After 7 weeks of scream-inducingly intense excitement, it's
time to reflect on the 2014 Six Nations.
With Ireland winning the title with a dramatic victory in Paris on
Saturday night, it was the perfect sign off to Brian O'Driscoll's magnificent
career and a championship that has delivered more tries and excitement than any
other in recent memory. Ireland may have
won but they were pushed all the way by an exciting young England side, and the
pair of them were streets ahead of the competition in this year's tournament as
both Wales and France had mixed fortunes, and Scotland and Italy once again
disappointed. So, without further ado,
let's hit the RuckedOver Six Nations awards ceremony – no tuxedo necessary…
We were lucky enough to be served up with some absolute
classics in every round and I could easily have picked France v England or
Scotland v Italy for their last minute dramatics, or France v Ireland for the sheer
pant-shittingly frantic end to the championship, but I've gone for England 13 –
11 Ireland at Twickenham. England's home
crowd was a loud as any could remember for the last decade and the intensity as
the two best teams in the tournament went toe-to-toe was jaw dropping. There was a phenomenal 5 minute spell at the
end where the ball didn't go out of play and both sides continued to plough in
with huge hits that shuddering in their physicality. Brilliant stuff.
Scotland v England.
Not because it was a terrible match in the sense that nothing happened –
England played some very good rugby, in fact – but because Scotland just simply
didn't show up. They were about as
threatening as Mother Theresa to the point where the only thing that was worse
than their performance was the standard of the Murrayfield 'pitch', if it could
be called that, as it resembled a pile of porridge by the end of the 80
minutes. One the sport's great rivalries
looked like little more than a training exercise for the men in white.
The standing ovation Brian O'Driscoll received as he left
the pitch at the Aviva Stadium in his last home game for his country, against
Italy. The legendary centre was utterly
sublime during his 60 minute stint, creating 3 tries through a glorious display
of strength, deception, vision and dexterity.
It was vintage O'Driscoll, and the dignified and humble manner in which
he accepted the applause and then played down his achievements in the
post-match interview was indicative of the unassuming nature of one of the
greatest players the world has seen. At
the risk of rattling a few favours, it drew a stark comparison to the
self-glorifying 'retirement game' of another great player, Shane Williams, who
dived spectacularly over the line for a try against Australia, despite his team
being on the wrong end of a convincing defeat, and celebrated as if he'd just
won the world cup. For O'Driscoll it was
always team first, personal glory second.
Jake Ball shades the brave effort of Gordon D'Arcy. The Welshman's hedge is so thick it usually
contains remnants of that morning's porridge for an in-match energy-boosting
nibble. Magnificent and practical.
 |
| Leigh Halfpenny congratulated Jake Ball on his face-tree |
Scotland and their pitch were a big let-down, as described
above, as were the showings of the Lions-laden Welsh side in defeat against
Ireland and England, but for me Italy have taken two steps back where they took
one forward last year. The Azzurri have
been in this competition long enough for me to avoid patronising them by saying
"It's another step of the learning curve". At the end of the day, they know what the
competition is about and, after winning two games last year, they know how to
beat sides, but the bottom line is that they simply didn't look like winning
games; even against Scotland, they never
looked confident. Aside from the form of
fantastic hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini and the occasional sparks from Michele
Campagnaro and Leonardo Sarto, there was very little to be positive about from
an Italian perspective.
Goes to…Jack Nowell.
In an unprecedented and controversial turn of events, Danny Care no
longer has the most idiotic haircut in the England squad, with young upstart winger
Nowell stealing the award with a classic greasy-slick-across-and-rat-tail
combo. How Care will to this devastating
news is not yet known, but rumours involving bleach and hair-curlers are doing
the rounds on the internet.
Best Try Award
With so many great efforts to choose from, I've decided to
pick my top 3:
3. Danny
Care v Ireland. The try that turned the
game in England's favour and summed up the new, heads-up brand of rugby Stuart
Lancaster's men are playing. Chris Robshaw
spotted a dog-leg in the Irish defence, drew two defenders and offloaded brilliantly
to Mike Brown, who in turn drew in Rob Kearney to send Care scampering away
under the posts.
2. Gael
Fickou v England. The try that, in
hindsight, cost England a Grand Slam in the Championship. France had been dominated in the second half
but, with England out on their feet, Les Bleus scored a spectacular effort in
the final minutes in a manner that only the French can muster. Lovely hands from Szarzwski found the young
centre in space – a dummy and a burst of speed, and the rest is history.
1. Jamie
Roberts v Scotland. Sure, playing
against 14 men made it easier, but the execution and speed of this Welsh
counter-attack showed the 2013 champions at their best, and that's why it's my
favourite try of the tournament. After
Warburton had snaffled a loose lineout ball, Liam Williams broke clear up the
left, before sumptuous offloading and interplay between forwards and backs saw
Jamie Roberts crash over the line. Pure
class.
Best Comment
All others pale into insignificance next to this classic
tweet by Fergus McFadden after he had replaced BOD in the centre's last ever
game in Dublin:
"That standing ovation I got coming off the bench
yesterday was amazing
#Thanks"
Biggest Balls Up
There were some strong contenders in this category, with Pascal
Pape's utterly abysmal attempted pass against Ireland in the dying embers of
the game and Stuart Hogg's brainless shoulder charge both in the running, but
for sheer consistency of cock ups it has to go to Scott Johnson. Got a captain? Drop him.
Got one player who is making yards and having a good game in the
pack? Sub him off. Yes, Johnson demonstrated that he is a keen subscriber
to the Philippe Saint-Andre school of crap coaching, and left most of us
scratching our heads in the process as Kelly Brown and Dave Denton were the
unlucky victims of the Aussie's madness.
Best Player
Perhaps the most clear-cut it has been in a while. There were plenty of worthy contenders –
Leigh Halfpenny for Wales, Brian O'Driscoll and Peter O'Mahony for Ireland,
Bruce Dulin for France, Joe Launchbury and Chris Robshaw for England – but Mike
Brown was just sensational from the first game.
Counterattacking at every opportunity, Voldermort's sporty cousin
demonstrated that he now has world-class finishing ability to complement his
knack of beating defenders from deep and his security in defence. He can now be mentioned in the same breath as
Israel Dagg and Israel Folau. Italy's
Michele Campagnaro wins the young player award for an exciting introduction to
the international stage.
Team of the Tournament:
15. Brown (ENG), 14.
Trimble (IRE), 13. Burrell (ENG), 12. Roberts (WAL), 11. Huget (FRA), 10.
Sexton (IRE), 9. Care (ENG), 1. Healy (IRE), 2. Hartley (ENG), 3. Ross (IRE),
4. Launchbury (ENG), 5. Lawes (ENG), 6. O'Mahony (IRE), 7. Robshaw (ENG), 8.
Heaslip (IRE).
Visit http://www.therugbyblog.com/six-nations-2014-team-of-the-tournament
for my justifications on the selections…
And, of course, no round up would be complete without a
quick check up on how each side did and what, in some cases, went wrong…
Wales: C plus.
Disappointing average. Cracking
displays against France and Scotland were counteracted by ineptitude against
Ireland and England, who showed that if you stop the big runners at source,
there's not much else they can threaten you with. They're still stuffed full of quality
players, but they need a plan B.
England: A minus.
But for 20 minutes against, France, this was a fantastic tournament for
Stuart Lancaster and his merry men. They
may have failed to win the tournament – and they can look to various
inaccuracies in matches aside from Paris where they missed chances to boost
their points difference – but the brand of fast attack and aggressive defence
looks very promising. The key now is to
integrate some of the missing key players of the squad without upsetting the
balance.
Scotland: D minus.
They the bozo at the SRFU who
decided the best way to treat their pitch was to spray it with garlic, as
opposed to arranging an alternative venue when they knew about the problem back
in October. Farcical. The same word could unfortunately be used to
describe Scottish displays throughout the tournament, lacking intensity and
penetration, with 2 competitive displays against Italy and France the only
glimmers of light in a very dark 7 weeks for the Scots.
Italy: D.
See above for "biggest disappointment". They have some talented players now but their
pack, unusually, let them down. Perhaps
they were missing the physical Simone Favaro, but they looked like they were
lacking aggression and athleticism, both of which are delivered in spades by
the Treviso openside. After a positive
campaign last time out, this was a step in the wrong direction.
Ireland. A.
One hardfought loss against England aside, this was a fantastic tournament
for the Irish. They looked fit, physical
and clinical throughout the tournament and deserved a championship victory with
a lung-busting display in Paris. The
fact that they went from 5th to 1st with effectively the same team is a sign of
how well Joe Schmidt has done with his troops.
The next key question is if they can keep going to the next World Cup with
Brian O'Driscoll retiring and four 34 year olds still forming the spine of the
team.
France. B minus.
The fact that they were still in with a shout of winning the tournament
on the last day was mind-blowing. They lucked out against England, performed
well enough against Italy, and were abject against Wales and Scotland, yet
somehow snatched a win from Murrayfield.
Only in defeat to Ireland did the ferocious French pack stand up and
demand to be counted. With a gameplan
that just didn't make sense, Les Bleus need to go back to basics, and settle on
a half-back pairing.
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