England Expects, Ireland Prays, Wales Wishes

A big congratulations are extended to the Irish Wolfhounds for their fine fourteen points to eight triumph over the England Saxons at Kingsholm, Gloucester. The Oirish contingent will be hoping that the under-achieving first XV can repeat the trick on the shores of Blighty in a few weeks' time.  

Meanwhile, it continually amazes and amuses me that England were installed yet again as pre-tournament favourites for the imminent Six Nations championship. It is all the more staggering when one considers how few English players have recently been deemed worthy of a starting berth in the British & Irish Lions first XV. This fact seems to underline my belief that England are short of world-class players and that they don't possess too many candidates for any potential World XV. Wales, on the other hand, have had their fair share of world-beaters in recent years, and given their drubbing of the next-door neighbour last March, it must be a bit galling that England again were favourites for the Six Nations. Admittedly, the Welsh are not without their casualty list and they do have to travel to south-west London this time. Mind you, I am of the opinion that a good team can play anywhere, so surely away fixtures in the Six Nations should not be too cumbersome for any outfit with Grand Slam aspirations. Again, given the preponderance of Welsh personnel in the recent Lions test matches, it remains perplexing that the English were pre-tournament favourites. It strikes me that too much weight is constantly lent to the November internationals as some kind of barometer of Six Nations prospects.

Ultimately, England's favourites tag [albeit not strong favourites] can be a burden and it certainly will galvanise the overlooked Celts, not that they ever require much stimulus when confronted with bullish John Bull. Surely the success of the three Irish provinces in this season's Heineken Cup thus far is a good omen for the Emerald Isle. Or could it be that the Celts are so distracted by the need to unseat Les Anglais that they fail to hit the same heights of intensity when confronting each other?

What of France? Ah yes, the perennial enigma from across La Manche remains a Jekyll and Hyde story. Which French team will turn up this year? Well, I suspect that the French are lacking the flair and inspiration of yesteryear, as rugby union is undergoing a metamorphosis into rugby league, with sixteen-stone battering rams posing as three-quarters nowadays. Now that France seems equally disposed towards fielding glorified lock forwards in their back division, the days of fleet-footed speedsters seems to be fast becoming a thing of the past. The other problem, thinks me, for Les Bleus is that they don't have a 'triple crown' to fall back on if they suffer a defeat, so for them it is virtually a case of all or nothing as they prize 'le grand chelem'. They tend to lose heart if they lose a match, whereas at least the home nations can console themselves with a 'triple crown' should they suffer a reverse at the hands of our continental cousins of France or unpredictable Italy.

I do hope that Italy give a good account of themselves [but not at Ireland's expense] and that the improving Scots also make a big contribution to the hostilities [at least from the second weekend onwards!].

Ultimately, what does go in England's favour, apart from tedious helpings of media-induced self-belief, is that they are probably a good team, as opposed to a collection of great players. It is after all the best team that will win the prizes, not necessarily the best players.

Here below are the latest odds as quoted by Ladbrokes for the Six Nations tournament. Incidentally, 'broke lads' is a very apt anagram of Ladbrokes for all you would-be punters:

Wales 2/1

England 9/4

France 9/4

Ireland 6/1

Scotland 40/1

Italy 200/1