6 Nations:The story so far

With the Six Nations about to recommence after a fortnights break, I will be looking back on the opening weekend's of the Championship and looking at key points that may have already had a big impact on the fate of this years title.

ROUND 1

The Championship started in the Scottish Capital as Ireland visited an optimistic Scotland team that were aiming to compete for the title. All the pre-match talk was about the absence of Jonny Sexton from the Irish back line and if the Irish would be able to play their flowing running game without their main protagonist. Paddy Jackson stepped into the role and tried to live up to the expectation of the Irish support. Scotland started the better of the two sides, mounting pressure on the Irish line until the inevitable happened in the 8th minute and Stuart Hogg went over in the corner after a great amount of phase play by the Scottish forwards. Scotland kept relentlessly pressuring Ireland and once again Stuart Hogg crossed after a slick move from the centre of the field and Russell giving it wide to Hogg who dummied and went over to make it 14-0 to the home side. Ireland began to get into their stride and tried to create some momentum when Keith Earls scored a tight finish in the corner after pressuring the Scottish line. Scotland retaliated almost straight away with a smart line out move 5 metres from the Irish line to score through Alex Dunbar. This led to both sides going into the break with the score at 21-8 to Scotland after Laidlaw and Jackson converted a penalty each late on in the half. Ireland scored early in the half through Iain Henderson after picking and going from a ruck a metre out. Ireland almost scored once again through Rob Kearney down the wing only to be denied by a great tackle by Sean Maitland. Eventually Ireland scored again through Jackson who skipped through the Scottish defense to make it 21-22 to the Irish. Ireland looked to be back to their title winning best in the second half, however in the last ten minutes they gave away a penalty on the 22 in front of the posts which Laidlaw kicked to make it 24-22. Scotland caught the restart and looked after possession whenever they had it and eventually won a penalty in the lat minute which Laidlaw converted to secure the win. This was a great win for Scotland after the way they have narrowly lost to sides over the past few years. This gave me great satisfaction as I felt my optimistic prediction of Scotland finishing 3rd was looking not too shabby, Unfortunately I'm not old enough to bet.

The second game of the opening day took place at Twickenham where Les Bleus were looking for their first win in London in just under 10 years. England were coming off the back of their 'Perfect' year and had equaled the 2003 England team's unbeaten run. This put a slight element of pressure upon England with the dangerous French in town. The game was lacked real quality in the first half with Owen Farrell and Camille Lopez trading penalties and Elliot Daly kicking a monstrous kick from just inside the french half to tie the scores up at 9-9 on the 40 minute mark. England started the second half the better of the two sides with Elliot Daly coming close to scoring in the corner only to be denied by the TMO. France scored the first try of the game on the 60 minute mark through Slimani after pressure in the English twenty two and two great offloads. This made England panic and start to play with more urgency. This led to resilient England pressure resulting in a Ben Te'o Try to win the game for England 19-16.

The 3rd game of the weekend saw Wales travel to Rome in search of a big win to mount their title charge. Wales started slowly with Italy scoring first through a drive from Eduardo Gori and the Italian forwards. Wales eventually got on top of the relentless Italian attack and kicked themselves ahead through the boot of Leigh Halfpenny. This ignited the Welsh who went on to score their first try through Jonathan Davies. This was the start of the welsh try surge with Liam Williams crossing 7 minutes later and George North scoring a try of the tournament from long range. This prompted the welsh to go for the bonus point with 2 minutes to go. Wales thought they had got the try they needed through Liam Williams only to be denied by the TMO. Final score Italy 7 - 33 Wales. Opportunity missed by Wales which is a huge dent in their title hopes. Once again I feel my predictions maybe looking more realistic than I first thought. Get me on the BBC with John Inverdale.

ROUND 2

Round 2 kicked off with Ireland travelling to Rome with both sides looking for their first win of the Championship. Ireland started brightly scoring with Keith Earls after 11 minutes with a slick passing move that got him in out wide. This seemed to ignite Ireland and they didnt seem to stop as Cj Stander went over in the corner 7 minutes later. Earls then scored another for the Irish before Italy came back with a penalty try after their attempt to catch and drive fro a 5 metre line out was collapsed leading to Glen Jackson doing a swift jog under the posts. Ireland then began their onslaught scoring 6 more tries. Cj Stander got himself a hat trick with a variety of tries including one of pure brute force, Craig Gilroy came on to score a 13 minute Hat trick and Gary Ringrose got one to make it Italy 10-63 Ireland. A big bonus point win for Ireland to kick start their title charge and put pressure on England.

The second game of round 2 was an absolute classic. It saw England travel to Cardiff looking to extend their unbeaten run to 16 matches. Wales were missing key man George North on the wing who had picked up an injury in the week. The sides were very well matched in the opening 20 minutes with Farrell and Halfpenny getting 3 points each for their side but England made the crucial breakthrough in the 17 minute when Ben Youngs sniped over after a few minutes of England pressure on the Welsh line. The half carried on in a similar fashion with possession evenly split until Wales broke through from a scrum in the English 22 with Rhys Webb arching from the back of the scrum and popping a ball in behind the dummy run of Scott Williams to Liam Williams who scored under the posts. Wales went into the break 13-8 ahead. The second half continued in a similar fashion to the first with Farrell and Halfpenny trading penalties to make it 16-11. England started to put intense pressure on the Welsh try line only for Biggar to intercept a Ben Youngs pass from the base of a ruck and just be outpaced by a sliding Elliot Daly after he kicked ahead. With England still pressuring for a try they won a penalty with ten minutes to go which Farrell converted with ease meaning England only needed a penalty to win. With 5 minutes left Wales seemed to be in control until a stray clearing kick from Jonathan Davies ended up straight down George Ford's throat who swiftly got it to Farrell who got it out wide to Daly who pinned his ears back and raced past Cuthbert and into the corner. Another win for England to add to their streak and it could potentially be the game that makes the championship a two horse race between England and Ireland. Putting my unbiased head aside it was an amazing win for England and I don't feel I've ever squealed like such a little girl when Daly went over at the end. It was a classic and will live long in the memory.

The last game in this tale is Scotland's trip to Paris. Scotland were looking for their first victory in Paris in almost 18 years. The game started at a high intensity with the play flowing from end to end. Scotland got the first major score from inform Stuart Hogg diving in at the corner with his 3rd try in 2 games. The game continued at a high intensity and France replied to the Scottish score through Gael Fickou who burst in-between two Scotland defenders from close range. The second half start where the first half left off. Scotland once again scored first after a chip and chase from Tommy Seymour who popped it off to Swinson. However, It was not turned into a 7 pointer as Finn Russell missed the conversion from right in front of the posts as the ball fell off the tee mid-kick (oopsy daisy). France drew level through a Lopez penalty and went on to have a try ruled out for a knock on at the grounding. France took the lead through Lopez once again with 10 minutes left and a 3 point lead. Another Lopez penalty secured the game for France with 3 minutes to go. This was France's first win in the Championship and makes a good basis for a title challenge. Scotland once again coming short in another big game and struggling to get a run of wins going as it's small errors in games such as the Russell kick that are letting them down.

In summary the first two rounds have set up the championship very nicely for a big finale in Dublin and has also displayed some great attacking, running rugby. It is also potentially shows that the northern hemisphere are starting to play a higher intensity of rugby similar to that of the southern Hemisphere. Another point to raise is that I feel this is one of the most exciting tournaments in years as the new bonus point system has made teams play a more expansive type of rugby which can be seen from the opening 2 rounds. Bravo on the idea Six nations council.

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