Six Nations - Team of the Week - Round 2

 

 

After a weekend filled with dogged aggression and tenacity as opposed to prancing about in open spaces scoring tries for fun, several players emerged from the mud with sparkling reputations – with several Home Nations players doing their chances of Lions selection no harm at all.  Let’s take a look at this round’s Team of the Week...

1. Gethin Jenkins – Welcome back, Geth.  The man from Toulon was solid in the scrum and forced two critical turnovers for the Welsh – a very welcome return to form.  Joe Marler also impressed with a generally solid performance in the scrum and strong work in defence.  Cian Healy has been demoted for his moronic stamp on Dan Cole’s ankle.

2. Rory Best – Did well to turn the tide in the lineout and was a nuisance in defence.  Can have no shame in his performance this week.

3. Dan Cole – A solid day at the office, he didn’t get it all his own way at scrum time but his defensive contribution was phenomenal.

4. Donnacha Ryan – was aggressive and attritional against England, but kept on the right side of the law.  Was vicious at the breakdown.

5. Geoff Parling – the Leicester lock’s stock seems to grow each week.  Colossal in the loose with a huge work rate, and I still can’t understand how a man who looks like he belongs in Rivendell can be so effective on the carry.

6. Ryan Jones – Arguably James Haskell and Peter O’Mahony had more effective games than him, but you can’t look past Jones’ leadership as he captained Wales to a first win in 9 matches.  Well played that man.

7. Kelly Brown – What an awful position to have to choose someone.  I’ve gone with Brown because he was my man of the match for Scotland, but it could quite easily have been the bullocking O’Brien, the fantastic Favaro or the inspirational Robshaw sitting in that spot.

8. Tom Wood – OK, he’s not a number 8 by trade, but he had arguably the most effective game there over the weekend, overshadowing Lions Captaincy candidate Jamie Heaslip by a distance. Has some engine on him.

9. Ben Youngs – A demonstration that he now knows how to boss a game – and he grabbed the one against the Irish by the scruff of the neck.  An excellent tactical performance, but Greg Laidlaw was mightily impressive too and Mike Phillips showed some signs of returning to his old self...

10. Dan Biggar – Owen Farrell would have got it for his critical goal kicksunder pressure but I’ve given Biggar the nod simply because his vision, for North’s try, was the moment he may have turned Welsh rugby around.  And that’s good (if you’re Welsh...).
 

11. George North – One touch, one world class finish.  Ok, he had touched the ball before that, but this was the first time this Six Nations he’d been given a sniff of a chance for a try, and boy, did he take it.  Mike Brown was very strong as well for England.

12. Matt Scott – the Scottish centre bounced back from last week with a strong performance that, on another day, might have ended up with a hat-trick.

 

13. Brad Barritt – In the quagmire that constituted Lansdowne Road on Sunday, Barritt was a brick wall, smashing anything that dared approach his channel backwards, funnelling it in towards the hungry English pack.  An absolute rock.  And in an otherwise atrocious French performance, French barrel of blubber Mathieu Bastareaud also did his job pretty well.

14. Tim Visser – I’ve moved him over to the right wing because his finish showed why he has the reputation he has and I want him in the team.  Good pace, unstoppable step.  Hopefully we see more of him.  A good showing by his wing partner Sean Maitland too, mind.
 

15. Stuart Hogg – I could have given it to Alex Goode easily for the way he dealt with the Irish aerial bombardment, but Hogg just has too much class to be left out.  Oh what it must be like to be that quick...

 

Who would you change from the above?