Six Nations: Ireland crush English Grand Slam dreams

First up was the aforementioned wooden spoon decider, as Italy and Scotland, the two lowest placed teams in this year’s Six Nations, faced off at Murrayfield. The game turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, providing a tense first half in which there was little between the two sides.

Eventually, though, it became evident that Scotland were the stronger outfit and once they got a couple of tries on the scoreboard Italy were put in a position from which they couldn’t really challenge. The final score (21-8) demonstrated that, even if they haven’t shown it often, this Scotland team is capable of playing some great rugby.

What came next was what many England fans were hoping would be their moment: England’s shot at their first Grand Slam since 2003. Even as an England supporter, I was quietly cautious. To beat the Irish - in Dublin on the weekend after St. Patrick’s Day - was never going to be straightforward.

In their defeat 24-8, England ended up producing their least impressive performance of this tournament. The Irish had a great start, giving them momentum and confidence. From there, Martin Johnson’s men never really competed and it all became rather disastrous and disappointing for this year’s overall champions.

The final match of the 2011 tournament was Wales’ clash against France in Paris. There were some (very) optimistic Welsh supporters who thought that this might be their chance to cause an upset and secure the Six Nations trophy. All I’ll say to that is that, without considering points difference, even a half-decent Welsh side would have trouble to beat France in Paris. There wasn’t really any doubt in my mind that the French would win this one. Sure enough, they won 28-9 in a brilliant three-try response to the criticism that they were facing in the aftermath of their previous defeat to Italy.

It’s always hard to know how a particular Six Nations will be remembered, especially one that has been this closely contested. Sure, England played most of the tournament looking like the obvious champions, but a number of the matches have been far from foregone conclusions and the overall standard of rugby has been so inconsistent that it’s hard to gauge where each team stands.

With that said, I think all European supporters have at least something to feel good about as their teams head towards the World Cup. Wales haven’t played fantastically but they have managed to produce some respectable results; Ireland have a team full of experience and class, even if it only showed sporadically; a young English side is playing some of the most exciting rugby that we’ve seen for a while, although they’ve still got a long way to go; France have been hindered by Marc Lievremont’s haphazard approach to selection but have shown themselves to be resilient; the Scots have shown that they’ve got real potential, even if positioning themselves on the scoreboard remains difficult; and Italy beat France, which in and of itself is a monumental statement of how far they’ve come.

The next time that these teams face each other in the Six Nations will be after the World Cup in New Zealand. With a series of interesting and occasionally very impressive performances from the leading northern Hemisphere sides, it’ll be fascinating to see what impact they can make upon the rest of the world.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup begins in September. A match schedule can be found here.

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