A Few Shafts Of Wisdom - Well At Least Hopefully

Six Nations week 2. If you want a good laugh/evidence of mankind's awfulness (it depends on the mood you bring to the table) read the trail of internet comments that sits at the foot of Jeremy Guscott's (I'm afraid) feeble article on the BBC website - Guscott . There you will find some mild wisdom in amongst the masses of ignorance (excusable), stupidity (again excusable), and bigotry (decidedly not). Hey ho.

Well, I've watched all the games twice and I've listened to and read all sorts of reactions from other people and here are my observations, so far as I can recall them and in no particular order.

Psychobabble: I have found Warren Gatland's fondness for this stuff an irritant over the years (and have not been slow to say it) so it would be hypocritical of me to forgive Eddie Jones's similar liking. However I will say this: Jones is better at it and has more humour. As to which is the better coach - my instinct says Jones. As to which possesses the team more susceptible to good coaching - I'm afraid (as an Englishman) it is presently Gatland. Now there's ironic as a caricature Welshman might offer.

The good doctor - problem and solution

Jamie Roberts: deservedly Man of the Match against Scotland, though why we have to sully team sports with these individual awards is another debate. However Roberts is both Wales strength and problem.  Playing well he gives the team its much-discussed Plan A and that can often be enough. He can also be the key to Plan B and we saw this in the George North try. So fearful of Roberts were Scotland that they turned the brilliant North loose. I'm afraid something nags at me - I'm not entirely convinced that Wales knew they had moved onto Plan B. Be that as it may, the larger problem is the defensive conundrum that he presents. He is the leader of the Welsh defensive line and very good at it too. His favoured method of tackling is to hit the torso, a modish obsession. There is the problem, because this style of defence does not provoke the type of break-down at which what it has become fashionable to call 'a classic 7' will thrive. So why are Wales playing two such flankers? At least one becomes redundant - on Saturday it was Warburton who managed to redeem the situation (of selectorial making not his own) with a piece of inspired captaincy. When he opted for that scrum instead of the unmissable penalty, I was baying at the screen that he was wrong. No, I was. Mind you, it would not have been the right decision against New Zealand. Against England or Ireland? Marginal. Against France? Beats me - the French defy any logical analysis. 

The Welsh front five are very, very good. Englishmen still wedded to the wisdom of the hegemonic late 90s and early 00s, always overlook this point. England remain exposed at scrum time - Cole played far better on Sunday but remains a walking penalty, but it is the loosehead side that is more problematic. An aggrieved Marler was fabulous off the bench (his tackilng was titanic) but neither he nor Vunipola, especially Vunipola, convinces at the scrum. Call me old-fashined but I like props who can scrummage.

Old Harrovian makes England debut

Inane television interview questions. Sonia McLaughlin asking Rory Best 'Is that Ireland's title chance gone?' She will no doubt defend this as incisive and provocative. Bollocks. It was simply rude and unnecessary. Kudos to Best for the way he dealt with it. John Inverdale of Maro Itoje: 'Have we just seen the future of English rugby?' Oh for God's sake grow up. The poor kid (for he is not much more) is a magnificent specimen and an obvious talent but must we really have these absurd labels? The boy (and yes I would pick him to start as it happens) will soon have a target on his back for every foreign assassin to aim at.

Back to the question of tackling technique. The 'choke tackle' is a fad. The Irish have used it to particular advantage. It is dangereous and at the root of the greater number of head-on-head injuries. Ireland have won a fair few scrums on the back of the choke. They also have a gifted fly-half whose dodgy technique has left him looking punch-drunk. Australia favour the 'chop tackle' (another daft nomenclature - it's always been around, we used to call it 'tackling') and they thereby play to the strengths of their vaunted two open-sides. Please note (most haven't) that the Australia play them at 7 and 8. Even this is not original - look at what Toulon have done with Armitage for three seasons now. Rant over. Sometimes I am right. Just sometimes. It was towards the end of my coaching days that the buzz-words were 'squeeze ball'. Some evangelicals averred this method would revolutionize the game. I always avoided it because I judged it dangerous.

Not strictly the Six Nations but the previous paragraph does lead me onto the reason I got out of coaching - I hate the idea of tactical substitutions. If you're getting a personal stuffing, you should stay there and take it. Now, I know this genie will never go back in the bottle and, as an Englishmen, I perhaps ought to relish this pandering to strength-in -depth, but 23-a-side, really? We are divorcing the professional game yet further from the great sport that spawned it.

Wtf is going on with France? Here's a good outside bet if you fancy it - France to win a Grand Slam with the lowest ever positive points difference.

The refereeing. Jaco Peyper. I'm sorry, I know from experience that a referee can't make a poor game great, but gosh he had a dreadful match. How was the French lock not (at the very least) binned for that egregious late-shot on Sexton? Peyper practically fell over the offender as he did it. Shoddy. George Clancy. I quite like him in fact, but the Welsh scrum-half was most definitely off-side for the first try. This is not a technical thing - it mattered, it affected the play. Glen Jackson - I think he's actually rather good although he started the match by badly miscalculting a penalty advantage. He dealt with Brown and Parisse magisterially but not hysterically when they behaved like spoilt children.

The Ronan O' Gara Gobshite nominees? I'm extending the award to include forwards and it pains me to do this but the great god Parisse earns a nomination. Play the game please Sergio. Mike Brown is also in there - I think much of his rage is direceted at himself but even so, unnecessary. Finally Stuart Hogg is in there again. A top player but I think there is dark side. Have a look what he does with his leading leg in every aerial challenge. And just before he limped off after a brilliant sliding take, what was his fooot doing raised as he and the Welsh hooker collided? Maybe these are technical faults. I hope so.

So long pop-pickers.