It was a very exciting first weekend in the RBS Six Nations, with Wales fighting back against England, Ireland clinging on in an ugly game against Italy and France destroying the hopes of Scotland, but three moments of brilliance stood out for me.
Toby Flood’s try for England
As I had suggested in this newspaper on Saturday, Jonny Wilkinson was able to counter the blitz defence of Wales by launching a high cross-kick to the left-hand wing, where Lesley Vainikolo, on the pitch earlier than he would have thought, outjumped Mark Jones, barging the Wales wing to the floor as he gathered the ball.
Although Vainikolo then went to ground, he showed his strength and awareness by staying up long enough to flick the ball one-handed to Flood, who came tearing up, taking advantage of the broken defence to run in untouched. That put England 16-3 ahead after 22 minutes and in charge of the game. But you should never take anything for granted in rugby. More than 40 minutes later, Wales got back on to level terms thanks to another brilliant try.
James Hook’s try for Wales
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Hook has been waiting for the chance to make the fly half’s job his own and he split open the England defence with a wonderful move. He shimmied and glided round three England defenders, before slipping the ball to Lee Byrne outside him so that the full back could score. As any good fly half would do, Hook then got his breath back and slotted over the conversion to turn five points into seven.
Vincent Clerc’s first try for France
So much for me thinking that this would be a close game! France’s new era under Marc Lièvremont began with a walloping of Scotland at Murrayfield. All the tries were fun to watch, but the first one was brilliant.
Scotland were starting to build some momentum, but Clerc ended all that with a storming try down the right flank. It was brilliant interaction between Clerc and C?dric Heymans, who know each other so well from playing for Toulouse. If Clerc’s pass to Heymans may have been a little bit forwards, the full back’s return was perfect, allowing Clerc to dive for the line under Nick De Luca’s tackle and then crawl the last two metres before putting the ball down. It showed how good awareness and clever lines can make great use of very narrow space.