Total Reach

Finally score 33 – 10 to Wales.  All in all it was a good game with Wales starting to show a bit of flair and ability to move the ball and create changes.  Having said that although this is not taking anything away from Italy they are not one of the big names in rugby however they are getting there.

We had the majority of the normal side back from injury and it did show Wales were willing to play more of an aggressive game and look for breaks and they did have support runners.  This is what I would like to see more often in bigger matches, the players returning from injury did make me think a bit about something I have thought all the way through the tournament is how do you select your players.

For me Gatland is picking for the media not for performance and form when Bryne was out at full back who ended up playing there.  James Hook now James Hook is an amazing player but something as specialised as full back defensively needs a natural full back or at least someone that has played that position quite a bit to be in the right position to defend.  For me Hook couldn’t manage it so perhaps Gatland would of been better off picking someone else who plays the position.

The main 2 players for me was Stephen Jones who played some great rugby at number 10.  Also Sam Warbuton at number 7 filling the big shoes of Martyn Williams and did a very good job at it, for me definitely one to watch for the future.

The most exciting game of the 6 nations this weekend France 46 v 20 Italy.  Although France was always going to win this and they did dominate the game Italy really did do themselves proud in the last 10 minutes and other little patches of the game.  France was playing both well in the tight as well as the loose.  Showing that they can play both an expansive game and keep it tight going up the middle.

The caveman Sebastian Cheval came on with a look of anger on his face as if he was annoyed he hadn’t been picked and wanted to stamp his place in the team for the game against England.  Looking forward to the final weekend of the 6 nations, France looks like they are going to take the Grandslam as they are looking as the team of the tournament and deserve the grandslam.

The final score was 15 – 15.  Although the score line kept it entertaining wondering who was going to pull the cat out of the bag and win, the game wasn’t exciting from a skill point of view as I felt that both teams were making an errors and the skills didn’t make for exciting breaks.

The positives to take from the game would be Scotland just there ability to hold there own with the big names again.  Watching this game from a neutral point of view the Jonny Wilkinson factor is something that has been talked about.  Like a couple from the Welsh team he is an amazing player however he is showing signs of coming to the end of his career being that yard or two slower then what he was.

Overall there was a lot of mistakes but the tight game kept you on the edge of your seat.

Well what can you say about this game the final score was 27 – 12 to Ireland.  If I am honest neither team were really impressive however a positive from the Welsh performance is that they actually got on the score board in the first half.  I know in every game if your team doesn’t play well you blame the referee but what was he doing?

He did seem to be on the Irish side not taking that away from them because they were the better team.  The reason for saying this is the Lee Bryne sin bin and multiple times when Wales got into the Irish half in the second half Ireland were blatantly infringing in order to slow ball and contain Wales illegally.  They got warnings and Bryne didn’t.

The sin binning was the nail in the coffin in my opinion as that was when Wales coincided the most points.  All these excuses aside Ireland did deserve the win however it should of been closer.