Following a ‘Super Saturday’ that actually lived up to its name, Ireland are once again Six Nations champions by the slimmest of margins imaginable. Ireland got there by being ‘cannier’ over the entire tournament, that’s the perceived wisdom from columnists and blokes in pubs everywhere. Ian Richie, the head of the RFU, branded England finishing second four years in a row ‘unacceptable’, thus becoming one of many Englishmen this week who could probably have done with avoiding microphones.
First off, let’s acknowledge some facts. Saturday was incredible fare but it wasn’t a normal day’s rugby by any stretch of the imagination. Normally you don’t get three teams, playing in perfect conditions, going out to put up basketball scores against weaker opponents. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that the World Cup is going to be a massive anti-climax to the casual fan. If you were playing the ‘everybody drinks when somebody scores a try’ game last weekend, you’re only coming around about now, assuming you’re not dead. Make no mistake, no head coach of a leading rugby nation is going to give a ‘give it a lash’ team talk in the autumn and expect to keep his job.
Secondly, an Irishman isn’t successful in a desperate lunge to knock the ball out of a Scotsman’s hands and England are Six Nations champions. Luck plays a massive part in all sports and yet, nobody involved ever seems keen to acknowledge it. There is an obsession with the belief that everything is controllable. It isn’t. Good teams put themselves in a position to win most of the time. If Stuart Hogg had stickier hands, England aren’t suddenly looking like a way better prospect for the World Cup. Ireland were probably the best team over the tournament but there wasn’t a lot in it. Of the three teams, England were the ones who went away from home, to Cardiff, and got a win. That’s not nothing.
The idea that England should, due to greater resources and playing numbers, naturally hold the whip hand on the Celtic nations is faulty thinking. Ireland have less players but they have greater control over them. They are also concentrated together fundamentally around three teams, with a couple of exceptions. Sexton is coming home and rumours abound that Henshaw will be leaving the West one for one of the ‘big three’ provinces. Speaking of Sexton, he is a once in a generation talent and no team is as reliant on an individual player as much as Ireland are on him. He has an off day by his high standards, Ireland succumb to Wales.
Ireland got lucky with the provinces being in place at the dawn of professionalism. They accidentally fell into the perfect system to maximise their resources. England’s academies are steadily improving, there is a wealth of young English talent in the premiership right now. Still, Ireland’s resources are concentrated in a small area and the IRFU have total control over them (bar Jonny’s Parisian adventure, which is coming to a thankful end). In romantic terms, the Irish team are one of those couples who are able to finish each others sentences because they spend so much time together, they know what the other is thinking. England haven’t got the same level of telepathic cohesion yet but at least they aren’t the messy-divorce-in-waiting that is France. They’ve got numerous long walks and cheeky getaways planned for the summer months, expect the red rose to be blooming with romance come September.
England certainly have lessons to learn, not least in the PR stakes. Mike Brown implying the Italians and Scots didn’t put the effort in, when England have put up similarly big scores against them in recent years, was a horrible fumble from a great player. James ‘The Brand’ Haskell, saying how nobody should blame him for getting yellow-carded was arguably worse. He sounded like one of those fools from Sinn Fein back in the bad old days, when asked about the IRA. “While I share sympathies with my left leg, I am in no way responsible for its actions and can not be help responsible for the consequences.” Then there’s Mister Richie, giving the ‘unacceptable’ headline when his team have put up a phenomenal if flawed performance against France, and they’re heading into a still very winnable home World Cup. It was a politically motivated quote, designed to make himself look good, but it smacked of throwing others under the bus he is supposed to be driving.
Ireland deserved the win, I’m just not sure England deserved the kicking.