Drop Italy to bring back the level playing field
With the Six Nations taking a break this weekend it gives the opportunity to reflect on the first two rounds, and assess whether the competition is living up to the lofty expectations it sets itself. So far, the answer is ‘no’.
First, despite the predictions that Conor O’Shea will work a miracle with Italy, he really should be doing it in a lower tier of competition.
At home against a rusty England, Italy showed the occasional flash of form, but away in Dublin they were dire, and the game was an embarrassment. They have no right to be in the tournament – they’ve had 18 years to make an impact, and they have singularly failed to achieve that. What possible reason, bar financial, is there for allowing them to drag the tournament down?
Scotland and France are hardly setting the Six Nations alight either. Yes, the Scots’ win at Murrayfield was stirring stuff, but France imploded badly, and I reckon the best sides in the Top 14, PRO14 and Premiership would have seen them both off.
Which leaves England, Ireland and Wales, and it’s hard to know quite what to make of them so far. Wales had a virtual walkover against a Scottish side seemingly determined to commit rugby suicide, and then lost more convincingly than the score suggests against a clinical England. The lesson from that game was that Eddie Jones came up with a game-plan that outwitted Warren Gatland, and he had the players in George Ford and Owen Farrell to execute it perfectly. We don’t yet know how good England are, but so far they’ve done enough.
The same applies to Ireland, who struggled to beat a moderate French side, and then mullered Italy. They entertain Wales next weekend, and then we have another wretched fallow weekend before Scotland travel to Dublin. We’ll know a lot more about the Irish after that, and if they can win both games it could set up a proper finale at Twickenham, assuming the Scots don’t work an unlikely miracle against the Auld Enemy next weekend at Murrayfield!
Another reason to dump the Italians is that the format of the Six Nations tournament is deeply flawed: this year France, Ireland and Wales have three home games, while the English and Italians have two – considering how important home advantage is in rugby, that’s hardly a level playing field. Make it a Five Nations again and there will be two matches each weekend – the whole thing could be done and dusted in five weeks, with each side playing twice at home and away.
The conduct of some players in the England v Wales game bordered on the unacceptable. More and more we are seeing players taunting their opponents when a mistake is made, and it’s unsavoury.
It can be a pat on the head, or it can be, as it was a couple of times from Mike Brown, a sneering word. It was Saracens who created their ‘wolf pack’ culture, but they generally celebrate their successes, and not their opponents’ failures – when Ross Moriarty snarled at the England players, that went beyond celebration and edged towards loutishness. It’s too glib to dismiss it as purely a passionate response.
Respect and sportsmanship are two of rugby’s core values, and it’s time to decide whether those are merely words, or actually mean something.
The Gareth Anscombe non-try in the England v Wales game reinforced my belief that every score must be referred to the TMO. Yes, the New Zealand TMO got it wrong about the touchdown, but it was fully reviewed, and a decision was made in good faith.
This was about as tough as any referral will ever get, and was the stuff of nightmares for the officials – it also happened on the biggest stage.
However, I’d still prefer that level of scrutiny, rather than the ref and his assistants being left to make a decision based on their immediate reactions.
Besides, and this reinforces the challenge the TMO faced, having watched it dozens of times, I’m still not certain that as well as hitting Stef Evans’ knee, the ball didn’t also touch a fingertip.
The use of the TMO doesn’t guarantee certainty, but it’s all about percentages, and many more decisions will be the correct ones when he or she gets involved.