Sunday, February 8, 2015

Ireland get the job done in the end!

 Robbie Henshaw
 Robbie Henshaw (picture http://bit.ly/1M3kwrm)

The 6 Nations 2015 kicked off with a bang, with a tense physical match in Wales. Wales won the first half, and then England came roaring back to claim the spoils. Wales got beaten up basically, by an ultra physical English pack – I’ve heard they are the biggest pack in the tournament, and it certainly looked like it. Behind them George Ford pulled the strings perfectly, and the English backline looked a lot sharper than their Welsh counterparts. When Wales don’t smash other teams early on, they seem to come to a halt, they were certainly out of ideas in the last 20 minutes.

Itreland didn’t exactly turn on the style but they put Italy away pretty easily in the end. Ireland had better ideas, but Italy’s defence hung in there, until a yellow card turned the match. I thought Tommy O’Donnell played really well, second most tackles behind Henshaw, while Jordi Murphy had the most carries, just behind busy man Robbie Henshaw. Zebo looked the most likely to crack things open, and Madigan added some good touches in attack. Italy weren’t that great though, discipline is still an issue, and some basic skills like lineouts and scrums. Now that’s over Ireland are going to have to really step up next week.

Finally, Scotland put in a hard battling performance to keep France in their sights the whole match. Finn Russell played really well, and their physicality is second to none. Hard to say how good France are, but they have an amazing depth of talent, let’s hope they don’t show it in Dublin!

So after the first weekend:

England were the most impressive, and look like the team to beat
Scotland played much better than everyone thought
France and Ireland won but played within themselves
Wales look the most peed off
Italy looked like the worst team

Six Nations
Friday, February 06
Wales 16 - 21 England    20:05
Saturday, February 07
Italy 3 - 26 Ireland    14:30
France 15 - 8 Scotland    17:00

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