England
Position 1st P2 W2 D0 L0 Diff +35 Pts 4 Results Wales 16-21 England, England 47-17 Italy
In two games we have seen the best and the worst of England. Against Wales they put into action what had been learned over the previous year and then within a week returned to their old ways. England should not do phase play – outside the forwards that is – because they are not good at it.
They are too lateral, drifting across the pitch and are liable to get picked off, as they were by Italy, when the support of their big men is a long way off.
There are obvious difficulties playing a limited game against Italy at Twickenham when 80,000-plus fans were licking their lips after Cardiff and expecting a feast. In that respect Dublin may be easier. A win at the Aviva Stadium is all that matters and if the ball hardly goes wider than the fly-half, then so be it. England’s forwards have to impose themselves and the kickers, Ben Youngs and George Ford, be as accurate and disciplined as they were at the Millennium Stadium.
Word seems to be Jack Nowell is likely to replace Jonny May now the memory of the Gloucester wing’s try against New Zealand does not quite burn so brightly. However, that would mean overlooking the more rounded talents and much improved club form of Chris Ashton.
Main man Playing the way England should, Jonathan Joseph will be even more important. Chances are few and far between in Test rugby but the Bath centre seems able to pick most locks.
Ireland
Position 2nd P2 W2 D0 L0 Diff +30 Pts 4 Results Italy 3-26 Ireland, Ireland 18-11 France
There is a clinical feel about the way Ireland play. It is not that they are either better or worse than in the autumn, they are just different.
The expectation was that Joe Schmidt would continue to move Ireland more towards the all-court game that was so devastatingly successful when he coached at Leinster. Instead Ireland’s game plan is more simple: take field position, squeeze until the opposition concedes penalties and then take the points. Build the pressure, much as England did in 2003.
Ireland can play other ways – see Australia in the autumn – however Schmidt’s men have harnessed Munster’s intensity but not (so far anyway) Leinster’s elan and adventure. Perhaps it is because the coach believes that is the way to win the Six Nations in wet and windy February and March.
France was a markedly better performance than against Italy and some on the other side of the Irish Sea are even suggesting their man is holding something back. He is good but that may be going too far.
Main man Jonathan Sexton. More than any other in the Six Nations, the playmaker is at one with his boss in the stands.
France
Position 3rd P2 W1 D0 L1 Diff 0 Pts 2 Results France 15-8 Scotland, Ireland 18-11 France
There is a school of thought that says with a huge pack and talented set of backs it is only the “hinge” that has been holding back Philippe Saint-André’s men this championship. We will see. After Dublin, the scrum-half Rory Kockott has been given the elbow (he has a quad injury as well) and Toulon’s Sébastien Tillous-Borde joins Morgan Parra, the man who stoked French fires for the final 15 minutes against Ireland.
My view is that Saint-André may usefully ditch another of his South Africans, Scott Spedding, a would-be wrecking-ball full-back, in favour of something more creative like Brice Dulin. Remember him against the All Blacks.
Main man Parra, although his inclusion – if he starts against Wales – is likely to bring out the match-winning skills of Wesley Fofana and put the centre in the limelight.
Wales
Position 4th P2 W1 D0 L1 Diff -2 Pts 2 Results Wales 16-21 England, Scotland 23-26 Wales
The team in the Six Nations probably furthest from their optimum. In the past decade Wales have won three grand slams and four championships but they are off-colour.
When referees take a close interest in Gethin Jenkins’s technique at loosehead they can lose the scrum as a weapon and while Alun Wyn Jones is a giant, the lineout has rarely been the launchpad Wales desire for their big centres. The back row may be brilliant at the breakdown but they are hardly a threat in the air. Jamie Roberts was launched only the once – early on and then nothing – at Murrayfield.
If disciplined kicking reduces the options for the back three – Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert and George North – to run the ball back then Welsh attacking options are really limited and it is up to Shaun Edwards’s suffocating defence to win precious ball.
Main man Alun Wyn Jones. So valuable to Wales that Warren Gatland should wrap him in cotton wool until the World Cup.
Scotland
Position 5th P2 W0 D0 L2 Diff -10 Pts 0 Results France 15-8 Scotland, Scotland 23-26 Wales
Under Vern Cotter they are definitely in a better place than this time last season without, so far, winning anything and next comes what seems to be that annual arm wrestle with the Italians over the wooden spoon. And after all that optimism following the autumn.
It is not that they let you down, just that anyone with any emotional baggage would have hoped for more than being brave losers. For once they have the backs. Alex Dunbar is class, Stuart Hogg can score from anywhere and no wonder Scotland were quick to appeal when Finn Russell suffered a two-week ban. Now it is whether the forwards – and particularly the front five - can provide the steel, the aggression and dog to provide the ammunition.
Main man Jim Hamilton. May look a bit left field considering he has started both games from the bench but Big Jim can be cussed and cantankerous enough for a whole clan of second rows.
Italy
Position 6th P2 W0 D0 L2 Diff -53 Pts 0 Results Italy 3-26 Ireland, England 47-17 Italy
It is a struggle to be positive and unless the heavens open on Murrayfield, where Scotland are unlikely to be as generous as England, an 11th wooden spoon since 2000 is on the cards.
The front row do not have the menace of a couple of years ago – even Martin Castrogiovanni seems to be flat-lining after the boost he got from the move to Toulon – the playmaker seems exceptional only in his size, much too much of the burden hangs from the shoulders of their captain and totem, Sergio Parisse, and the future looks no better, the under-20s losing to England 61-0.
Main man Parisse, who else?
