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The good and the bad: Reflecting on yet another Red Roses procession
Allow me a few paragraphs of grumble, please: I promise we’ll end on a high.
I put my microphone down at just gone four o’clock on Saturday after a really fun couple of hours watching one of the most impressive attacking performances I’ve ever seen.
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England were actually so lethal – so opportunistic and electric – that commentating on them became quite a logistical challenge: every time I wanted to discuss a wider point, or right as I asked Kat Merchant a question, a Red Rose would conjure up the latest moment of sorcery, and there’d be a try to call. It was relentless – they were relentless – which we can only applaud.
That’s when covering the world number ones gets less fun, because people ask you how work was, and there are gasps, winces, and – worst of all – amusement when you tell them the result. 88 – 10 is a terrible look for the game – a cricket score – and it does precisely nothing to entice new fans.
Ireland weren’t bad, but they were nowhere near, and – although they fought tooth and claw until their legs were lead and their lungs screamed for oxygen – there was never, for even a second, the sense that they would bruise a single petal on the immaculate Red Rose.
Dannah O’Brien’s territorial management got them much better field position than their possession stats or scoring prowess would suggest, and their ball speed remained exemplary – out-shooting the world’s very best in a fast-draw duel – but that’s pretty much it. Not a single line break. As many line-outs won as lost. Missing 63 tackles – over a quarter of those attempted.
Their opponents were irresistible: out-dazzling Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s glitter ball attire with punch and panache, and playing before an ebullient crowd on a day which only confirmed the thrilling trajectory of this product – but that came at a cost: I’ve experienced a greater sense of jeopardy watching Disney movies for the second time.
On Sunday – it got worse. Wales nil – France 40: a final score which shone a stark light on the progress of this Welsh team – and illuminated all the holes in the WRU’s sticking plaster of professionalism.
The women in red were swimming in possession and territory, but desperately lacking in direction and potency, as Les Bleues scored in sevens.
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Ioan Cunningham was often shown on the coverage, watching on with a packet of Tangfastics on his desk. The confectionary choice felt horribly apt, as his charges fizzed for phase after phase after phase, but lacked any sort of clinical edge, and things ultimately turned sour.
At full-time – by which point the home side had been caught walking as France scored off a quickly-taken line out, been marched back for dissent, and floated countless loose passes onto the Cardiff turf – the sweets were gone, and he stood at the back of the coaches’ box – staring implacably at his laptop. In 2022, Wales were hurled the lifebuoy of contracts, but it looks increasingly as though there was no rope attached.
Anyone who reads this column regularly will know that I love the women’s game and its Six Nations – the teams are wonderful, and the event is improving each and every year – but the tournament is fundamentally flawed, and that fabled ‘gap’ is only yawning larger.
The Red Roses shouldn’t be putting 88 points on teams, and round four’s average scoreline of 48 – 7 simply doesn’t work. We don’t have time to get into it properly here, but this Lions tour has been rushed into existence without enough thought, and – based on this weekend’s evidence – it’s going to be a trip to New Zealand for England plus a few extremely talented cameos, whilst French athletes who deserve involvement watch on with twiddled thumbs.
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Some thoughts.
I wanted to end with the positives from Twickenham, because it was a privilege watching England’s Cowgirls and enforcers respectively yeehaw and thunder their way to such a triumph.
The numbers. The Roses carried for 1,549 metres, gaining over a kilometre. They beat 63 defenders, whilst making 25 offloads, and executing six devastating first-phase line breaks.
They’re so confident in their pace, chemistry, and ability that two thirds of their exits were ball-in-hand. Once they reached the 22, it was – more often than not – game over. 19 visits: 14 tries.
The pack. Hannah Botterman is a contender for Player of the Championship. Sadiya Kabeya’s athleticism is frightening, and her involvements have gone through the roof. Zoe Aldcroft made 129 metres on Saturday – 129! – including a gallop so majestic it deserves Hans Zimmer scoring.
Alex Matthews simply does what she wants at points: unstoppably classy and classily unstoppable. If Connie Powell bangs any harder on John Mitchell’s office door for a starting spot, she’ll take it off its hinges. Morwenna Talling, just returned from injury, found out she was starting minutes before kick-off, and drummed up five dominant tackles.
The backline. Mitchell’s favourite expression is that he wants sufficient cohesion to ‘take the handbrake off’ in attack. Under Lou Meadows, they seem to have removed that mechanism altogether. Oh, to be Holly Aitchison, and know that – at any given moment – there are world-class operators to your left and right.
To receive the ball swiftly and on the front foot (chapeau, aforementioned forwards and Mo Hunt), to have the razor-sharp strategist’s brain to instantly select your most lethal option, and then to have all the whips, tips, jinks, stabs, fixes, and floats to set bodies in motion.
Tatyana Heard spoke last week about the ‘flair and vision’ of the ‘electric’ Meg Jones, and their combined midfield magnetism is starting to really wreak havoc. Abby Dow’s subtly layered world-class details and brute strength onto her ever-present pace, Jess Breach has been given the licence to go hunting she so desperately longed for under Simon Middleton, and Ellie Kildunne… there’s nothing which hasn’t already been said about this scything, scoring megastar.
It was consummate and compelling: the best team in the world playing rugby which was as easy on the eye as it was unbearable for their opponents. A penny for the thoughts of New Zealand Rugby, who whipped a Wayne Smith-sized rabbit out of the hat in 2022. If they’re to break English hearts again next Autumn, they’ll need to rootle around and pull out a sabre-toothed tiger of a trump card: the hosts are just getting better and better…
Next up for the Grand Slam defenders? Saturday’s headline fight at the Stade Chaban-DelCrunch.
France were far from perfect in Cardiff – they forced things unnecessarily in attack, their line out was as effective as a chocolate kettle, and the way they flew up to snatch intercepts and force errors from the Welsh would be desperately risky against England – but there was plenty to get excited about, as the eyes of the rugby world turn to Bordeaux.
The first two games of the day are equally unmissable – it’s last chance at Saloon Principality, and Scotland’s trip to Belfast will be a colossal clash – but that late kick-off will be nothing short of enthralling. How will John Mitchell’s Red Roses cope under real pressure for the first time? At last – at long last – we’re about to find out.
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to comments