Six Nations 2015 Round 2: 5 things we learned

1. Disciplinary issues

There were two airborne tackles that caused furore in the Scotland vs Wales game, the first involving Finn Russell and the second involving Jonathan Davies. There are a myriad of issues surrounding the two incidents, including intent, consistency of application of the law and the duty of care of the tackling player. Law 10.4 (i) states “A player must not tackle nor tap, push or pull the foot or feet of an opponent jumping for the ball in a lineout or in open play” which leaves quite a lot up to the interpretation of the referee. Unless I’ve missed something, nowhere do the laws go into detail about duty of care, or intent, or where the line is between yellow and red card offences – certainly, Finn Russell’s looked worse than that of Jonathan Davies, and was alarmingly similar to Jared Payne’s offence a couple of years ago, which sparked this whole debate. Where is the consistency? Referees need to be educated better than just making their best guess. Intriguingly, just above the aforementioned ruling, Law 10.4 (h) states “A player must not charge into a ruck or maul. Charging includes any contact made without use of the arms, or without grasping a player.” The below Vine of one such an incident has been doing the rounds since the weekend – is it going to take a serious injury for this to be policed properly?

2. Are you not entertained?

The England management could have been forgiven for channelling a bit of Maximus Decimus Meridius in the aftermath of their win over Italy. Six tries and 47 points later, many fans seemed still disgruntled. Sure, there were some disappointing missed tackles but the crux of the matter is, England have added +30 to their points difference and scored six tries, three of which included no little skill, two of which were well worked forwards moves and one of which was a stroke of masterful opportunism. Anyone moaning about the way England played would do well to cast their minds back two years to when the side had to rely on six Toby Flood penalties to scratch their way to an 18-11 win. That was the year they were also slaughtered by Wales in Cardiff, so to have come through what were 2013’s two biggest disappointments so well is hugely impressive. There are things to work on, but it sets England up well for the rest of the Championship.

3. Less than the sum of their parts

How can a team that is packed full of as much individual talent as France fail to conjure more than one try from the opening two rounds? Any side that can point to Camille Lopez, Damien Chouly, Wesley Fofana, Teddy Thomas and Yoann Huget should be scoring for fun, regardless of who is defending. And yet they seem devoid of ideas, unsure of their identity as a team and unsure of what the right style of play for them is. Their only try this championship came at the weekend and to be fair to them, it was a beauty. But it was borne of relaxing the structure they had employed, and almost harking back to the more laissez-faire attitude for which they used to be known. Perhaps the shackles need to be slackened – every side needs to play within some sort of structure but the old cliché of ‘Gallic flair’ is slipping further and further from the truth. And with the quality of players they have, it really shouldn’t be.

4. Same old Scotland

Well, that’s not actually true. There is a brave new Scotland team threatening to emerge, a side that possesses a set of backs capable of mixing it with the best and coming out on top. The like of Stuart Hogg and Mark Bennett have the potential to be mentioned in the future in the same breath as the finest attacking talent in the world, and while Finn Russell had a thoroughly mixed game against Wales he must be given the chance to prosper as he is comfortably the most rounded player Scotland have had in that shirt for quite some time. And yet they are still dogged by the same issues that have hampered them in years gone by. Most glaringly, they have an unfailing ability to shoot themselves in the foot when the chance to score, or win the game, presents itself. Countless times they butchered try-scoring chances, and Jim Hamilton’s moronic decision to pick a fight with the clock rapidly approaching the red zone, thus denying Scotland time to receive the restart, was so typical of a side that has worked harder than any down the years to throw away winning positions. It is so frustrating for the fans.

5. All eyes on Dublin

England’s visit to Dublin in round three was always going to be one of the biggest games of the tournament, but now it looks especially gargantuan. Both sides are unbeaten, and if England have played the better rugby in the tournament so far then Ireland’s home advantage will negate that. Picking a winner is going to be desperately difficult, but the ace in hole could well prove to be Ireland’s savvy Kiwi Joe Schmidt. He has transformed this Ireland side into one that is ruthlessly pragmatic, and can pick apart a side’s weaknesses while negating their strengths. It is why you can bet Ireland will have a way of stopping Jonathan Joseph – the chances of him being anywhere near as influential for a third game in a row seem slim. Ireland are struggling to score tries, though, but when you’re winning that hardly matters. Turn over England at the Aviva Stadium, and it’s tough to see them not winning the title.

By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images