I’m
female and don’t profess to knowing the particulars of rugby, although
having played for a couple of years at university, I have a loose,
perhaps slightly tenuous grasp of the game. I enjoyed the running,
catching, switching, handing-off, scoring part of the 80 minutes on the
pitch and will openly admit to having very little idea of what went on
in the front row and indeed the finer points of the game. However this
I know; Rugby excites me. And England playing rugby gives me a
disturbingly unhealthy thrill… Yes, I appreciate the players (and the
tight shorts and bulging thighs are a nice touch) but aside from the
obvious, I genuinely love the game and can think of nothing better than
devoting my dreary winter weekends to watching England win the Six
Nations tournament. Well, that was the plan…
How
wrong I was. My excitement soon turned to disappointment as week after
week, match after match England suffered one loss after the other. To
be fair England entered the Six Nations following a string of mediocre
performances and with a wealth of players sidelined due to injuries.
The most telling were in the centre (Greenwood and Tindall) and at
fly-half (Wilkinson). Adding to that, this year’s Six Nations was
perhaps the most evenly matched competition in a decade.
The boys
in (royal) blue did not appear the usual threat having picked up a
number of injuries. Scotland’s relatively few matches this year had
showed promise as they showcased a young, physical side and the Welsh
following their outstanding performance in 2003’s World Cup had never
looked so good. In previous years Italy had never really stood a chance
in the championship but this year their team was strong and the back
row looked exciting and Ireland entered the tournament as the bookies
favourite amid rumours of O’Driscoll captaining the Lions. Their team
looked good for the championship with an explosive back row and an
equally formidable pack. In fact, following England’s (frankly)
embarrassing performance against Wales in the opening weekend of the
tournament I was wishing I’d put some money on Ireland to win the Grand
Slam. They seemed a dead certainty at that point despite O’Driscoll and
D’Arcy coming off due to injury. All the initial talk was of Ireland.
Wales, although having beaten England (albeit narrowly and incidentally
for the first time at Cardiff in 12 years) did not really figure in my
mind as Grand slam champions.
England’s first 3 matches were lost largely as a result of
- Inexperience
- Poor kicking
- Lack of pace and ingenuity in the back row
I’m
sure there are plenty more reasons for their defeat, but to me, these
seem glaringly obvious. I think maybe in the past England have been
guilty of relying on a few reliable old hands i.e. Hill, Back, Johnson,
D’alligio, Dawson, Greenwood and certainly Wilkinson. This is the
invincible England team I know and love, however following retirement
and injury, Andy Robinson (Coach) was forced to put out a fairly novice
team for England’s first international outing of 2005. Two such novices
were Jamie Noon and Matthew Tait, the latter making his international
debut after playing only 11 premiership matches. Much was made of this
pairing, however Tait seemed to flounder amongst the big boys and was
replaced after an hour by Barkley (himself fairly inexperienced on the
international stage) and Noon didn’t live up to the hype surrounding
him either, although as the tournament progressed he certainly managed
to change a few minds. England’s first game was lost by 2 points and
won by the silver boot of (welsh hero and Mr Charlotte Church) Gavin
Henson in a last minute penalty. The result was 11 –9.
England’s
second meeting was against the French on home soil. It was an
incredibly exciting game with England going into half time with a
convincing lead. The French fought back in the second half and a wide
drop goal attempt from Hodgson in the dieing minutes of the game
resulted in the first victory for France at Twickenham since 1997.
France won 18 to England’s 17 points.
Two weeks later
England met Ireland at Lansdowne Road. Ireland were sporting a full
strength team with D’Arcy, O’Driscoll and O’Connell having fortuitously
recovered from injury. At the end of the day the ‘luck of the Irish’
held strong and following a couple of disallowed tries from the
visitors, Ireland made it their third consecutive victory and England
their third defeat. The final score was Ireland 19, England 13.
On
March 12th, as Martin Corry made his first outing as England’s captain,
the team finally put an end to their run of defeats and gave us
something to cheer about. It was obvious from the out set who the
stronger side was, sadly for all their efforts Italy lacked vision and
creativity and England beat a down in the mouth Italian team 39 to 7,
helped greatly by a marvellous hat trick from Mark Cueto.
England’s fifth and final game against Scotland on March 19th
was not as we hoped at the beginning of the championship, a decider for
first place, but indeed fourth place. However we did manage to crush
the Scots and end the tournament on a high note with Noon answering his
critics with a hat trick and Cueto continuing his try-a game ratio. The
final score, England 43, Scotland 22.
So to everyone’s
great surprise Wales got the Grand Slam in a thrilling match against
Ireland at the Millennium Stadium and England proved they could be
beaten, many times over! However it’s not all bad, we’ve seen there is
talent within the English ranks, great leadership in the form of Martin
Corry and hopefully by the time the England shirts are pulled on again
in November, against Australia and New Zealand, we’ll have a full
strength team including a world cup winning fly half!
