Rugby

I managed to watch the six nations rugby games today, and cannot resist a little review in my blog.

England were fabulous. Given the torrid time Ireland had last week, we need to remember that the Italian pack is pretty good. But they posed few problems for England today, except for a soft pushover try that we did not defend.

It is a pleasure to see an English team score so many tries. Of course Ashton was fabulous, but I really enjoyed Youngs and Flood; the best half backs we have had since Dawson/Wilkinson (who is a shadow of his former self). The drop in quality when Care and Wilko came on was all too evident. Haskell also had a blinder, and even Tindall managed to not drop the ball all the time (but wait for some real defence to flummox him).

And then, on to what I thought would be a real cracker between Wales and Scotland. After their performance against France last week, all the pundits tipped Scotland. What a joke! The first 20 minutes were cracking. Wales, and Hook in particular felt they had something to prove, and they did so in some style. But then the Scots started getting some ball ... and coughing it up every time. Wales did defend magnificently, especially with 13 men, but Scotland were risible. Only a diehard fan could have enjoyed the middle 45 minutes of this game. At one point it looked like Scotland might even get back into the game, before thankfully the Welsh killed it.

I am sure I am not the only England fan who remembers when Andy Robinson was in charge. Week after week, after losing yet another game,there he'd be telling us how well we played, how good we were and so on. I feel genuinely sorry for the Scottish fans that they must now endure the same thing!

I hope that Ireland find the courage to bounce back against France tomorrow - but the French still look good, and it will take a lot to beat them.