The A teams used to provide supporting roles to the main event but also offered valuable international experience to fringe players looking to make the step upAll the best Six Nations championships start with a bang and, encouragingly, this one has been no exception. Duck beneath the headlines, though, and something we all used to take for granted each season is missing. Nobody has made a fuss – the majority have not even noticed – but the longer-term ramifications may yet prove significant.The absent friend? The traditional ’A’ team fixtures which once played supporting roles to the main events on international weekends. It was commonplace, for example, for the Irish Wolfhounds to play on a Friday night in Donnybrook or...
Italy need a pack to complement their impressive youngsters, Scarlets and Wales combine and Johnny Sexton finds a wayOne of the most striking elements of England’s seven-try victory in Rome was the wraparound tactic that set the visitors on the way to their 46-15 success. It has been Johnny Sexton’s signature move for years and George Ford and Owen Farrell have now taken a leaf out of the Irish playbook. Both England’s opening two tries by Anthony Watson involved Ford looping round and helping to create a midfield mismatch with Jonny May also coming at pace off his wing to confuse the defending side still further. Ford may find teams will now be lying in wait for him in future...
Gregor Townsend left Greig Laidlaw on the bench, preferring the young Glasgow scrum-half, and by the time the steady old hand got on Scotland were 20-0 downOptimism does not come easy to the Scottish, not in the Six Nations, where their team has lost almost three times as many games as they have won. Their fans’ faith has been worn thin by all those fourth and fifth and sixth place finishes since they won the final Five Nations back in 1999. This year looked set to be a little different, though, after their fine performances in the autumn. They came to Cardiff with a slick team, a sharp coach and high hopes. These lasted 11 minutes, like some brief glimpse...
France have a back-row who makes even Maro Itoje appear sluggish, while another brilliant Leinster product can shineSekou Macalou (France): Pretty much everyone has given up on French rugby. Even when they are not sacking their national coach or having their national training centre raided by police investigating the alleged activities of Bernard Laporte, president of the French Federation, Les Bleus are still widely seen as a shambles. And yet, when it comes to promising young players, France possess two of the most dazzling diamonds in the tournament in the form of Matthieu Jalibert, their new 19-year-old whiz-kid of a fly-half, and Sekou Macalou, a 22-year-old back-row who makes even Maro Itoje appear sluggish. The gifted Jalibert has the full...
Eddie Jones’s side are well placed to chase down a third successive title, despite missing a number of LionsThe Six Nations launch was a story of the sick nations. Between them they had 57 players either doubtful or unavailable for at least the opening round, a figure that was added to the following day when the Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury.England led the way with 14 absentees, followed by Ireland on 11 and Wales, together with Scotland, on 10. The new France coach, Jacques Brunel, is without nine players, although such is his rush to airbrush out his predecessor, Guy Novès, that he would probably have overlooked most of them, and...