How does the Six Nations look from here?
Yes, we’re precisely three-fifths of the way through the 2023 Six Nations, but let’s keep our fractions simple.
The Biggest Plusses
More coverage of every sort, the Tik Tok machine working overtime to attract new customers and spread the good news. Even the old-style press devoting more and more column-inches to match reports and interviews with selected individuals. Saturation TV coverage of every sort.
Crowds bigger than ever, Wales doubling their Arms Park record.
Playing standards rise as every squad can now boast contracted players; unfamilar faces make their mark, bringing new excitement to the product; senior players know they have to raise their game again to retain their position.
Player’s hands suffer from so much autographing post-match; smile muscles ache with the number of selfies requested.
Now the Downside
The gaps in achievement remain obstinately as wide as ever. Here they are to date, round by round:
31-5, 58-7, 12-22; 3-53, 22-34, 68-5; 3-59, 24-7, 55-0
A definite pattern to be seen here: two relatively close matches, two decent wins with a single score against, and five wins with margins of 50+ points.
I for one would be perfectly happy to see the value of the try return to 4 points. Once upon a time it was three.
Talk everywhere is of contracts narrowing the gap; players are now fitter and can spend longer together practising together. But the eighty onfield minutes argue otherwise.
My reasoning for the imbalance lies in these non-rugby figures; Italy 67,000,000; France 60,000,000; England 56,000,000.
Contrast those populations with the other three nations, and you need a remarkable devotion to the game to balance out the inequalities. Aotearoa can manage it, no other nation can.
So the player-pool each head coach has available is restricted by these bald numbers. Of the three large nations, Italy are still in the process of building the game up; there’s no quick route. Neither France nor England can claim to cover the entire country so far as membership of the elite league is concerned. In both cases the south prospers while the north languishes. But their player pools are the envy of everyone else.
Swings and Roundabouts
The standings of the six nations do alter over the years but only in positions 3-6. Ireland are suffering badly at the moment, but up to 2022 they had more wins than losses to show. They rank third overall. The ongoing concern is the gap between them and the top two.
We have to consider the effects on the players and the coaching staff. The bosses will underline the progress made by their squads, but how do the people who matter most, the players themselves, react to yet another defeat?
All sport is a matter of winners and losers, but at this exposed level – your photo posted large on the sports pages and online – digesting defeat is harder than when it was the old pattern of ‘friends and family came to watch’.
Then there is the physical side to the debate. As players grow stronger and faster and fitter, the knocks they take increase too. That is the urgent dilemma facing the men’s game; World Rugby is hunting desperately for a solution.
At present (17 April) Emma Orr’s head injury in Vannes looks to be less serious than at first feared. That’s a great relief. But it points to the inherent risks as the women’s game increases in speed and ferocity.
One Coach’s View
Bryan Easson gives his view on the status quo: while his squad cannot equal the likes of England at present, that will come.
I do not see how he can defend those last three words. It means that out of the limited number of players he has at his disposal, he will find the talent to match the strongest squads, and, vitally, fill his bench with equal ability. There were moments in the France-Scotland game where the inexperience of individuals was laid bare.
When will any of the Celtic lands be able to put out thoroughly accomplished players in every position, with onlookers wondering why the bench-sitters aren’t allowed to start? That is the position France and England find themselves in – flair to spare.
In each round this season French and English fans have had cause to wonder at the non- appearance of certain players. That is the degree of competition that pervades their squads.
A front row goes off and the replacements shunt the opposition back five metres at the next scrum. The centres go off, and their replacements outwit the opposition with the next move.
It is significant in itself the way Super Saturday has been put together. Unlike last year England will host France in a finale which will certainly be the biggest contest yet staged in the 21-year history of the Six Nations.
So it’s a troubled mixture of delight and concern as we look forward to the remaining two rounds. Here are the fixtures to enjoy in Round Four:
22 April Ireland v England, 14.15, Musgrave Park, Cork
22 April Scotland v Italy, 16.45, DAM Health Stadium, Edinburgh
23 April France v Wales, 15.15, Stade des Alpes, Grenoble (16.15 local time)
