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'Six Nations > Rugby Championship' and other talking points from Round Two

By James Harrington
Paddy Jackson's hopes of playing in France dealt a blow

Is it time for a Six Nations playoff, what the heck was up with that Finn Russell conversion and more from another breathless weekend of test rugby.

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Yes, the Six Nations is better than the Rugby Championship
England have now won 16 in a row and are second in World Rugby’s rankings. Ireland are fourth; Wales fifth. Eighth-placed France and Wales probably should have beaten England, who are second, remember; Scotland, ranked seventh, could have beaten France, and did beat Ireland. Four of the six games in this tournament so far have gone to the wire, with only Italy letting the tournament side down. England entertain Conor O’Shea’s battered Azzurri next, but after that face Scotland and Ireland in matches that promise to be at least as tough as the two games that have already gone. Even now, with England two-for-two and no other team unbeaten, the outcome of the tournament is far from a forgone conclusion, with just three points separating first from fifth. Meanwhile, New Zealand will win this year’s Rugby Championship – the only question is by how much.

Flankers!
Much of the Lions talk coming into the Six Nations focused on the second row options at Warren Gatland’s disposal – with the Gray brothers, Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones, Devin Toner and the injured George Kruis among the names regularly bandied about for the boiler room positions. Forget that. Gatland’s back row options have literally multiplied from basically the Irish loose forwards before the tournament started, to the Irish plus the Welsh, plus a couple from England and Scotland – including Itoje, who is learning fast at six – plus the back-from-injury Taulupe Faletau and Billy Vunipola. It’s probably a good job for the Lions selectors that the French can’t play, because you would then have to include Louis Picamoles and Kevin Gourdon too.

Is it time for a Six Nations play-off?
Italian newspapers were savage in their opinion of the Azzurri’s performance against Ireland. “We don’t deserve to be in the Six Nations,” wrote Corriere dello Sport’s rugby writer Francesco Volpe in a scathing editorial, while La Gazetta dello Sport described Saturday’s encounter as, “the worst waste of a home game in the history of the Six Nations.” So, maybe, despite pre-tournament optimism, the time has actually, finally, come for the winners of the Rugby Europe International Championship – usually Georgia – to face the wooden-spoon winners of the Six Nations, whoever they may be, in a two-leg match for the right to take part in the following season’s competition?

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That Finn Russell conversion
It’s too easy to mock Scotland’s fly-half for that fluffed conversion attempt from right in front of the posts at Stade de France on Sunday. Some say a bad call from the coaches, some say nerves, some just laugh and turn it into a gif. Many ignore the fact that referee Jaco Peyper may have been talking to the TMO about whether to review the try that led to the conversion attempt – concerned there may have been a reason to discount the try, Russell took the conversion quickly to take the decision out of the referee’s hands. The only question that remains is whether he should have attempted a drop goal, rather than setting the ball on a tee, for it to bobble off as he was shaping to kick. In the end, it didn’t really matter, as Scotland lost by six. Or maybe it did matter, as it would have put Scotland in the lead early in the second half and may have changed France’s game plan…

Jackson or Sexton – that is Schmidt’s question
Paddy Jackson, who has barely put a boot wrong in this Six Nations, faces a training ground head-to-head with Johnny Sexton for the right to wear Ireland’s number 10 shirt against France at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium in two weeks. The latter has played barely two hours of rugby since November, but will not be released to Leinster for some much-needed game time this week, with coach Joe Schmidt instead determined to keep him at a three-day training camp in Monaghan. The coach was tight-lipped about Jackson’s chances of keeping his place, but admitted that he had ensured Sexton’s return to fitness does not now necessarily mean a return to the starting line-up. A nice headache for the coach to have … and a perfect two-pint topic for bar-room rugby fans.

Aw, Referee! Part Two
French referees do not always get the best press, but Romain Poite and Jerome Garces have officiated over the two best games in this year’s Six Nations. Poite took charge of the tournament opener between Scotland and Ireland, where he barely blew a whistle out of place, while Garces officiated over the thriller in Cardiff at the weekend. Fans of either side could point to a number of perceived mistakes – repeated England offsides; Haskell’s ball-killing in front of the posts; Moriarty’s late hit on Owen Farrell; Scott Williams’ swinging arm on Jack Nowell – but the fact is Garces let a difficult game flow, while remaining in complete control. And the game became an epic as a result. His warning to Rhys Webb to “stop trying to buy penalties” could have come straight from Nigel Owens’ book of one-liners.

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Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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