2014 Six Nations Round 1 review

Round 1 of the Six Nations produced two surprises for me – I had expected much better performances from both Wales and Ireland than we saw.

France v England
This match had been billed as ‘Le Crunch’ and it was definitely the match of the round.

Within the first 17 minutes Yoann Huget had collected two tries from kicks in behind the English defence.

I’ve seen comments that these tries were lucky as the ball bounced perfectly for France.

The first wasn’t lucky – it was a well executed cross kick that landed where it needed to and Huget got himself into the right position to gather the ball and change direction to beat Mike Brown. In fact if the ball hadn’t bounced straight it would have been unlucky.

The second certainly involved a lucky bounce but the opportunity should never have been there. Alex Goode made a really poor attempt to tackle Huget, which allowed him to put Brice Dulin into space. The bounce from the kick through was cruel for England when they looked to have it covered but again Huget got himself into good position to attack the ball when it bounced toward him.

England made a number of poor handling errors during the half and wasted some good opportunities. Each team had added penalty goals to leave France leading 16-3 as halftime approached.

Five minutes before the break, Danny Care sparked England into action with a quick tap near the French line. Great hands from Billy Vunipola to pick up a pass off the ground and then distribute quickly led to Mike Brown’s first try for England and the score was 16-8 at halftime.

England certainly looked a better team after the halftime break. An Owen Farrell penalty goal early in the second half was followed by a strong break from Billy Vunipola to set up Luther Burrell for a great try on debut.

All of a sudden England had the lead 18-16.

A Care drop goal followed and with 15 minutes remaining England led 21-16 and looked like they were going to finish the game off.

The French were forced to take the ball into touch just five metres out from their own line and you got the feeling England were certainties to drive the ball over from the lineout but that plan came unstuck as they lost the lineout.

A penalty goal to each side left the score at 24-19 in England’s favour with four minutes on the clock.

The French maintained possession and worked their way out of their own half before Dimitri Szarzewski found space on the left side of the field showing great pace and skill to set Gael Fickou free.

Fickou stepped inside Goode and brought the ball around under the posts to secure a 26-24 victory for France in the dying stages.

It was an entertaining match and France obviously surprised many people who thought they may continue their poor form from last season.

Now, they look like they could be a threat in the rest of the tournament.

England will rue a very good opportunity to start the tournament with a victory but the reality was a number of poor handling errors, difficulties at the scrum and lack of composure when in good position let them down.

Wales v Italy
Wales got out of the blocks well in this match, showing plenty of attacking intent.

Alex Cuthbert scored a try after only three minutes and Wales made several good breaks early in the half.

They seemed quite comfortable running the ball from within their own 22 but couldn’t generate points due to scrambling Italian defence.

Close to halftime the Italians were only trailing 10-3 but a Jamie Roberts burst created a nice try for Scott Williams, who scored under the posts to give Wales a handy 17-3 break.

Wales seemed to switch off in the second half and Italy lifted.

In the second minute of the half Rhys Priestland dropped the ball and Italy pounced, moving the ball quickly to the left wing before Michele Campagnaro won the race to the ball after a kick through and the Welsh lead was reduced to 17-8.

Leigh Halfpenny would be the only scorer for Wales in the second half, with two penalty goals, and Italy looked the better team for most of the half.

With 12 minutes remaining Halfpenny threw a poor intercept pass and Campagnaro raced 55 metres to score under the posts, reducing the deficit to just five points.

Italy had opportunities in the second half but lacked the experience and class to finish the job off.

Halfpenny’s goal kicking allowed Wales to finish 23-15 up in a far from convincing display.

Wales struggled at scrum time, with Paul James at loosehead conceding a number of penalties. Priestland played well in the first half but made too many errors in the second half.

Scott Williams was solid in the centres but with Jonathon Davies getting through his match for Scarlets he’ll probably come back into the team to provide some extra attacking spark.

Wales were a little complacent in this match, particularly after their fast start, but then again I may not be giving enough credit to the tenacity of the Italians.

Ireland v Scotland
I said last week I wasn’t expecting much from Scotland and I’m afraid that’s what we got. They just don’t seem to have the depth of quality players to compete at the moment.

Having said that, it was Scotland who looked the better team for much of the first half, which says something about how poorly Ireland were going.

Just two minutes out from halftime Ireland had only managed to grind out a 6-3 lead.

However, Johnny Sexton made a great break from well inside his own half and linked up with Jamie Heaslip, who looked to have scored in the corner. Upon review no try was ruled as Heaslip had put a toe into touch before he could ground the ball.

This gave Scotland a lineout five metres from their own line, which they subsequently lost.

With good field position, Ireland found space and Andrew Trimble went in for what was a relatively easy try to give Ireland an 11-3 lead at halftime.

Scotland managed a penalty goal early in the second half to close the gap to five points but that was to be the end of their scoring.

Ireland showed a little more promise in the second half and they were rewarded with a try to Heaslip after six minutes from a driving maul.

Scotland focussed on trying to sack the jumper and Ireland worked their way around the defence by initially shearing towards the posts to drive over with very little resistance.

Ireland now led 18-6 and then 21-6 after a Sexton penalty goal.

Ireland then seemed to switch off again and it wasn’t until the last ten minutes that Rob Kearney broke through some feeble Scottish defence that they eased well away on the scoreboard to finish with a 28-6 victory.

The Irish scrum was strong but Scotland didn’t offer much resistance in this area. Ireland lost two lineouts but Scotland lost five.

Scotland are looking like certainties to win the wooden spoon this season. Ireland sit top of the table after Round 1 but will know they’ll have to improve significantly before next week if they are to remain in the hunt to retain that spot.