DAVID SOLE

With the dust settling on the Six Nations Championship, there is now time to reflect on the competition.

For many, it was the most-exciting Championship for years, particularly after a somewhat dull Autumn Nations Cup, when the rugby was pretty insipid. Not so, the 2021 Six Nations.

Teams seemed to find their attacking mojo again and some of the rugby was fabulous.

Add to that, the nail-biting finishes in many of the games, fans could not criticise the tournament for not increasing their heart rates.

And yet it was not all on the plus side of the equation.

Some of the refereeing was somewhat suspect and there cannot have been any rugby competition that has witnessed as many red cards over the course of the tournament.

England will have just cause to complain about the refereeing in their match against Wales. They conceded two tries in the most bizarre of circumstances.

Momentum, such an important aspect of rugby, was sucked away from England, who until then had been playing well and it switched to Wales, who capitalised in spades, to win the match convincingly.

Take away those two tries and perhaps things may have been a bit different.

‘ Scotland becoming a force to be reckoned with

Wales were also fortunate in their matches against Ireland and Scotland, to play much of both games against 14 opponents.

There is no doubt that the referees in this instance were right to send off the respective players. But surely it is time that the game’s administrators looked at the breakdown carefully to try to make it safer, rather than punish the players who are trying to clear out the jackals.

Head injuries are rightly in the spotlight, given the issues with concussion, but the game needs the laws to be changed to become safer and quickly.

France will still be rueing the fact that Wayne Barnes chose not to consult the TMO in the final match against Scotland.

It was odd that a referee with such a high reputation and standing, did not avail himself of the technology – just to double-check his decision.

And what of poor Italy. It was their worst series of matches since they joined the competition 21 years ago.

Doubtless there will be calls for Georgia to be admitted as a replacement team for the Azzurri. They certainly don’t seem to be worth their place in the tournament at the moment and that looks unlikely to change in the short term.

So, some ups and downs this year. The lack of crowds significantly impacted home advantage and Scotland undoubtedly benefitted from that. But overall, it was a good Championship.

Perhaps Wales were fortunate to emerge overall winners. But Scotland have proved that they are becoming a force to be reckoned with.