6N: Six takeaways from the 2025 Six Nations
03/17/2025 01:44 PM
1. A curate's egg, good in bits
I had mixed emotions at the final whistle in Paris, torn between pride at Scotland's best performance of the tournament and acute frustration that the team can't reproduce this feisty, 'screw you' rugby every weekend. If they did, the Scots would have beaten England with something to spare and we might even, heaven help us, have snatched a rare win over Ireland. Is this down to the coach or the players? I would say primarily the coach but the senior players must be accountable. Now we have witnessed what this side can produce, the fans should demand nothing less. Every match. What Scotland cannot do is score tries anywhere other than the wide channels and having a one dimensional attack gives the opposition just one problem to solve. In this campaign, Scotland scored 16 tries, only one of which went to a forward (Rory Darge against Italy) and only three of which were scored anywhere near the sticks. 13 of the 16 were created/scored in the wide channels so France maintained their width in defence, double-teamed Duhan van der Merwe and kept Scotland to one try. Over the five games, Scotland entered the opposition ‘red zone’ three times less than France and somehow managed just 16 tries to their 30! Until and unless Scotland fields bigger and better ball carrying forwards in the back-five of the pack this problem will remain unresolved and it’s been around since forever. Gregor Townsend persists with picking two/three openside flankers and, on Saturday, a lightweight lock who should really be a six at this level. Townsend tries to win games with tempo but tempo doesn't help defend a rolling maul in Paris against a pack of giants. Rugby is a power game. Scotland were taught that in Paris, Italy had the same lesson in Rome where two maul tries effectively won the game for Ireland.
Gregor Townsend optimistic about prospects for Scottish Lions hopefuls
6N debrief: disappointed and frustrated but Gregor Townsend still sees progress
2. Choke or chop
The best performance by any Scotland team came in Paris but it wasn't Townsend's team that produced it. The Scotland under-20s gave France Juniors a hurry up before going down 45-40. If only the Scots' defensive work had matched their attacking verve. I was flicking between the France/Scotland game and the Wales/England match where the home side claimed a spirited win over a much bigger pack. The Welsh 20s utilised the ‘chop’ tackle, with the defender aiming at the ankles of the big English forwards, stopping them in their tracks, and allowing the next defender to have a crack at the turnover. In contrast, the young Scots targeted the ball, which usually required two men to stop/hold-up the giant French forwards. The ‘choke’ tackle also caused the Scots to concede many metres after the contact and expend huge amounts of valuable energy in doing so. Might they be better served going low than high, especially against bigger men? Incidentally, on the subject of giant French forwards, their under-20s tight-head Mohamed Megherbi of Toulouse is listed at an eye-popping 156 kgs … 11 kgs heavier than Uini Atonio and bigger than anyone in the senior men's tournament. Anyway check out the highlights of France/Scotland at 20's level and marvel at the execution of Scotland's first try finished by full-back Jack Brown and the sheer determination of Freddy Douglas' solo score when the flanker ran right over two French defenders before evading the despairing tackle of a third. His mano-a-mano with England's own ‘Super 7’ Henry Pollock could last a decade or more.
3. The best team won, which is nice
And still France and their coach Fabien Galthie will be kicking themselves for a long time to come. They could and should have had a 'Grand Chelem' but their finishing let them down at Twickenham and they will be repenting at their leisure. They are not entirely dissimilar to the South Africans in that Les Blues can bludgeon you with the likes of Grégory Alldritt, Manny Meafou and the rest of that athletic pack or skewer the opposition with the rapiers Damian Penaud,Yoram Moefana and Louis Bielle-Biarrey. The bookies should be paying out right now on the latter picking up the Player of the Tournament Award after his eight tries and, yes, I think he would win it even if Antoine Dupont had stayed fit and healthy. The Top 14 is the best, most physical and highest paid league in the world so perhaps we should not be surprised that it produces the best players. Now for that elusive RWC …
4. Irish eyes are smarting
The Irish have had a bellyful of success over the last decade so they can probably digest one disappointing season and, it's worth noting, that their "poor" third place finish is the best Scotland has ever managed in the Six Nations despite all that "progress" that Townsend alone can see. There is something not quite clicking in the Irish backs and subbing Jack Crowley in for Sam Prendergast did nothing to help matters in Rome where Ireland's attack was hopelessly disjointed. Perhaps the opposition has seen every wraparound play so often that no one is buying what the Irish 10 is selling anymore? The once impregnable midfield is now looking shaky, Prendergast missed more tackles (18) than anyone else in the tourney and Gary Ringrose was sat down in Rome; something that was previously unimaginable. Ireland missed Tadhg Furlong, who wouldn't, but Finlay Bealham grew into the role and Ireland certainly won't be blaming him for their ordinary season. The big question is whether Irish rugby has undergone some sort of seismic change or whether they have reached a natural low in the inevitable cycle of sport. The Ireland U20s finished rock bottom of their table, immediately below Scotland, if that offers you some hope.
5. Two blowouts don't spoil a successful season.
England rode their luck in the early matches, especially the Twickenham games against France and Scotland, to finish the tournament on a high point with a withering dismissal of Wales by a record 68-14 in a game that many, including former Welsh skipper Sam Warburton, thought would end in victory for the home team! The more they played, the better England looked. These big blowouts, France also whacked Italy by 73-24 in Rome, are not great for the tournament but they happen from time to time and the majority of the games were highly entertaining and fiercely competitive. France scored a record number of tries. With the possible exception of early England (and Wales under Gats) every team tried to play with the ball in hand and the new law about giving access to kick-chasers made for an honest contest in the air. We had a slew of supremely skilful tries and we had occasional upsets to cheer. England's win over France comes to mind, while the margin of France's victory over Ireland caused shock waves. Furthermore, there were a few near misses, like Wales at Murrayfield, while Italy sabotaged their best performance of the campaign by having just 14 players for 30 minutes! At least the Azzurrini (Italy U20s) earned their first win over Ireland on Friday evening.
6. Wales are record breakers!
There is a cumulative exhaustion that takes its toll in the Six Nations, a little like the third week of a Grand Tour in cycling, and it hurts the sides at the bottom most. Wales did well against Ireland and almost created a Lazarus-like comeback at Murrayfield before succumbing to an England side that could hardly believe the ease with which they ran away with this one. Their 68-14 win included ten tries and it was a record loss to England in the Six Nations. In fact it was a record loss in the Six Nations. Pity Jac Morgan who, to no one's great surprise, made more tackles than anyone else in the tournament. His tally of 88 was 10 more than second placed Dafydd Jenkins, another Welshman. All that defending takes its toll and the men in red were running on fumes for the second half in Cardiff. A little like Scotland, Wales are learning the hard way that modern rugby is all about power and they simply don't have enough of the stuff. Wales have now lost 17 on the bounce, a record for a tier one nation in the pro era. And before you laugh too hard, Scotland lost 17 straight from 1951-55 in the old Five Nations days.
And a couple of bonus points …
Toulouse leads the way
Many of the teams in the tourney are based on one club and with France that club is Stade Toulousain. They had a grand total of 13 players take the field in French colours at some stage in this championship: Julien Marchand, Peoto Mauvaka, Dorian Aldegheri and Cyril Baille in the front-row, Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou in the second, Francois Cros, Anthony Jelonch, Alexandre Roumat in the third and Antoine Dupont, Romain N'Tamack, Pierre-Louis Barassi and Thomos Ramos in the backs. (Did I miss anyone?) Almost all of the above were central to France's success with the possible exception of Roumat who played just 28 minutes. And the influence of the club did not end there. Stade Toulousain favourite Ange Capuozzo was the sharpest weapon in Italy's attacking armoury, scoring two brilliant tries, and Blair Kinghorn was the outstanding player from the Scotland squad. The leggy full-back finished the campaign with the most carries (86), most metres gained (575), the most offloads (13) and the most line breaks (nine). So Toulouse actually contributed a full XV to this grand old competition.
Team of the Tournament
15. Blair Kinghorn (Scotland)
14. Darcy Graham (Scotland)
13. Huw Jones (Scotland)
12. Tomaso Menoncello (Italy)
11. Louis Bielle-Bierray (France)
10. Finn Smith (England)
9. Alex Mitchell (England)
1. Jean-Luc Gros (France)
2. Dan Sheehan (Ireland)
3. Zander Fagerson (Scotland)
4. Maro Itoje (England)
5. Ollie Chessum (England)
6. Paul Boudehent (France)
7. Tom Curry (England)
8. Greg Alldritt (France)
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