The 2014 Six Nations Thread

[michaelg]

Good to see "David" Trimble, as the ITN sports reporter called him on  the news on Saturday evening, having a good tournament.  Had it not been BOD's last match, pretty sure he would have been awarded MOM yesterday.

[lynchbhoy]

Great to 'win' the 6n but England were still the best team in it.

They and the French are gearing towards the wc - we seem to be aiming at each tourn as it comes up with no long term vision or plan?

Some great players on the Irish fringes now and we need to clear out some of the older crew

Some strange marks given to Irish players in the papers for yesterday's game - you'd swear France had won reading them

No long term vision or plan?? We have blooded an entire front row, 3 young loose forwards in Henderson, Murphy and Ruddock and 2 out halfs. The aim of having two players in every position come 2015 is starting to take shape. Yes replacing BOD is an issue but even Southern Hemisphere sides would struggle to replace that kind of talent. I'm confident Henshaw/Cave/Payne will fill that position!

Blooding them is lovely but new potential stalwarts for the next wc need games, responsibility and cohesive time on the pitch with team mates to measure their capabilities for a wc cauldron !!!

What use are Darcy bod oconnell in the next wc?

I believe paddy Jackson is sextons understudy but the lad has had feck all

Players have been changed in the front row more to do with fatigue and appearance money than long term planning
IMO

Look at the string of changes Wales England and France made each round ( some enforced) in each 6n before wc years

[Syferus]

Great to 'win' the 6n but England were still the best team in it.

They and the French are gearing towards the wc - we seem to be aiming at each tourn as it comes up with no long term vision or plan?

Some great players on the Irish fringes now and we need to clear out some of the older crew

Some strange marks given to Irish players in the papers for yesterday's game - you'd swear France had won reading them

No long term vision or plan?? We have blooded an entire front row, 3 young loose forwards in Henderson, Murphy and Ruddock and 2 out halfs. The aim of having two players in every position come 2015 is starting to take shape. Yes replacing BOD is an issue but even Southern Hemisphere sides would struggle to replace that kind of talent. I'm confident Henshaw/Cave/Payne will fill that position!

Blooding them is lovely but new potential stalwarts for the next wc need games, responsibility and cohesive time on the pitch with team mates to measure their capabilities for a wc cauldron !!!

What use are Darcy bod oconnell in the next wc?

I believe paddy Jackson is sextons understudy but the lad has had feck all

Players have been changed in the front row more to do with fatigue and appearance money than long term planning
IMO

Look at the string of changes Wales England and France made each round ( some enforced) in each 6n before wc years

The f**k?

[Walter Cronc]

Great to 'win' the 6n but England were still the best team in it.

They and the French are gearing towards the wc - we seem to be aiming at each tourn as it comes up with no long term vision or plan?

Some great players on the Irish fringes now and we need to clear out some of the older crew

Some strange marks given to Irish players in the papers for yesterday's game - you'd swear France had won reading them

No long term vision or plan?? We have blooded an entire front row, 3 young loose forwards in Henderson, Murphy and Ruddock and 2 out halfs. The aim of having two players in every position come 2015 is starting to take shape. Yes replacing BOD is an issue but even Southern Hemisphere sides would struggle to replace that kind of talent. I'm confident Henshaw/Cave/Payne will fill that position!

Blooding them is lovely but new potential stalwarts for the next wc need games, responsibility and cohesive time on the pitch with team mates to measure their capabilities for a wc cauldron !!!

What use are Darcy bod oconnell in the next wc?

I believe paddy Jackson is sextons understudy but the lad has had feck all

Players have been changed in the front row more to do with fatigue and appearance money than long term planning
IMO

Look at the string of changes Wales England and France made each round ( some enforced) in each 6n before wc years

Jeez your worse on this than your Derry thread comments...

The English backline has remained the same throughout the tournament. That despite George Ford being a better player than Farrell. Their back row and second row also has remained unchanged. Joe Marker missed yesterday's game as his missus was having their baby.

The French set up is a shambles. Saint Andre doesn't pick the best players and chops and changes with no long term vision.

Joe Schmidt knows exactly what he's doing. It's not his fault Darcy and POC are in their 30s. Marshall would probably have got more time if he hadn't reviewed his 4th concussion in a year. He still has plenty to learn defensively as seen in the Australia game last November.

Appearance money.....Christ!!

[trileacman]

We are infinitely better set up than the French for the WC. England are smash artists of the highest order, their general play is not superior to ours, we would probably have beat them at a neutral or home venue.

[johnneycool]

Is there not a summer tour of Argentina, autumn internationals and another 6N's before the world cup?

Surely theres enough games and competition to get a 13, maybe a 12 as well and other cover for Ross, POC etc, etc sorted..

[Orior]

Who was the French man that took out Sexton with the forearm smash? He was a tank of a man.

Anyway, during the second half (perhaps just before he hit Sexton) the ball was played back to him and he had to jump what seemed like two feet in the air to catch it. Fair play it was a terrific catch.

[Armaghgeddon]

Who was the French man that took out Sexton with the forearm smash? He was a tank of a man.

Anyway, during the second half (perhaps just before he hit Sexton) the ball was played back to him and he had to jump what seemed like two feet in the air to catch it. Fair play it was a terrific catch.

Bastareaud.

He is a good guy, he stopped playing to make sure Sexton was alright.

[johnneycool]

Who was the French man that took out Sexton with the forearm smash? He was a tank of a man.

Anyway, during the second half (perhaps just before he hit Sexton) the ball was played back to him and he had to jump what seemed like two feet in the air to catch it. Fair play it was a terrific catch.

Bastareau (sic), brute of a centre, thankfully he can't pass for shit to compliment his undoubted power.

Whilst England are building well for the world cup in 2015 for some reason winning this championship will do more for Ireland in terms of confidence even if BOD and maybe one or two others exit the stage.
You hope winning something of merit, not some makey uppy triple crown or other will help the likes of Sexton, O'Mahony and a few others know that they can compete with some of the best and come out the other side victorious unlike the NZ game where playing well wasn't enough.

[seafoid]

Who was the French man that took out Sexton with the forearm smash? He was a tank of a man.

Anyway, during the second half (perhaps just before he hit Sexton) the ball was played back to him and he had to jump what seemed like two feet in the air to catch it. Fair play it was a terrific catch.

Bastareau (sic), brute of a centre, thankfully he can't pass for shit to compliment his undoubted power.

Whilst England are building well for the world cup in 2015 for some reason winning this championship will do more for Ireland in terms of confidence even if BOD and maybe one or two others exit the stage.
You hope winning something of merit, not some makey uppy triple crown or other will help the likes of Sexton, O'Mahony and a few others know that they can compete with some of the best and come out the other side victorious unlike the NZ game where playing well wasn't enough.

It was great to beat France - good confidence boost and hopefully they can build on it . England are overrated, I think. 

[johnneycool]

Who was the French man that took out Sexton with the forearm smash? He was a tank of a man.

Anyway, during the second half (perhaps just before he hit Sexton) the ball was played back to him and he had to jump what seemed like two feet in the air to catch it. Fair play it was a terrific catch.

Bastareau (sic), brute of a centre, thankfully he can't pass for shit to compliment his undoubted power.

Whilst England are building well for the world cup in 2015 for some reason winning this championship will do more for Ireland in terms of confidence even if BOD and maybe one or two others exit the stage.
You hope winning something of merit, not some makey uppy triple crown or other will help the likes of Sexton, O'Mahony and a few others know that they can compete with some of the best and come out the other side victorious unlike the NZ game where playing well wasn't enough.

It was great to beat France - good confidence boost and hopefully they can build on it . England are overrated, I think.

England are good at what they do, crash ball rugby. It isn't the most inspiring to watch but it'll get them near the southern hemisphere teams but come up short on creativity when it matters.

Ireland did well with the England lite versions of Wales and Frances Bastereau who crashed away on his own, but his inability to offload or see things around him must be frustrating for the lads around him who can do things with the ball and a bit of space.
Dricos centre replacement will need to be a good tackler first and that bit of something extra would be a bonus, but we've probably been spoiled the last 14 odd years.
It's hard to see Zebo or Gilroy get a starting berth due to the lack of physique which is something Schmit likes, not only to tackle humungus wingers but also challenge in the air for the re-invented garryowen's now put up quite a lot from the Irish kickers and fairly successfully on saturday evening.

[Estimator]

Bastareaud is heavier than every member of the starting front row for France. Not the sort of stat you'd expect from a centre

[Main Street]

He's aptly named.

[trileacman]

Bastreaud has a place in the modern game though. How often was D'Arcy expected to get across the gain line with slow ball? He was chastised for his performance here but there wasn't much else he could do. Someone has to take it in eventually to build another line of attack, more often that not Gordon was smart enough to bite the bullet, commit and place the ball back. What France need is a passing centre, possibly Fickou, maybe with Bastereaud on the wing cutting in to play centre occasionally as Horgan used to do with us. Fofana and Bastreaud are useful talents but really hard to assimilate into the French style of attack. The French back 3 could slice through steel and they need centres (like Jauzion) who can get the ball to them.

[Walter Cronc]

Another great blog from the lads at Whiff of Cordite!

How appropriate that the winning act in Ireland's victorious Six Nations campaign was a turnover by Chris Henry and Devin Toner - previously unheralded guys who were given an opportunity by Joe Schmidt and swam at this level. Henry epitomises the new Ireland – where players sacrifice all for the team. Ireland won this championship because they were the best team – the Irish collective was built on the commitment to excellence of the new coaching ticket, and every player in the squad bought into it entirely.

It's becoming hackneyed to talk of Ireland's "unsung heroes" (how many times do you get sung before you can't be unsung any more?) and this usually refers to the consistent excellence of the likes of Devin Toner, Chris Henry, Dave Kearney and Andrew Trimble. They are the contingent who Schmidt brought into the first team from the fringes of the squad, often ahead of more championed alternatives, and generated much heat for doing so. Let's look at them:

■Toner has found himself the target of derision and doubt many times in his career. Despite accumulating 100+ Leinster caps, his elevation to the XV was perceived to be Leinster-centrism from Joe Schmidt. Yet he was the surprise package of the November series and he looked of international standard. In recent years, he has improved year on year and this is no different. Yet, the perception was (and is) that if Ryan and McCarthy were fully fit, Toner would be nowhere near the XV, but he ends as one of Ireland's players of the series. He has been a key man in adding grunt to a light pack, and will be hard to shift.
■Henry – soldiering away at Ulster and one of the most influential players at HEC level for a few years now. Yet he is 29 and plays in a position where we are stacked. But Schmidt saw something he liked (at Leinster, where he devised his HEC2012 final gameplan around nullifying Henry's influence) and he was in. He was the workhorse of the backrow trio, tackled himself to a standstill (we are too lazy to add up, but we expect him to be Ireland's #1 tackler over the series). It's easy to say he will make way for O'Brien and Ferris if and when they are back, but he has been one of Ireland's players of the series, for his consistency, and was especially effective in the away games
■Dave Kearney and, especially, Trimble – perceived as 5th and 6th best wingers at the start of the season (at best) – even now, most people would pick a fully fit Tommy Bowe over both, but they've done little wrong, and Trimble was Ireland's best player in their win in Paris. Sure, Simon Zebo is more electric, no doubt about it, but read the below from Trimble in November, when he was outside the circle (H/T the Mole) – does this describe Simon Zebo? What about Luke Fitzgerald, Keith Earls or Tommy Bowe? Hard to know, but Andrew Trimble, after 50 caps, looks here to stay:

"I'm more conscious now of the type of winger that Joe is looking for. He's looking for someone who is accurate, who is physically dominant, who knows their role inside out and performs a lot of small areas of the game very, very well ... He demands so much from his players. Joe isn't overly concerned about a winger that breaks a gain-line and scores tries from halfway. He looks for a winger who does the simple stuff very well, presents the ball at ruck time accurately all the time, accuracy in kick-chase and reception. Every little thing. He has to do everything to make the team tick." 
This is the new Ireland – the players are selected on their ability to execute the coach's gameplan – and the team is paramount. No Ireland player was as explosive or as individually influential as Danny Care, Mike Brown or Joe Launchbury, but it isn't those guys who are champions. Ireland had few noticable weaknesses, unlike the other championship contenders. England struggled any time their backup scrum-half was on the pitch, and would surely have won the Grand Slam had hand-flapping Lee 'Rock Lobster' Dickson not been introduced in Paris, and their 10-12 axis managed to create the grand total of one try in five games for two flying wingers. Wales had a weak collection of half-backs and an inflexible gameplan, and France a court jester of a coach, poor backups and a generally unfit pack.

Casting your mind back to how low Ireland had sunk this time 12 months ago is illuminating – beaten up in Rome, with a coach long since past his sell-by date and with a distinctly un-fortress-like fortress. The new ticket has brought a unified direction and purpose, a commitment to being the best, confidence, and a newly-loved team with an atmospheric home ground. Miracle worker? Well, it's amazing what some strong leadership and a new direction will do – Ireland are a team that mirror their coach's personality on the field.

Think about who was Ireland's player of the championship, and there's no obvious choice. Every player, from 1-23, contributed something. After two games, we'd have picked O'Mahony, but he had quiet games in Twickers and Le Stade and missed Italy. Henry? Certainly up there for consistency. Trimble? As important as anyone. O'Connell? Manic, and another brilliant leader, but quiet in Twickenham. Sexton? Got the Bernhardt Langers with him kicks in Paris, but scored four tries, and at crucial moments. BOD? Rolled back the years. But Jamie Heaslip would be our choice because he was among the top performers in all five games and had a huge all-round impact and influence (see Workrate  by Henry, C.) – but we wouldn't argue with any of the above.  If anyone out there still doesn't see what Healsip's value to the team is, well, they're not worth listening to.

That consistency and collective drive was the most impressive turnaround. Ireland have a quite magnificent coach, a squad of intelligent and skillful young men, and some big guns to come back. There is no reason why, with the RWC15 draw we have, we shouldn't be putting ourselves up there with England as the main threat to BNZ and the Boks next autumn.  And while Ireland didn't win a Grand Slam, there is a certain satisfaction to be derived from winning the championship on points difference.  Ireland have finished level on points with the champions in the recent past, but always came out second best on this metric.  Not this time, though, and the real differentiator between Ireland's and England's points differential was the thorough beating we handed out to Wales, which everyone can feel happy about. And the key reason England didn't thrash Wales as well was consistently giving away kickable penalties to keep Wales in the game - something we happily avoided all tournament.  George Hook and others may lament the rules, but Ireland weren't top of the log by accident.

To briefly talk about the game itself, it was torture. France turned up in a big way – Maxime Machenaud was class, Picamoles, Bastareaud unstoppable and the back three threatened with every touch. Ireland were superb for the middle 40 minutes, but the final 20 were horrible.  We eked out a 9 point lead after 55 minutes, but wilted under the pressure of the French desire and our own poor execution. Only a poor place kick from Doussain, prime butchery of a simple pass from Pape and a lucky scrum call right at the end got us over the line. It was the game was the best of the tournament and for pure bloody-mindedness, we just about deserved it. Some of the highlights:

■The Sexton try in the second half. A spectacular break from Trimble and a brilliant piece of play from BOD – realising he wasn't getting in, he plotted a path to recycle and we got in right under the posts. POC's super-fast pick and drive from the ruck was a classic example of a huge carry for small gain – it crucially kept the momentum going.  And after seeing the way Sexton shanked the conversion, touching down under the posts was the winning of the game
■Mike Ross destroying Thomas Domingo – Ross had an average year up to the Six Nations but has been totemic. Perhaps he just needed a bit of time to get to grips with the new scrum dynamics.  Seeing off a man like Domingo before halftime is one for the headstone.  Poor old Rosser remains totally undervalued – by ourselves as much as anyone else.  We wanted to see more of Marty Moore, but after the last ten minutes in Paris it's clear just how far the young man has to go to get to Ross' venerated level.
■Dreamboat getting pedantic with the TMO right at end about whether it was forward out of Pape's hands.  With Super Forward Pass-a-Rama Rugby in his DNA, he really, really wanted to give the try.  Triminjus, in his despair, said to no-one in particular "Come on man!"
■Brice Dulin. Despite us being on the receiving end, a vintage full-back display from the little Frenchman. With him and Willie le Roux, little guys at 15 are back in vogue
■Our favourite: the touching moment on the field after the game as Rog and Shaggy talked with Andrew Trimble about his journey from international outcast to golden boy.  The delight of the two retirees to see the "real Andrew Trimble" was palpable and the honesty with which Trimble discussed his struggles was captivating. The obvious delight the Leinsterman and Munsterman had for the Ulsterman was a joy to watch – you sensed McGurk was about to interrupt and ruin the moment, but thankfully he didn't
However, it would be remiss not to point out that Ireland could still be an awful lot better at closing out tight, crucial matches.  We certainly couldn't be accused of showing composure in the final ten minutes, and, in many ways, we were worse than in the BNZ game in November.  Courage, determination, incredible will to win; we ticked all of that, but not composure.  We've earned a tag of being chokers down the years and here, once again, we choked at least a little bit. In Paul O'Connell's pitch-side interview post-game, he was furious about how we finished and mentioned it more than once - this is another positive.  In 2009 in Wales we stopped playing rugby in the final 20 minutes and lost our discipline, but somehow still won.  Here we stopped playing rugby, repeatedly kicking the ball to the French back three who were comfortable in finding ways to return it for profit, but maintained our discipline, at least until our scrum collapsed.  Maybe we're getting there by degrees.  On this occasion it was enough to win.  The curious thing is that the provinces are all good closer-outers, with Munster regarded as world beaters in clutch situations.  But as we said in our pre-match post, the weight of history can be as hard to beat as the opponent.

Finally, what is there left to say about Brian O'Driscoll that hasn't already been said?  The curious thing was that there was more BOD-related fanfare for his second-last match than his last, but that's because there was a championship on the line which was the main media focus, and that's exactly how he would have wanted it.

We are the champions, my friends.  Enjoy it.