A Northerner's Perspective: Six Nations Round 3 Review

So another round of the 6 Nations has passed and it's probably left us with more questions than answers. Can England now win a Grand Slam? Who will finish bottom? Italy or France? Who will lose their job? Philippe Saint-Andre or Declan Kidney? Are Scotland actually a half decent team now? Hopefully the next round will provide some of those answers but for now, we'll have a look at the matches that have just passed.

The round kicked off at the Stadio Olimpico, which looked like it had been engulfed by the monsoon season. Italy were down on their luck after being trounced by Scotland the game before and disheartened by the loss of their captain and talisman, Sergio Parisse. Wales seemed to rejuvenated after their win against France and they started the game strongly, dominating the Italians in the scrum and earning a couple of penalties which Leigh Halfpenny successfully kicked over before Kris Burton scored a couple. Italy were unimaginative in attack, giving slow ball to the forwards and forcing Burton to try and kick them into the lead, or at least better positions. It didn't work. Up-and-unders were successfully dealt with by Halfpenny, and Biggar kept forcing Italy to play from the back. The first half was error strewn and neither side looked like scoring, Gethin Jenkins work rate being Wales' only ray of light.

Italy continued to play badly after the break, and after Phillips chipped over, they failed to deal with the bouncing ball and Jonathan Davies collected and scored. Burton then kicked a third penalty for his side before Halfpenny replied with one of his own after another penalty from a scrum. Martin Castrogiovanni, who was captain for just the 4th time in 94 caps, got sent to the bin for persistent foul play and soon after, Alex Cuthbert scored from a simple backs move. Italy were extremely poor in attack and for once, their forwards just weren't up to the challenge. Final score, 9-26 to the visitors in a poor game which wasn't helped by commentator Andrew Cotter being ill, so we had to listen to Jonathan Davies with no-one there to tell him to shut up.

It was then England's turn to host the schizophrenic French, with the belief that they could win the Grand Slam if they beat them. Owen Farrell scored an early penalty but France looked to play from the off, sending in crash runners before spreading it wide, with Francois Trinh-Duc pulling the strings. The French looked a different team from the previous games and Brad Barritt had to rush up well to close down space and stop them attacking after Morgan Parra levelled the scores. Farrell added another before Chris Ashton carried on the theme of the winger missing tackles, as Wesley Fofana walked through him, fended off a couple of tacklers and went over in the corner. Farrell scored a penalty after Parra converted but fears were rising over Courtney Lawes who had missed tackles on more than one occasion.

Farrell kicked another penalty after the break and after an England counter-ruck, the ball spilled into the grateful Manu Tuilagi's hands, who picked it up and slid into the corner. Frederic Michalak came onto the field and nailed a penalty but England introduced their own impact players to solidify the game, one of these being Toby Flood, who scored two penalties of his own to keep the scoreboard ticking over. England won 23-13 and Tuilagi won his battle with Mathieu Bastareaud while France's best players were Louis Picamoles, who was everywhere and the consistently good Yoann Huget. Man of the Match deservedly went to Chris Robshaw though Tom Wood and Dan Cole were just as good. The only English player who didn't play well was Ashton, the man has no spirit to play internationally and if there are doubts over Christian Wade's tackling at test level, there should be doubts over Ashton's ability at test level.

A depleted Ireland squad were next to play as they travelled to Murrayfield to take on the Scots, who were looking for their first back-to-back 6N wins in over a decade. Ireland had two debutants in the team, Paddy Jackson and Luke Marshall, and they started brightly, the latter making two good breaks but lacking the final pass to get his supporting players over the white line. Ireland were now camped in the Scottish 22 though and only a dogged Scottish defence and poor Ireland set pieces meant they were scoreless until the 35th minute when Jackson kicked a penalty. Scotland went in at the break 3-0 down, but would have been the happier of the two teams, after soaking up the relentless Irish pressure after a Ryan Grant yellow card and only one visit out of their own half.

Ireland started the second half strongly and finally got a try after Sean O'Brien broke and the ball was recycled to Craig Gilroy who wriggled over. Scotland were beginning to break into Ireland's half now though, after good box kicking from Greig Laidlaw and a rush defence which were pushing Ireland back at every possible chance. Laidlaw then kicked a penalty, and then another, and then another, and suddenly, Scotland were somehow leading. Jackson had missed 8 points from the boot, so Ronan O'Gara came on for him, a decision Declan Kidney probably regretted, as for some reason he tried to cross-field kick from his own half, Scotland put the pressure on and were then awarded another penalty, which Laidlaw dutifully kicked. Ireland then threw the kitchen sink at the Scots, but to no avail, the home side superb defence didn't let up and the final whistle went. Scotland had 26% possession, 23% territory, had no clean breaks, made 128 tackles and yet somehow won 12-8. The Irish backrow was brilliant as per usual, but so was the Scots, Kelly Brown leading the way from the front and Sean Maitland and Stuart Hogg putting in their share of the shift.

The Six Nations table now looks like this