[Sport] 6 Nations 2014 - week 1

The 6 Nations is back! It's about time too; with all of the hype surrounding this year's Superbowl (more on that later), my favourite sporting tournament snuck up on me this year. I feel rather ashamed, as I have basically no idea about what's been going on in international rugby union in the run up to the 2014 6 Nations, but now that it's here I'm certainly going to enjoy it. Or try to at least...although it's a new year, it's more of the same it seems as far as my favourite team is concerned.

Unfortunately, and much like in international football, being a Scot means almost continual disappointment as far as the 6 nations is concerned. It seems that every year we hear about how the team has improved since the (inevitably poor) autumn internationals, and that the squad is looking to win a couple of games. But it seems that every year it's the reality doesn't live up to the expectations that have been built up. Historically Scotland have enjoyed some great success in the 6 nations and its forerunners, but that is fading into distant childhood memory for me now; more recently there have been flashes of greatness, and some fantastic wins, but also some heartbreaking losses, and some quite frankly disgraceful performances. Scotland has the classic problem of playing to match its opponents level, which means that whilst we can trouble the powerhouses of the tournament, we also seem to lose to perennial underdogs Italy far too often.

Scotland's first match of 2014 was against Ireland earlier this afternoon. It started well; the majority of the possession and territory were going Scotland's way, but as is too often the case the finishing stroke wasn't there. Heading towards halftime the score was 6-3 Ireland, as the green's had been able to convert their chances. Then they put together a couple of good moves to pile on the pressure in the last five minutes of the half, and all too easily scored a try to make the score less respectable.

There was entirely too much of this going on. (Credit: smh.com.au)

The second half was frankly shocking. Yes, Scotland started well and continued to heap pressure on the Irish line. We even came close to a try at one point, stopped only by some excellent last ditch defence. But then the Irish team seemed to change gear and just started to leave Scotland behind. The final score of 28-6 to Ireland doesn't reflect well on the Scottish players, particularly given some of the match stats at various points during the game. But both the lineout and scrum were shambolic at times, and tries still seem elusive. I got a strong sense of deja vu from the game to be honest.

In the other games:

• Wales struggled more than they should really have done to beat an apparently strong Italian side.
• France took just 34 seconds to score a try, but had to snatch victory with another try inside the last five minutes after England fought back bravely

As usual it looks like it will be an interesting tournament, and no doubt there will be some surprising results along the way. Apparently no team has even won three games in a row at the 6 nations, which is an amazing statistic, but Wales have the chance to do so next time out. Scotland are playing England at home, but in all honesty it should be a victory for the visitors from south of the border. Hopefully I'm wrong.