Painful truth is Italy are just getting left behind
With two rounds gone, what have we learned so far from this year’s Six Nations?
First, that the standard appears better than in recent years, with Scotland definitely being more competitive, which has to be good for everyone. Next we learned that despite beating a below par New Zealand, Ireland are not as good as they thought they were.
It’s also become clear that England have acquired the attribute that the very best sides have, the ability to find a way to win even though they’re not at their best. In part that’s down to superior fitness levels, it seemed to me the Welsh, and to an extent the French, just lost out in that department. Eddie Jones wants England to become even fitter, and that should seriously worry their rivals.
It also seems as though, once again, Italy will be the whipping boys, and the argument for them retaining their place gets flakier with each year that passes.
Sir Clive Woodward made the case for the tournament being held over five weeks, with the wooden spoon side then playing off against the winners of the Rugby Europe Championship for the sixth slot. Both his proposed changes are compelling: if the RWC asks the two finalists to play seven games in seven weeks, then five Six Nations games in five weeks has to be fine. Anyone using that moveable feast, player welfare, as an argument against change needs to explain why it is acceptable in RWC years.
It’s time for the weakest of the Six Nations teams to start justifying their place in the tournament, and having to beat another country – more than likely Georgia – would be a good way to do it.
Recently the chief executive of the Six Nations ruled out promotion and relegation, but in doing so merely reinforced the impression that it is an archaic closed shop, more dedicated to making money for the Unions than encour- aging proper, meaningful competition.
What scares the living daylights out of the organisers is the nightmare scenario where one of the big five had a really bad year, got the wooden spoon, and lost in a relegation play-off. Just imagine the furore if that happened, and their place was taken by one of the ‘minnows’!
World Rugby’s website featured Georgia’s win over Romania in front of 55,000 people in Tbilisi, and they were in self-congratulatory mood, saying how big a part their ‘far-reaching investment programme’ had played.
So now it has to be time for them to exert pressure on the Six Nations dinosaurs and encourage change. How likely is that to happen? Probably on a par with the chances of Mike Brown throwing a pass in this year’s tournament!
It’s amazing how Six Nations fever affects some people’s minds. Last week’s headlines, admittedly mainly in the Celtic newspapers, were so blinkered it was embarrassing.
It was all about Greg Laidlaw and how his injury will keep him out of the rest of the tournament, to the detriment of Scotland’s prospects, but the fact of the matter is that he’s an employee of his Premiership club, not his country.
Gloucester, just like every other club, under World Rugby regulations, is obliged to lend players out for Six Nations games. The Scots and the Welsh don’t have a deal in place like the one the RFU has for England players, so on rest weekends during the tournament, it’s up to the clubs whether they field them.
This weekend Bath exercised their right to play Taulupe Faletau, and Ross Moriarty turned out for Gloucester – no doubt if Laidlaw had been fit, he’d have come in for consideration as well. Quite right, too. He who pays the piper calls the tune, a fact some seem to have forgotten!
In last week’s paper there was a letter from David Wright questioning my view that there is no longer a gap between the very best of club rugby and the international game.
He used the example of Bath vs Northampton, but I think he missed my point as both teams were missing a host of their stars.
Better comparisons will be when the European quarter-finals, or the Premiership play-offs, come around. I stick by my view that games between club sides at full strength who play together most weekends, will be a match for most international teams which are cobbled together, and in some cases have inferior coaching set-ups!
Incidentally, eliminating Premiership games between weakened sides is the most compelling argument for compressing the Six Nations into five weekends!