3 hours ago
1
Style and beauty count for only so much in top‑level sport, as Welsh and Scottish supporters were eventually reminded on Saturday. There are no marks for artistic merit, no specific rewards (beyond a try bonus point) for throwing the ball around in the name of entertainment. Occasionally, though, there are days when the losers’ enterprise and energy leaves the deepest impression.
None more so, at long last, than Wales. After barely four training sessions under their interim head coach, Matt Sherratt, they looked a team who have not so much had an extreme makeover as assumed a whole fresh identity. Last time out they were gloomily trudging through Italian treacle; suddenly they were running and passing with elan and briefly threatening to cause the mother of all tournament upsets.
Scotland? Their fizzing backline frequently made England look horribly pedestrian and not a single home fan could have cried foul had Finn Russell landed his fateful final conversion. The visitors outscored their opponents three tries to one and might have had at least a couple more with a touch more composure inside the English 22.
All of which raises a few interesting questions. Might it be the weekend, for example, that prompts the game’s guardians to reconsider rugby’s traditional scoring system? No one is suggesting radical change and seven points for a converted try still feels broadly fine. But what if, in future, tries were worth six points rather than five and a conversion just one instead of two? Scotland, with that subtle tweak applied, would have edged the game 18-16 on Saturday and their pace and ambition would have been more tangibly rewarded.
Clearly it would not have altered the outcome in Cardiff but it might just help to incentivise more sides to play a brand of rugby which captures a few more imaginations. As a free‑wheeling France underlined in Rome, it is not compulsory to play with pace, purpose and panache but it sure helps to attract sofa‑bound neutrals.
Then again, in the words of one particularly erudite ex-pro, rugby union is for ever destined to be perfectly imperfect. The side scoring the most tries has also never been guaranteed to win the Six Nations. It has happened in only two of the past six championship seasons and, overall since 2000, the rate of top try scorers topping the table stands at a modest 56%.
Rather more relevant is a selection of less immediately obvious stats, with tries conceded historically high on the list. Take 2015, when Joe Schmidt’s Ireland retained their title having scored only eight tries and conceded three in five games. In a total of 160 minutes of rugby at home to France and England they scored one solitary try and not a single Irish supporter cared in the slightest.
Kicking from hand is another pivotal metric. To hear the boos ringing around Allianz Stadium (née Twickenham) as England kicked the pimples off the ball in perfect, dry conditions was to sense again the widening disconnect between old-school conservative coaching priorities and the modern-day consumer. Box kicks are emphatically not box office.
But good, smart kicking unquestionably has its place. Both Wales and Scotland carried for hundreds of metres more than their opponents and beat many more individual opponents. Kicking-wise, though, the Irish booted the ball a remarkable 1,108 metres compared with Wales’s 637. The comparable figures in London were 861 metres for England and 762 for Scotland. Getting rid of the ball remains as crucial to the outcome as weaving intricate attacking patterns.
after newsletter promotion
Discipline, in every sense of that overarching phrase, also matters more than ever. No wonder Gregor Townsend was frustrated by some of the officiating calls against his side given England’s general lack of attacking penetration while his counterpart Steve Borthwick highlighted the increasing importance of the penalty count. “We have won the penalty count in two of the three games in the Six Nations and in three of the four games in the autumn series.
“In a game like that [keeping your discipline] is essential. When the ball is in the middle of the field and both teams are trying to find an avenue to open up and get access into the opposition 22 you need to minimise that by discipline.”
Which is among the reasons why, despite the ugliness of their weekend win, England are still clinging to Ireland’s tails in the title race. The unbeaten Irish remain front runners, still to play France in Dublin and Italy away. Were they to lose against Les Bleus and Scotland were subsequently to triumph in Paris, however, it is not inconceivable England could sneak an improbable title with bonus‑point victories over Italy and Wales next month.
Because while that might seem a remote prospect – England have conceded 10 tries in three games, the same as Wales – rugby is not just about vapour trails and flying dives into the corner. Under pressure it can also be about playing the percentages, staying cool, scrambling in defence and, as the unfortunate Russell will testify, kicking your goals. As well as avoiding cards and keeping on the right side of the officials. England, pretty or not, are still winning some key little battles.
