Inside rugby union's big showdown
London - Thanks for reading and contributing to this blog during this year's RBS Six Nations.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We're now closing the blog - but before we go if you have any feedback on how we did things or ideas for how we might do them in the future, let us know here.
We have plans to revive the blog during the Rugby World Cup this autumn so will try and incorporate good suggestions.
Thanks.
London - So after five weekends of thrilling action, the dust has settled on another Six Nations campaign.
Before the tournament started, our team of 大象传媒 Six Nations bloggers sat down to select a combined team of the tournament and we did the same three games in.
Now hostilities have come to an end, the votes have been painstakingly counted and we can exclusively reveal what we think is our definitive starting XV.
Triple crown winners Ireland provide six of the team, with champions France and Italy having four players apiece.
Youngster David Strettle is England's only selection while Wales and Wooden Spoonists Scotland miss out altogether.
Six players from the original team have kept their places, and interestingly five of them are in the pack.
Let us know what you think of our selections, what we've got right, what we've got wrong, and let us know how your Six Nations XV would look.
I left Rome on Saturday night. There was a tentative plan to rearrange a flight and stay and experience this intriguing drink you call "Guinness" in the Italian capital with a big, bald former hooker. I'm glad I didn't.
Has a celebration ever fallen so flat?
The Six Nations may have been criticised for a lack of quality. Kiwis will be sleeping soundly in their nests. But I can't remember a more dramatic conclusion to the competition. In fact, it was one of the most dramatic afternoons I can remember in any sport.
London - The 2007 Six Nations ended in controversial, joyous, heartbreaking or infuriating fashion depending on the colour of your shirt.
But there's no doubt it's been a cracker - maybe not for the actual quality of rugby but for the drama and suspense right up until the final match.
France, Ireland and England were all tied at the top of the table going into Saturday's finale, meaning every point scored, for or against, would be crucial in deciding the eventual winners.
Cardiff - James Hook's outstanding display against England has given new hope to a Wales team that had looked bereft of it for much of the Six Nations.
But it has also provided coach Gareth Jenkins with a rather tricky selection dilemma in the very near future.
Millennium Stadium - Wales secured their first win of the Six Nations and avoided the Wooden Spoon with a hard-earned 27-18 win over England in Cardiff.
See what you think of my player ratings for both sides.
London - France beat Scotland in an exciting match which all but clinched the Six Nations title for Les Bleus.
The Scots were clinging on at 20-14 down at half-time but were blitzed by a barrage of second-half scores, including Elvis Vermeulen's all-important last-gasp try.
See if you agree with my ratings of the Scotland team.
London - Ireland ran riot at Stadio Flaminio with a victory over Italy to leave France needing to beat Scotland by 24 points to win the Six Nations title.
See if you agree with my ratings of the Ireland team.
Cardiff - I took a fair bit of abuse in a previous blog as people seemed to think that my desire to see Wales beat England made me some sort of atavistic cave dweller.
With the big Cardiff showdown now looming large, I鈥檓 still clearly smarting as I鈥檝e decided to revisit the touchy subject.
Now I don鈥檛 believe that a win over our oldest rivals should be Wales鈥 ultimate ambition, or that it would completely make up for a for Gareth Jenkins鈥 team. But it would set the world to rights, if only for a short while 鈥 and here鈥檚 why鈥
The penultimate round of Six Nations games has thrown up plenty of queries for my colleague Hugh Watkins and I.
This week we cover the controversial ending to the Wales v Italy game in Rome as well as issues surrounding Ireland's win over Scotland.
Bath - England coach Brian Ashton may have only made to face Wales on Saturday.
But he certainly retains his reputation as a ruthless selector.
After starting all Six Nations matches so far, Josh Lewsey has been cast out of the entire squad following a disappointing performance against France.
His replacement by Sale winger Mark Cueto, who has never played at fullback for his country before and who has made only a handful of appearances in the position for his club, suddenly means his international future is looking a little uncertain.
Continue reading "Will Lewsey feature in Ashton's future plans?"
Cardiff - Ok, Stephen Jones has taken some pretty vociferous criticism on various blogs and message boards for his performances in this season's Six Nations, and now he's .
I think a lot of the flak has been pretty unfair to a player who is a great servant to Welsh rugby and I would have kept him at outside-half in Wales' first four games of the Championship.
But said that Jones should have been taken out of the firing line after his battering in Rome and I'm with him on that one (hey, it's not a bad opinion to share!), but let's throw it open for your thoughts - I'm sure there'll be a few as usual on the Welsh number 10 debate!
London - As we count down to the , there are still four teams with a chance - mathematically speaking, at any rate - of winning the title.
If, like me, maths in not your strong point, pens, paper, a calculator and a protractor may well be required for what follows....
Belfast 鈥 Now that my very temporary support of England (for very selfish reasons you understand) has quickly evaporated in the thermals above Twickenham, I can look forward to what should be a thrilling Six Nations finale.
While I didn鈥檛 honestly think , I was even less convinced that rolling to a Grand Slam.
But fair play to Brian Ashton鈥檚 boys - who took advantage of a French team that looked asleep for most of the game. So much so, they should have worn their pyjamas, particularly out in the three-quarters.
Glasgow - Friends of mine know that I don鈥檛 like to beat about the bush. So, here goes...why did Ireland coach Eddie O鈥橲ullivan accuse a Scottish player of And this leads to another question: What is an acceptable level of violence on a rugby pitch?
I have been quiet on the blog over the last two weeks because was hard to take. There has been much gnashing of teeth in this country, and even people with no teeth have been provided with them so that they can join in. But I left Murrayfield at the weekend with a feeling that Scotland had played much better and that they should have which turned out to be not quite as good as the hype.
London - Talk about a different kettle of ball games at Twickenham.
England's rousing was a world apart from the dank November defeat at the hands of Argentina, the last time I was at headquarters.
Then, us fans booed as we sank to our lowest ebb in eons. On Sunday, we smiled as the shoots of recovery burst forth in the early spring sunshine.
It wasn't flawless, but that blimming chariot was as low as it's been for a long while.
Twickenham - England put their Croke Park nightmare behind them with an impressive and rousing victory against Grand Slam-chasing France at Twickenham.
Tries from Toby Flood and Mike Tindall rounded off a powerful forward effort as Brian Ashton's side showed significant signs of improvement.
See if you agree with my assessment of the players on show on Sunday.
The Roman amphitheatre, where through the ages one man has decided the fate of the combatants... and 2007 was no different.
In my opinion, . He told Wales centre James Hook there were 10 seconds to go and time to take the line-out, but on the advice of Geoff Warren, the Television Match Official, he then declined to allow time for that line out to take place.
The conversation between Hook, White and Warren goes out on Scrum V programme on 大象传媒 Two Wales this evening (1710 GMT).
Now I usually scoff when a law geek quotes a rule at me, but this weekend I'm a geek too, and by my reading of the relevant rule, Wales were right to feel aggrieved.
Italy claimed an historic second Six Nations win of the season with a over Wales in Rome.
See what you think of my player ratings.
Ireland have claimed their third Triple Crown in four years with a dogged win over Scotland at Murrayfield.
Have a look to see if you agree with my player ratings.
Rome - There is money at stake for Italians tomorrow.
If they can beat Wales and record their second win of the championship then they will each pick up a bonus of 拢15,000.
Forget the pride of recording back-to-back victories in the Six Nations for the first time, this is also about pounds and pence, or euros and cents.
No-one is entirely sure why they have that . Andrea Scanavacca might not be Dan Carter but he did the business against Scotland.
Having said that Ramiro Pez was banging them over from his own half in the sunshine at the this lunchtime.
Cardiff - It occurred to me as I was browsing through the match data on the 大象传媒 Sport website before this weekend's round of games that rugby didn't used to revolve around statistics.
Now we have stats for everything - time in possession, scrums wons, line-outs lost, free-kicks conceded. Free kicks! Always the difference between winning and losing that one.
London - Brace yourself then, England and France fans. Sunday is fast approaching and we all know what that means - "Le Crunch". Two teams in glorious form on collision course in a potential Six Nations decider.
Er, except that it's not, really. If at all, in fact. Technically, the title is still up for grabs but the only thing slightly crunchy about the fixture is whether England can convince us they are not actually as bad as they were in Dublin (that's not to denigrate Ireland by the way). And whether France can maintain their push for a fourth title and third Grand Slam in the last six seasons.
Belfast 鈥 Brian O鈥橠riscoll will equal Keith Wood鈥檚 record of captaining Ireland on 36 occasions when he leads the team out at Murrayfield against Scotland on Saturday.
Undoubtedly he will soon pass that mark, so, is Drico a good leader? He is certainly a good player, indeed a great one. But is he a good captain?
The Wales rugby squad has its far share of humorous player nicknames.
None of them are particularly complimentary, but a fair bit more imaginative than in football, where the tendency is simply to tweak the surname (Giggsy, Keano, Lamps etc)
Gareth Thomas is known as 鈥楢lfie鈥 because of his canny resemblance to the furry alien in the popular 80鈥檚 television series ; Brent Cockbain鈥檚 uncompromising rucking has earned him the nickname 鈥楧isaster鈥; while it doesn鈥檛 take a genius to guess why Gethin Jenkins is affectionately called 鈥楳elon Head鈥.
Bath - England's players could not have asked for better conditions to practise the heads-up rugby to which they aspire.
On a beautiful sunny morning at the University of Bath, England's training session got underway an hour later than scheduled at 11 o'clock, much to the relief of the waiting pack of photographers.
But any insights into what to expect from England are few and far between with media access to the session strictly limited to 20 minutes.
And when I say strict, I mean strict.
London - So Brian Ashton has gone back to the future for the Six Nations game with France on Sunday.
He has lost Jonny Wilkinson, Phil Vickery and Andy Farrell to injury but has still opted for radical surgery, with 10 changes in all.
Mike Catt, 35-years-young, must have thought he had exhausted his nine England lives but he is not only back at inside centre, he has also been installed as captain.
Catt has been enjoying a fine autumn to his career with London Irish over the past couple of years.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.......... It was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair"
Two teams will meet at Murrayfield on Saturday travelling on very different paths in the rugby world.
As impressive as was,
And as much as Ireland expect two straightforward victories to end their Six Nations, Scotland are contemplating two likely defeats.
So how can you possibly compare these two sides?
London Before the Six Nations began, we had a con-flab here in the 大象传媒 Sport website office about who would be in our combined team of the tournament.
After three rounds of action, our original team have not entirely justified our faith in them...Only six of the original XV make our latest combined XV, which has been based on aggregating my selections with four of my colleagues.
Controversially (or not given the results/?), there's no room for a single player from Scotland, Wales - or England.
We will revisit the subject after the final two rounds. Anyway, see what you think..
London - France have had to replace prop Sylvain Marconnet ahead of Sunday鈥檚 Six Nations game with England after .
Our sympathies go out to Marconnet, who will be out for up to four months after suffering what French team doctor Thierry Hermerel described as a 鈥渂ad break鈥.
But it has to be asked, 鈥榟e was doing what?鈥
I don鈥檛 want to accuse the French of being laissez faire, but surely all professional sportsmen have it written into their contracts that pastimes such as skiing are banned for exactly the reason Marconnet has so spectacularly illustrated?
Here's my team of the tournament so far:
15) Girvan Demspey (Ireland) - Best of an average bunch. Not too many great full-backs around at the moment and perhaps a shame that Josh Lewsey hasn't been playing there for England.
14) Shane Horgan (Ireland) -With Dominici on one wing I wanted a bit more firepower here. Picks great lines. great footballing skills. Great finisher.
13) Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland) - I think this boy has potential and could one day develop into a decent player.
Here's my team of the tournament so far:
15 Clement Poitrenaud (Safe, great hands and a good counter attacker)
14 Shane Horgan (Literally head and shoulders over any other contenders)
13 Brian O'Driscoll (You could play him anywhere, but outside centre will do)
Cardiff - Here's my team of the tournament so far:
15. Clement Poitrenaud
14. Shane Horgan
13. Brian O鈥橠riscoll
12. Gordon D鈥橝rcy
11. Christophe Dominici
10. David Skrela
9. Allessandro Troncon
1. Marco Castrogiovanni
2. Raphael Ibanez
3. Andrea Lo Cicero
4. Lionel Nallet
5. Marco Bortolami
6. Simon Easterby
7. David Wallace
8. Alix Popham
Check out our combined VX based on aggregating all our selections.
Here's my team of the tournament so far:
15 - Hugo Southwell
14 - Shane Horgan
13 - Brian O'Driscoll
12 - Yannick Jauzion
11 - Christophe Dominici
10 - Ronan O'Gara
9 - Alessandro Troncon
1 - Andrea Lo Cicero
2 - Raphael Ibanez
3 - Martin Castrogiovanni
4 - Paul O'Connell
5 - Marco Bortolami
6 - Alix Popham
7 - David Wallace
8 - Sergio Parisse
Here's my team of the tournament so far:
15 Clement Poitrenaud 鈥 Girvan Dempsey is a reassuring presence and Kevin Morgan excelled before injury struck again, but the Frenchman has rediscovered his 茅lan.
14 Shane Horgan 鈥 Missed the opener against Wales and not so happy at inside centre against France, but the big wing was back to his barnstorming best against England.
13 Brian O鈥橠riscoll 鈥 Tom Shanklin has given Wales more of a cutting edge since his return from injury but the Ireland captain remains the class act of the field.
Cardiff - The general impression I鈥檝e been getting from around the country this week is that the majority of Welsh fans see their team as the underdogs for next week鈥檚 game with Italy at the Stadio Flaminio.
If that鈥檚 correct, it鈥檚 the first time it鈥檚 happened - although I imagine that moods will swing back to the usual ridiculous Welsh optimism as we build towards the fixture!
I don鈥檛 have any scientific facts to back up the theory, so I thought I鈥檇 throw it open and see what the mood of the nation is.
London - England coach Brian Ashton has maintained his tradition of springing surprises by naming to take on France on 11 March.
Andy Farrell, Nick Easter, Olly Morgan and David Strettle have already been blooded in the three Six Nations games so far so this year 鈥 so could Haskell be next?
The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Welcome to 大象传媒 Sport's Six Nations blog where we'll bring you the inside track from this year's blockbuster event. Here are our tips on taking part & our house rules
Wales 27-18 EnglandFrance 46-19 Scotland| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
