That was quite an opening to the Six Nations championship. Ireland and Wales served up a thriller with the home side unable to produce another miraculous comeback and then both England and Scotland showed some nice touches in the evening game.
Overturning a 20-point deficit in the second half was always likely to be a task too far for Wales but when they brought on their substitutes it shook Ireland up and provided us with another fine advert for the game.
Brian O’Driscoll again showed us the ability he has to draw defenders in and then squeeze a pass through the narrowest of margins, setting up Simon Zebo’s opening score. Zebo was then much lauded for his flick that kept the ball alive. Although it was a superb piece of skill, credit must also go to Craig Gilroy, who did extremely well to keep the ball alive in the next phase, allowing Cian Healy to score.
The battle of the young talented wingers was won by Ireland. George North and Alex Cuthbert were kept out of the game and Cuthbert should have done better when faced with Zebo for the first try. Gilroy missed a chance in the first half but made amends with some brilliant tackling when Ireland needed it most.
No repeat of last year’s Grand Slam for Wales, then, but they proved in the second half that despite missing a host of players through injury, they will be hard to beat during this championship. Ireland showed flair, good hands as well as grit and determination when they had two players sin-binned in the second half.
England then flew out of the blocks and immediately set the tone for the game they wanted to play. Fast running rugby, committing numbers to the breakdown to secure quick ball to set up the next phase of play. It was great to watch when it came off, with the passing of Owen Farrell and Billy Twelvetrees catching the eye although there was still a tendency to throw the miracle pass when it the better option was to take the ball into contact and keep hold of it. The ways they were dominating the breakdown and clearing Scotland players out of the way merely reinforced the folly of throwing balls off the ground.
There were areas of concern – the defending for the first Scotland try and then the way that Scotland struck again after a flurry of substitutions had been made – but that is to be expected for what is still a relatively inexperienced side. Stuart Lancaster is building a team for the 2015 World Cup and the progress is encouraging.
Twelvetrees looked a little eager early on but settled down and capped off a fine debut, which included assured passing and running some good lines, with a try late on.
There were a few too many missed tackles, which Scotland were unable to punish, but Ireland, France and Wales will but overall, a very promising start. Greater tests await and two points are already on the board. Job done for England.
The remainder of Scotland’s campaign might show us whether they are several players short of the quality needed to compete with the best, or whether England nullified them to the extent that they weren’t able to play.