was asked of him – namely, tackle everything within his grasp.
5. Paul O’Connell (Ireland)
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Ireland in Rome but they were helped immensely by their captain’s fine work at the lineout, as he led his side to an almost 40% success rate on opposition ball.
6. Bernard le Roux (France)
Haskell was relentlessly physical for England, but le Roux was no less so in Paris. The Frenchman wins the spot by virtue of not having run head first into a post to deny himself a certain try.
7. Chris Robshaw (England)
To attempt 26 tackles in a game is astonishing in itself – to make them all and not miss a single one is simply incredible. Robshaw led by example in Cardiff and his charges followed suit. O’Donnell was good for Ireland as was Cowan for Scotland, but neither were on Robshaw’s level.
8. Billy Vunipola (England)
It wasn’t Vunipola’s most effective performance with ball in hand in an England shirt, but he was still the most willing carrier of the England forwards and he went forwards more often than not. What has gone relatively unnoticed is his workrate in defence, from minute one to 80, that saw him finish England’s second top tackler with 14 made and none missed. Impressive stats for such a big unit.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
13 replies on “Six Nations 2015 Round 1: Team of the Week”
Robshaw was apparantly so good he played in Paris as well as Cardiff. He really does have a motor, that man. 😉
Well he ran out of people to tackle in Cardiff, so makes sense …
He is basically superman. That is why some people don’t recognise his awesomeness, his disguise is too good.
The Welsh Medical Team need to be in there. Despite George North’s second injury being shown on the big screen, and producing an audible crowd reaction, none of them thought that it deserved their attention!
Not sure how Attwood doesn’t feature, just a superb performance from him
Also, think we are looking at JJ with somewhat rose-tinted specs. Yes, he took his try brilliantly and there’s no doubt he was a threat, but according to the stats, he only made 7 metres off 5 runs – most of which came in scoring his try. To say he “always made metres” is somewhat of an exaggeration.
Could we also have an award for most effective and suprisingly good sub? Twelvetrees would win it by a country mile
Not to be a pain but im guessing the writer of this article is a big england fan :p
15 slots, 6 teams, 6players from England.
Don’t get me wrong England played better in the game against Wales & got the win that (unfortunately) they deserved.
Not one Italian player? there defense did a damn good job for 80% of the game but that’s not good enough to warrant a slot on this team?
2 slots for Scotland and not 1 for Italy is a sham, same goes for Wales. Yes they didn’t win there games but not all 15 played bad.
Disappointed in this list despite some deserving the slot far to many players over-looked for my eyes.
Such as whom?
Castrogiovanni for starts, he was solid throughout.
Its no use just complaining about the choice with no specifics
Name the players you would not have in this composite team and the players you felt played better.
PS – personally I’d have had Dan cole at 3, Attwood at 4, Haskell at 6 and possibly Youngs at 9 so not enough English players for me
Well i’m not about to sit and rewatch all the games and compare player to player I just think it’s tilted far to much to England. Yes they won a game, yes it was expected to go the other way, but they didn’t win by a landslide they won by 6points. The Ireland/Italy game ended up a blowout to the Italians but the game was far to close until a yellow card which shows just how well the Italians were doing. The Scotland/France game could of also gone either way. Which shows that many players did there job, I’m not sitting here saying “give halfpenny the spot” because he didn’t do as well as he is capable and I prefer to rank players compared to how well they can play not just against the other 5 teams (which is also a factor).
My point is that England weren’t the only team to play well and yes they won the game they were predicted to lose but that doesn’t make them stand out amazing it half the positions. Wales didn’t play great, far to many mistakes, and the tactics got a little “stale” so I don’t think England had players paying amazing I felt the large majority were “average” they just got lucky against a Wales team that went to sleep early on.
So by stating (and reiterating) the Italians shouldn’t be over looked they played solid for a large amount of the game, they held back a strong Ireland squad until they were a man down, that is more than England did. So despite the end-game result, I think that should of been acknowledged and reflected in this list.
mistake (wont let me edit) I obviously meant a blowout for the irish not the italians
Struggling a bit with your argument here. How can you criticise a selection without presenting your own?
If you look at the XV, it’s split: England: 6, Ireland: 4, France: 3, Scotland: 2.
Is that a fair reflection of the weekend? I’d say so. Wales and Italy got beaten at home. Italy by 23 points in a game they never looked even they thought they had a chance in. The only Wales player that looked more than average was Faletau but Vunipola had more impact in the game during the second half when it mattered so he edges it. Is that debatable? Course! But I struggle to see how it could possibly be bias.
I’m also pretty sure that Jamie Hosie is Scottish, not English – is that right?
Shouldn’t the post pad be in here for tackle of the weekend?
Laidlaw at nine for me. I know they didn’t win but wow, what a performance. Zipping, commanding, kicking. At the centre of all that Scotland did. Can’t wait till Sunday. Should be huge.