[Sport] 6 Nations 2013 - week 2

Week 2 of the 2013 6 nations is done! This won’t be a long post, as I didn’t see any of the games live. I did, however, watch the Scotland-Italy match on iPlayer, so I’ll focus on that.

The team captains for this year's 6 nations. (Credit: rbs6nations.com)

Scotland vs Italy has, in the last few years, traditionally been the match that decides the wooden spoon. It’s always hard fought, often scrappy and ugly to watch, and often goes with the host team in a close result. This year was a little different though.

For a start, there were large sections of the match which saw some really rather good rugby being played. Second, the final result wasn’t close at all really. Scotland romped to victory, in the process scoring 4 tries. Or at least that’s what you would think if you only saw the final score. The reality is more complicated than that.

Stuart Hogg, the Scotland full back, outpaces everyone to score a game-changing try

(Credit: dailymail.co.uk)

Two of Scotland’s tries were well worked, classic rugby moves. They also had the chance to score at least two more, being denied by some stout, last minute defence and a forward pass on those occasions. But the other two tries were opportunistic. Admittedly still impressive, and well capitalised on, but still somewhat against the run of play. The first was a great interception by the Scottish full back, Stuart Hogg (rapidly becoming an indispensible part of the Scotland side), which he made inside the Scotland 5m line before dancing through what seemed like the entire Italian team and running the almost the length of the pitch. Brilliant, and possibly responsible for turning the tide as it denied what looked like a certain Italy try. The second was a loose ball in the middle of the field, which was grabbed by Sean Lamont (another important cog in the machine) who saw a gaping hole in the defence and took advantage.

Both of these were great to watch, particularly as a Scotland supporter. But all of the talk after the game was about Scotland dominance; looking at the match with a cold head, I didn’t see it that way. Yes, it was a great performance, and worth celebrating. But I think Scotland, as a team, need to be careful not to be too optimistic about how they played. They have some tough games coming up, and in the past have been guilty of playing up their chances only to fall apart. I hope that doesn’t happen again.

I think the looks of disbelief are appropriate. Don't let it go to your heads boys - 

there'll be tougher matches ahead. (Credit: metro.co.uk)