Rugby: England claim the Six Nations cup in nail-biting win

A full 237 days after its suspension in March, the Six Nations cup reached a “thrilling” conclusion last Saturday when England claimed the title in nail-biting fashion, said BBC Sport. The final round of matches began with three teams – England, France and Ireland – all still in with a realistic chance of winning. Ireland, on 14 points, held a onepoint lead over their rivals, but England had a big advantage: they were to play Italy – the weakest team in the competition – whereas France and Ireland faced each other. Most pundits predicted that a win in Rome with a bonus point (awarded for scoring four tries in a match) would be enough to secure England a 29th win in the competition – and their third in the past five years. front and erratic” against a team that last won a Six Nations match in 2015.

But we need to cut England some slack, said Brian Moore in The Daily Telegraph. The performance against Italy was certainly “uneven”, but it’s understandable that they should have been rusty: they hadn’t played an international match in seven months, and their one scheduled warm-up game against the Barbarians had to be cancelled after 12 Barbarian players were found to have breached coronavirus restrictions. In fact, it would be wrong to conclude on the basis of this competition that France are a better team overall. They’re certainly more creative than England – with a capacity to score tries at any time. But they also have a tendency to make “stupid errors” – as with Haouas’s sending off against Scotland, and again against Ireland on Saturday when a yellow card for their full-back, Anthony Bouthier, “allowed Ireland back into the game”. England, by contrast, have a rare ability to shut opponents out of a game for long periods. I would say that, overall, they are deserving Six Nations victors.