Sportsvibe’s Six Nations Blog: Mad Englishmen Tarnish a Celtic Classic

The first weekend of the Six Nations has been and gone in a typical explosion of tribal passion, leaving behind the delicious debris of vehement talking points. With half of the sides in the tournament under new stewardship, the opening fixtures of this season’s championship were surrounded by very healthy intrigue. Thankfully, they did not disappoint.

Jacques Brunel’s Italy showed encouraging spirit but could not repeat the heroics of last campaign and were eventually overrun by their Gallic neighbours the Stade de France. Wesley Fofana induced smug justification for many Top 14 fans, the Clermont Auvergne centre capping an assured and sprightly debut with the hosts’ final try in a 30-12 win.

England stepped into Stuart Lancaster’s brave new world with a courageous but cluttered mugging of the Auld Enemy, burgling a first victory at Murrayfield since 2004. Scotland were extremely wasteful, butchering a couple of clear-cut chances in a frantic second half to extend their tryless streak to four Tests. If head coach Andy Robinson seemed disgusted, Dan Parks was evidently distraught and announced his retirement from international rugby yesterday after a rather disastrous 67th cap. It was the fly-half’s botched clearance that lead directly to Charlie Hodgson’s match-deciding try.

Although Saturday produced some rather ragged entertainment, the double-header was comprehensively eclipsed by events in Dublin the next afternoon. There the majority of the players that will make up British and Irish Lions’ touring party for next summer – and some of the coaching team, too – were on show.

A number of striking issues shone through the magnificent chaos of Wales’ topsy-turvy 23-21 victory over Ireland. George North confirmed his status as one of the best backs on the planet with a truly immense display, marrying colossal strength with sumptuous skill, all of it with a couple of months left as a teenager. The sleight of hand by the Llanelli Scarlets winger to put his club colleague Jonathan Davies in for his second try was nothing short of sublime, but there was also graft in defence and selfless running lines to catch the eye over the 80 minutes.

Ireland, despite coming agonisingly close to dispatching the World Cup semi-finalists, were subdued and never quite found the charging impetus that is so often injected into them by their capital city. Though Paul O’Connell is a fine deputy, they missed the enduring, talismanic class of Brian O’Driscoll at the helm. Jonathan Sexton did not assert himself on proceedings as prominently as he would have done for Leinster and could not find precision with the boot. Equally, the usually barnstorming back-row trio of Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip were shackled by a scrambling Welsh pack. They will have better afternoons over the next two months and will certainly run riot at some point.   

For Wales, the result was built on a renewed strength in depth that Warren Gatland has unearthed very nicely. Huw Bennett, so often a bit-part performer in the national set-up who offered a hard-working twenty minutes here and there, led the side out at the Aviva Stadium on his 50th cap. The Ospreys hooker rose to the occasion, too, and was at his mobile, abrasive best for the whole match. Many heads in the Valleys must have sunk inconsolably at half-time with the news that skipper Sam Warburton could not continue after suffering a dead leg, but Justin Tipuric was brilliant from the bench, covering ground like a madman and even shored up the his side’s poor line-out.

Unfortunately, however, the game will not be remembered for Wales’ Leigh Halfpenny and the considerable cojones that allowed him to land a last-gasp penalty. Instead, two very influential refereeing decisions in the last quarter of an hour have proved more newsworthy. Again, after relentless debate over the autumn, the tip-tackle is firmly in the spotlight.

The first incident occurred with the visitors trailing 16-15 on 65 minutes, when Bradley Davies, who had been impressive throughout, took it upon himself revive the bad old days of Welsh rugby and commit a brainless foul on Irish replacement Donnacha Ryan, flipping the Munster lock onto his shoulders after a line-out 20 metres from the Ireland line. It was truly moronic act, which sucked all the momentum from the attack. After a piece of thuggery that looked worse and worse with every slow-motion replay, there was a significant call to be made as well. Because Wayne Barnes was monitoring the maul, rather than the clumsy skirmish that had broken out close by, it was left to his touch judge, Geordie Dave Pearson, to determine the outcome.

Pearson was confident, concise but incorrect in deciding that only a yellow card was sufficient. Given that Tommy Bowe scored during Davies’ cooling-off period, it seemed that the blunder would prove irrelevant. That did not bargain for a late rally from Wales, who summoned the iron will from their unforgiving Polish training camp to send North over in the left-hand corner. With Halfpenny missing the conversion, Gatland’s men had one kick-off and four minutes to escape. Some well-structured and brave running brought them past the opposition ten-metre line before Barnes made his own blunder.

Second-row Ian Evans careered into contact where he was met with a hit by Ferris that sent his legs above the horizontal. It looked ugly, but in no way malicious. Barnes, who had not policed the tackle area with any consistency over the course of the previous 78 minutes, blew up rapidly and took it upon himself to even up the score – a cardinal sin for referees. Ferris was sin-binned for the first time in his 31-cap career and Halfpenny was given a chance to exorcise the demons of his World Cup semi-final miss. 

As it happened, the fall-out from a fantastic rugby match was citings for both Davies and Ferris. Following a hearing in London today, the Welshman was given a seven-week ban, while the Ulsterman was cleared to face France on Saturday. Sounds like the start of a bad joke. It is a real shame that interpretations of the law are the prevailing discussion source in the wake of a bona fide humdinger.

Gatland’s honesty at the final whistle was refreshing. Between purring praise of North, the New Zealander needed just five words to sum up his thoughts on Davies’ digression and condemn Barnes. “It was a red card.” Done. If only the officials were as decisive.

This weekend cannot come soon enough. Let’s leave this mess behind.