Quick Tap: Six Nations Week 4 Round Up

Week four set up a very exciting final round on Super Saturday, with the tournament wide open, with three teams able to win the trophy still. Wales survived a Scotland revival with stubborn grit; England routed Italy in typical fashion; finally, Ireland found their blueprint again to walk over a lackluster French outfit. Read on to see my points from each game.

Alun Wyn Jones wasn't the most cheerful after beating Scotland, he knows the big one is yet to come.

Welsh Maul Defence
There were many things to pull from the events at Murrayfield, but away from the headlines the thing that I took away was the inability of Scotland to use their traditionally strong driving maul. Going into the game Stuart McInally had a remarkable statistic, having scored every time he'd captained his country before. Those tries usually come from a well-formed maul, but against Wales, they struggled to get it moving forward.

Beard has never lost while playing for Wales,
Ireland proves another stern test.

The man responsible for a lot of that was Adam Beard, the heir apparent Alun Wyn Jones for many, showcased the kind of skills which made Luke Charteris a critical member of the Gatland team for years. Using his long arms to steadily crawl through the middle of the maul, the Scottish players unable to prevent him from moving through the mass of bodies.

In a tournament where the Welsh attacking lineout has been their major problem, their defence remains rock solid in all aspects, including the lineout.

England's empty crowd
Can someone please explain how a game with eleven tries was the dullest game of the weekend to watch. England had four tries within thirty minutes, and yet the atmosphere in Twickenham felt like that of an abandoned town in the Wild West. There was more atmosphere and enthusiasm in the Welsh coaching box than there was in the 80,000 fans at the (so-called) "home of rugby".

England's fan were disappointing, providing next
to no atmosphere despite England's performance.

A video surfaced, after the game, of the view for one fan, showing a constant stream of "supporters" turning their back on the game, heading to the bars. I understand that many would have viewed that game as "only Italy", but why spend so much on tickets to attend live rugby just to spend half the game with your back to the match going to get another beer? It's not like you can claim you went for the atmosphere, there was probably better atmosphere in the bars in London.

England put on a show - at points - in the game, scoring some wonderful tries, and yet beyond the cheer at the moment of touchdown I don't remember registering the crowd's existence. Even breaking the fifty point barrier didn't get the huddled masses releasing a rendition of Swing Low Sweet Chariot. It's a real shame.

Ireland strong not slick
It may have taken four games but Ireland finally found the Joe Schmidt blueprint buried amongst all the confetti from beating New Zealand. They lost their way after England blitzkreiged them in Dublin, stumbling to a win against Scotland and doing the bare minimum in Rome. But returning home to the Aviva they rediscovered themselves, bringing their territory and power game back with force.

Furlong, Healy, Ryan, Stander, and Henderson were raw and aggressive linking with Conor Murray to batter their way through an admittedly disorganised French resistance. Combined with Sexton pulling the strings and Larmor having a coming of age game at fullback, they never let France leave their half. In fact the majority of the first half it felt like the game never left the French 22, no matter how hard Dupont and Ntmack tried to clear their lines. It was Ireland of last year, finding what made them great again.

It wasn't perfect, while they did dominate territory they failed to really make it count. Scoring the bonus point try took them sixty minutes when they should have had it in thirty. At times the execution of skill we expect from Ireland was lacking, as passes fell to the turf and France got turnovers. If they want to overturn the deficit and against all odds with the trophy, they'll need to execute their chances better against Wales and the indomitable Red Wall of Shaun Edwards.

Ireland eventually scored their deserved bonus point, but it took a lot longer than it should have.

So there you go the points I noticed from last weekends games, did I miss something, what did you notice? Let me know on social media what you think about the weekends' results, and how you see the final round going.