1. Crouch, Bind, Set… zzz
We almost made it through the entirety of the England vs Scotland game without a period of mind-numbing scrum resets, but one of the modern game’s great scourges eventually hit in the second half. A good four minutes passed as the scrum was reset a few times and the crowd grew gradually more and more frustrated. World Rugby law 20 begins: “The purpose of the scrum is to restart play quickly, safely and fairly, after a minor infringement or a stoppage.” To be frank, a lot of scrums these days are neither quick, safe, nor fair, but addressing the first one of those specifically, surely we have got to the stage where the clock should be stopped until the ball is at the number eight’s feet, at the very least. There is absolutely no reason why the clock should continue as two gigantic front rows take increasingly longer to get up off the floor and reset, only to hit the deck once again. Until the technicalities can be properly sorted out (a debate for a different time), we shouldn’t be denied more genuine ball-in-play time.
2. Defence can win games – and entertain
Sure, Wales showed some nice touches in attack against Ireland, but in reality it was their unrelenting defensive pressure that won them the game. Some of the stats from the second half in Cardiff are staggering. Ireland enjoyed 75% possession and 76% territory, and yet Wales held out on their own line time and again, before launching themselves upfield and teaching the Irish how to be clinical with a well taken try of their own. Over the course of the game, Wales made less than half the number of carries of their opposition and made just 163 metres with ball in hand – Jack Nowell made more on his own (185) against Scotland – but they actually made more clean breaks. Again, unrelenting defence was the key. And yet it was never a boring game – on the contrary, it was the game of the tournament so far. It will be interesting to see if the Welsh players are fatigued at all this weekend – Sam Warburton admitted after the game that it was the most tired he had ever felt after a match.
3. Plan B
Almost as key to Wales’ win over Ireland was the sublime work of their back three in the opening quarter of the game. Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams in particular were always brilliantly positioned to take Sexton’s kicks, and they showed time and again why they are two of the best under the high ball in the game right now. Once it became clear that tactic wasn’t working, Ireland completely abandoned the strategy – by the end of the game they had made just half the kicks Wales had. To their credit they did loosen the shackles (not doing so has been their main criticism thus far), but a combination of Wales’ dogged defence and the abject lack of a coherent platform at either scrum or lineout time meant they were unable to breach the Welsh line. There was also a touch of white line fever at times, but to be perfectly honest they are unlikely to come up against a defence as good or as motivated as Wales’ was on the day again. They could perhaps benefit from having a player with a bit more X-Factor in the midfield, but Schmidt won’t be pressing any panic buttons just yet.
4. In it to win it
Bafflingly, France are still in the hunt to become Six Nations champions. They sit two points behind England, Ireland and Wales but have a decent enough points difference that it is not completely outside the bounds of reality that they might be crowned champions on Saturday night. They would need Italy to beat Wales first up, Scotland to beat Ireland and for themselves to then triumph over England by eight points or more. Not unfeasible, but still a pretty long shot. First and foremost, they haven’t beaten England at Twickenham since 2005, and the likelihood of them doing that AND both Ireland and Wales losing to lesser opposition is pretty slim. They’ve been the least enjoyable side to watch this tournament, so for them to actually win it would be a travesty. Anyone who sat through the Italy vs France game without nodding off or switching channels deserves some sort of recognition for services to rugby.
5. Three into two doesn’t go
This time last year, England and Ireland could both have been named champions. Ireland eventually took the honour but only after a nervy two-point win over France. To cover for this sort of scenario, there are two versions of the new Six Nations trophy – the real one, and a replica. They will be in Twickenham and Murrayfield respectively this weekend, leaving Wales without a trophy to lift in Rome should they hammer Italy sufficiently to finish with the best points difference. It’s a decision which does make sense, given the points differences of the nations who could still win it. Wales face the toughest ask, needing to recoup the most by pummelling Italy, but their reward for doing so would be having to wait a day to be awarded the trophy!
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
18 replies on “Six Nations 2015 Round 4: 5 things we learned”
100% agree on the scrum something needs to be done – either stop the clock until the ball it out or put a cap on time spent, if the scrum isn’t resolved in 2 attempts make it uncontested just to keep things moving.
Didn’t notice that about the cup’s hope the lads got them some business class fast track tickets over to Twickenham to pick it up on Sunday 😉
Two resets then uncontested sounds good on paper, but there would inevitably be teams with retreating scrums that would deliberately target a reset to avoid getting driven back or conceding a penalty.
Stopping the clock is not a good idea in my opinion:
1. Games will last an extra 30-60 minutes. They are already 2 hours end to end and that seems about right
2. If the clock is stopped the props will take even longer to arrive at the scrum and set it as there would be no motivation or enforcement.
3. This will lead to even bigger players as fitness will be less of a concern when you can have a 5 minute rest every time a scrum is called
I think a better idea would be to set a scrum clock and give them 90 seconds from the time it is awarded to acheive completion or a free kick is awarded
How would your idea be policed? How do you decide who wins the free kick?
Attacking team unless there is obvious delaying tactics in which case it should be reversed
See that is just too easy for attacking teams to buy free kicks. Like the idea but on a practical level I struggle to see it working.
Loads of subtle things can be done to slow things down – it’d be impossible for referees to know.
I agree it requires more thought and clear guidelines as to what constitutes a delay but if you only “buy” a free kick its not much of an advantage. At the moment it is too easy to buy a penalty
Do agree with that. Would moving to only free kicks for scrum infringements make more sense then?
The incentive to milk scrums would lessen.
Scrum penalties can still be conceded with a scrum clock just less likely
The trophy thing is odd. No-one will lift the trophy until after England vs France regardless. But:
If England or France win, the trophy will be lifted immediately after the game on the Twickenham pitch.
If Ireland win, the trophy will be lifted on the Murrayfield pitch in front of no-one, as all the fans will have gone home/to the pub to watch the next game.
If Wales win, the medals will be presented at the hotel, where a third trophy could also be lifted where it to exist. Would that be more preferable than receiving the trophy the next day?
Only with an England or France win will you get a “proper” trophy presentation. Without the fans present, does it matter if you receive it on the pitch, in your hotel or the next day at the airport?England were the last team to win the Six Nations in their hotel in 2011. It was a massive anti-climax, but it happens.
The only way to change it would be to have 3 trophies and all games played at once. Wouldn’t like that as a spectator though, I like my back-to-back-to-back rugby.
What about an actual closing ceremony; on the sunday. At the stadium of the winners.
Hand out the trophy then do player of the tournament, best try, top kicker, top tackler etc give out smaller awards. Could make it into a rugby showcase episode – and a nice highlight show for potential future players to see how it should be done.
When Scotland won the last 5 nations, they were presented the trophy during the following week at a ceremony at Murrayfield, was open to all and got a crowd along.
6. We can fix the breakdown if refs just ref it properly.
Barnes was excellent on Saturday. Penalising every single breakdown/offside infringement. Shows how little it is usually done by how many times players got pinged. Once they wised up the rugby opened up. What chance the same consistency in all 3 matches this weekend?
7. Flora beats Deep Blue in a battle of wits.
8. Retired Irish rugby players seem to all have unlovable personalities. And bad tipster skills.
Changing laws in scrums are the dumbest mistakes they made… Secondly I remember the days where france were a force to be recond with and had that “french flair” and now I dread a game with them involved not cus they so good but cus the so uh unentertaining. I hope ireland wins the 6 nations cus the deserve some glory this year for the work they put in… They not gona have that glory in the world cup.
Yes scrums are a huge problem and players and referees are to blame! The referees are delaying the put in by telling scrum half when to put ball in,by which time scrums have becomes unstable. I agree that if these and other delays are not addressed then clock should be stopped! Alternatively go back to when I was afront row player? No delays,just straight in and ball out!
We seem to have seen a gradual re-emergence of “the hit” in the scrum. The referees have to ensure that the scrum is stationary and it appears to me that they are sacrificing this aspect for the sake of keeping the game moving forward.
What I do think is a good move, is the habit of refs not to penalise a collapsed scrum (in many cases) when the ball has reached the No8, and is playable.
As an interesting aside, the laws state;
“Until the ball is thrown in, the hooker must be in a position to hook the ball”
How many defensive hookers are in a position to hook the ball????
Wouldn’t it be nice to enforce a “competition” around the strike.
True not enough is done to ensure competition on opposition ball. Straight feeds, hookers actually hooking the ball etc…
Interesting about law regarding hookers – I didn’t know that one. See, we don’t need new laws around the scrum, we just need refs to enforce the ones that are already there
People complain about the breakdown as well, but look what happens when you get a ref who actually refs to the laws regarding this and the off-side line as Barnes did on Saturday. Once the players realised they weren’t going to get away with it, they stopped cheating and all of a sudden the game becomes much more free-flowing
Enforce all the laws around stationary scrums, about hookers, flankers not binding properly and straight put-ins. Use the touch judges to advise on binding. Allow collapsed scrums to continue if the ball has reached the 8 and is playable
We’ll be suprised how quickly players learn to keep within the laws…