Six Nations: the ugliest win?
Was England’s Six Nations victory over Scotland the worst rugby match of all time, asked Owen Slot in The Times. Well, it’s certainly hard to remember a wetter game – or a windier one, for that matter. It didn’t matter what the players did in Edinburgh – “the wind could take anything anywhere”. Owen Farrell tried kicking goals; that didn’t work. Nor did George Ford’s attempt at a drop-goal, or Scotland “hammering away at the line”. But in these “most stressful of conditions”, England ultimately had the edge, with a try from Ellis Genge sealing their 13-6 win.
This was certainly one of the ugliest victories in recent memory, said Nick Evans in The Guardian.
But Eddie Jones and his men will not “care in the slightest”. After five defeats in their previous seven
Six Nations away ties, including to France the previous weekend, they were desperate for a good result. The key to their victory was their supremacy in the middle third of the field – “and a lot of that was down to the work they did at the breakdown”, where they had come off second-best in their defeat to Scotland two years ago. By adding Lewis Ludlam at blindside flanker and the outstanding Tom Curry at No. 8, Jones had three players who are at heart openside flankers, instead of just one. As a result, they were able to “force Scotland to play from deep and feed off the turnovers”. Still, on the whole England performed little better than they had in Paris, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. Jones has retained too many players from the World Cup: this side is starting to look a little stale. England may be marching on, but they are “hardly high-stepping”. At least they’re still in with an outside chance of winning this tournament, said Mark Palmer in the same paper. Two games in, Scotland’s campaign “already looks perilously close to a dead end”. Time is surely up for their head coach, Gregor Townsend, unless they “produce something special” very soon.
The Six Nations has always been a form of “winter entertainment”, said Brian Moore in The Daily Telegraph. But watching this match unfold in “almost unplayable conditions”, it was clear that the tournament would benefit from being moved to the summer. “Good-weather rugby: surely better for players and spectators alike?” Don’t hold your breath, said Nik Simon in the Daily Mail. But a bigger change could be on the way. Until now, the competition has only featured European teams; but South Africa, the world champions, are on course to join it from 2024, turning the Six Nations into the Seven Nations. If that really does happen, it will “radically alter the international rugby landscape”.