The day got to off to a great start as Italy put in a monumental first-half performance against Wales to keep everyone on the edge of their seat. However, the second-half was a different story as Wales came out and scored an unanswered 47 points, giving everyone the impression they would be crowned the winners come the end of the day. But then Ireland decided to throw a spanner in the works by demolishing Scotland to win by 30 points. This put them in the driving seat and, as expected, all of the pressure was on England to see what they could do. The best was certainly to come, as the game against France at Twickenham was amongst the most stunning matches that has been witnessed for a while. The momentum seemed to switch constantly from one team to another, with England eventually getting the win by 55 points to 35. But it was not enough, as Ireland won the championship by 6 points. Here is my analysis of the last match of the Six Nations.
As I do every week, let's start with the man of the match, Ben Youngs. He was absolutely outstanding today - there are actually not enough superlatives to describe his performance. The two tries he scored were phenomenal, and he had a hand in setting up many of the other tries that England went on to score this evening. Add to this his work at the breakdown, and he was a shoe in to win the award as early as half-time. Unlike Ford today, his kick from hands were done to perfection and he managed to gain England territory time after time. Some stunning breaks topped off what was a really effortless performance from the scrum-half.
You may have noticed I mentioned the fact that Ford's kicking from hand today was way below the level it should have been. I hate to have to pick out the negatives after what was such an intensely amazing game, but I have to give my true analysis. In terms of kicking at goal, George was superb as he always is. But that isn't all there is to the game of a fly-half. You have to control the match, and get your team into a winning position. Ford did not quite manage to do that today, and he needs to make sure he improves this part of his game in time for the World Cup later this year, where I have no doubt that he will be playing. For France, their fly-half Plisson also did not have a good enough game for an international. He missed many kicks at goal, and was also on the receiving end of an absolutely insane smash from Courtney Lawes. They should both take some lessons from Sexton, who is the master at controlling the game.
Speaking of Courtney Lawes, he too had another sublime game. He may have only played two matches for England in the tournament but he was absolutely phenomenal, giving the team the boost they sorely needed in the breakdown. A lot of people were not happy Lawes walked straight back into the team, myself included, but I think his performances have more than justified Lancaster's decision. We must all surely be expecting him to be in the World Cup squad come the end of the year, as he is world class in his position. Speaking of the breakdown, Billy Vunipola also played excellently in that department today whilst making some brilliant breaks and smashing through multiple defenders. England are very good up front, and with a bit of tweaking could be a real force to be reckoned with come the World Cup. I must make a quick mention of our weak link in that part of the squad however - James Haskell. He did not have his best game today by any stretch of the imagination. There were many dropped balls from him that really halted England's forward momentum, and it left the performance feeling a bit jaded at times. We then had the yellow card incident, which was incredibly stupid from him. He knew exactly what he was doing when he stuck his leg out in front of the player, and I cannot fathom in my mind what on earth possessed him to do it. Whilst he was in the bin France scored a try, and I don't think it is much of a stretch to say it was one of the major reasons we did not get the required points difference come the final whistle. He should have been subbed much earlier, and I feel like Tom Wood has done enough to probably reclaim the starting 6 shirt for himself come the World Cup.
Noa Nakaitaci had a stormer for France today, and he was exceptionally dangerous on the wing. He did, of course, score the was it, wasn't it try that the TMO and the ref ultimately decided to give despite his best efforts to screw it up for his team. For me it was a try, as the ball was grounded just before his foot went into touch and his fingers were just touching the ball thus giving him control. Many more times after this he got possession of the ball and ran up the left side with lightning pace. Luckily he was stopped from scoring more tries, but I am sure all of us fans were ridiculously worried whenever he got hold of the ball. In terms of the England wingers, Jack Nowell had a very good game today. He has received some criticism regarding his previous performances as his handling errors were a real problem, but today they were non-existent as he crashed over the whitewash twice to score some excellent tries. With a bit more work, he could be great in time for the World Cup. Today's performance was a real step up for him and he easily demonstrated to everyone why he was brought in for May. Hopefully his critics have been silenced, at least partially.
Overall, England's problem with being clinical that have lasted throughout the tournament is what came back to haunt them this evening. Many times they found themselves dropping the intensity after they scored points, and this allowed France to get into the game much more than we all liked to see. Whilst it was a cracking match, England needed to be much tighter and it showed when they failed to get the required points to lift the trophy. I feel our performance against Scotland in particular is what came back to bite us, as we missed multiple chances to get a bigger score that day. Having said that, England made some major improvements from last week and unfortunately for us France really showed up today and put in one heck of a performance. During the course of the day we saw over 200 points being scored, many of which came from the 20+ tries we saw over the course of the three matches. It serves as the best example that rugby is NOT getting boring, and if you think it is I advise you to watch all of today's matches again! It's been a really great Six Nations, and I hope you have all enjoyed reading my analyses over the five rounds. Thank you all for continuing to support my blog.
Have a great rest of the weekend ruckers,
Jess.
Twitter: @JessKebbell @RuckMeGently
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ruck-Me-Gently/743970519052255
Email: ruckmegentlyblog@gmail.com
Website: ruckmegently.blogspot.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment