Same As It Ever Was?

Well yes and no. Six Nations passionate and raucous as ever but never quite hitting top quality. A typical opening weekend to that extent to. But untypical, it is now only the French who have not fallen for the habit of appointing a foreign coach. Eddie Jones a rather pleasant change in his media approach (though his mischievousness will soon lose him friends) but his England side gave us nothing much new - indeed did anyone seriously expect it in the face of the usual frenzied anti-English opposition? This last is not meant as a particular moan, rather a weary observation. The ingrained hatred (what we are conditioned to regard as a quaint and acceptable form of racism) of the English works peculiarly - it inhibits England unless they have one of those rare moments of steely inflexibility (Alf Ramsey, Martin Johnson, Ian Botham) and motivates the rest of Europe to excess, such that they are too easily satisfied with putting the bloody English in their place. The Welsh remain the worst and serial offenders on this score, the Irish have come furthest in overcoming it and, I suppose, in fairness we should exempt the Italians from this lazy categorisation since they don't give a fig for such daftness.

My favourite forum of rugby discussion is the Welsh Scrum V on BBC 2 Wales. It is far more knowledgeable than the mainstream BBC Rugby Special fronted by the sadly diminished (as in: he used to be good but has become pretty shit) John Inverdale with its determinedly tabloid grade of analysis. Yes Scrum V is, by definition, parochial and the format pays unnecessary lip-service to the forced bonhomie of Top Gear, but Wales has a ready supply of pundits who understand rugby and want to take it seriously. The pre-Six Nations show (still available on iPlayer) had Gareth Thomas (a very good player and an even greater cultural icon without ever wishing to be such) and Jeremy Guscott as the tame Englishman. I still don't think the Welsh have quite understood how tragically they are underselling this current team. Warren Gatland has had eight years in the job and has been granted a stellar cast of players. I see no material improvement in that time in their tactical acumen. They have been very, very good but it is the final few inches of development that are the hardest and thus far they have not managed the full ascent. This can be a matter of bad luck (for example the execrable sending-off of Sam Warburton by Alain Roland in RWC 11 - a decision which still offends my tender sensibilities) but Napoleon was right in his preference for lucky generals - in rugby terms this was never better illustrated than by the career of, much as I venerate the man, Clive Woodward.

Icarus falls. OG still loves him.

Sorry, as is my wont I've wandered off the straight and narrow of my piece. So what I'm saying is that I've watched all the matches and imbibed all the punditry and, yes I'll confess, I've even waded through the screeds of drivel on various message boards. And what I think is this. Number eight play is my pet topic and this was a great weekend for all us eightomanes (I think I've made that word up). We saw the unfeasibly brilliant Sergio Parisse flying too close to the sun - scoring a try, leading from the front, giving away two vital penalties and finally attempting a ludicrous drop goal. Magnifico. We saw Jamie Heaslip (whose descent from Olympus I had posited here last week) give a few hints of the old fire. We saw Taulupe Faletau do everything well. We saw Billy Vunipola doing an impression of a force of nature. Tellingly we also saw Louis Picamoles limp early out of the French match against Italy, seemingly leaving France without a focal point. Focal points matter - even the justly vaunted 'Total Football' had Cruyff.

I'm still rambling. So let's venture a few conclusions: Ireland remain the best coached team (Schmidt not Gatland would be my Lions coach); Wales still have the best players but will miss Biggar during his injury (that focal point thing again); the crowd at Murrayfield demean themselves by booing opposition kickers - this surely doesn't matter to professional players but some traditions are just nice, and to counter that the French do it has never been an effective defence to anything; England's back-row balance is wrong and Eddie Jones knows this; Scotland need a focal point, preferably a fly-half given the talent available outside; likewise France; early leaders in the Ronan O'Gara Amusing Gobshite Back Award (journalists call this 'feisty') are Stuart Hogg and Liam Williams.

As if all of that were not enough the my weekend also had space for a game refereed in the teeming rain which I greatly enjoyed and Super Bowl 50 which was a game dominated by harsh defense and cowed offense. My sort of sport.