The first weekend of a much hyped championship is upon us.
Ireland and France were vying for favourites among the pre-match punditry, Scotland advertised as being a step up from their usual form (and “red hot favourites” for the Calcutta Cup vs England). England forced to blood some new players, which was thought to play in their favour, including the much-fancied Marcus Smith. Current champions Wales less favoured, and Italy…are Italy.
Two matches in we can start to see how that analysis is holding up:
Ireland comfortable against Wales (29-7) - the only negative for them after that match is that they didn’t get fully tested. Wales by corollary are struggling to recover their winning form.
Scotland v England was really a competition to see who could be least worst. Scotland narrow winners 20-17 after a fairly turgid error-strewn match in which England had the lion’s share of possession and territory but couldn’t turn that into points, and in which Scotland produced exactly two brief moments of good rugby, both of which turned into points (in the second instance, courtesy of a giveaway penalty try).
France v Italy later but that won’t tell us much we don’t already know.