Scots should just have been awarded the win

Postponing France game creates fixture issue while Six Nations winners may not be known until summer

When you think about how tightly packed this season’s schedule is now, particularly with the hope that the Champions Cup and Challenge

Ruled out: Antoine Dupont is one of the France players to have tested positive for Covid, causing the postponement Cup quarter-finals are going to take place, when is this postponed France-scotland game actually going to be played? The end of June? The first week of July once the Top 14 in France has finished?

“Super Saturday” is normally one of the great days of the rugby season. We were expecting France to host Wales at 8pm on that final day, with the likelihood that both teams would have gone into it with everything on the line and knowing exactly what they had to do to win the title. That could still have been the case even if France had forfeited their game with Scotland.

Now Super Saturday looks like being a non-event, and we might not know the winner of the Six Nations until the summer. Choosing that option seems utterly bizarre to me.

The Six Nations Council will sit down and see if anyone is at fault and whether this could have been avoided. You would also normally have expected them to consider whether the game should be cancelled and Scotland awarded the points. That is what happened when Fiji had to forfeit their matches in the Autumn Nations Cup, and what most observers would have expected to happen here.

It would also, of course, have ended France’s Grand Slam dream. Obviously, the French Rugby Federation will have known that, and I wonder if it could have gone ahead and played it with a different squad. It is not as though France are short of quality and they could probably put out four teams of an international standard, although they are clearly not as strong as a team containing Antoine Dupont and Charles Ollivon.

Now, though, we are looking at arguments over when the game will be played and the potential release dates for players on both sides. Clearly, TV contracts are in place, but I struggle to see how this is a better outcome than simply cancelling the game and awarding Scotland the win. It is tough, but those are the circumstances we are living in right now.

If the France-scotland game on Sunday had been cancelled, it would unquestionably have opened up the title race and the prime beneficiary would have been Wales, who I believe are the favourites against England tomorrow. Unless the England pack can rediscover some of the form we have seen in recent years, given the way Wales have battled to find a way to win their previous two games, they have a slight advantage. The Wales back line looks particularly strong.

England have gone for a six-two split on the bench again, which I always think is dangerous. If you lose your scrum-half to a hamstring in the first five minutes, that is the most at-risk position. What if Dan Robson comes on and then has to go off for a head injury assessment, leaving you without a scrum-half with perhaps George Ford filling in for a few minutes? That makes it more difficult to win. England will argue, however, that the stats suggest having six forwards is the way to win games.

The George Martin selection is so far left-field that I do not think anyone saw it coming. The guy is a huge talent, as is Freddie Steward at Welford Road, but he is 19. You just think, wow, that is a dramatic rise.

Sam Simmonds or Alex Dombrandt or Ted Hill; they just do not fit with Eddie Jones at the moment. If you are not the flavour of the month … it is like Eddie only eats certain vegetables. Simmonds is obviously sprouts, or broccoli, which do not sit well with Eddie’s palate currently.

Every England supporter and pundit, whether Eddie likes it or not, thinks this is a big game for him. We need to see improvement from England if you are going to accept this experimental phase. Otherwise, what are we doing as a rugby nation?

I am not sure anyone is fully convinced with what England are trying to achieve at the moment. You can see the negativity on social media that surrounds watching England. Tomorrow against Wales could be the point where England start to turn things around and people believe in them again.

‘Super Saturday’ is one of the great days in rugby. Now it looks like being a non-event