Way to go yet, Eddie

The 2017 Six Nations tournament, which began accompanied by a new bonus point system yesterday, can prompt strange things amongst friends and families. With ‘His Nibs’ this year unusually confident that Scotland were about to emerge from years of under-achievement and become potential bolters for the title, after lunch I left him alone to enjoy the early afternoon Murrayfield game against Ireland and went out to do some shopping in advance of the real game of the day (England v France) which was scheduled to kick-off at 4.45pm.

It’s something to do with ‘Auntie’ BBC’s old-fashioned but still true pre-ordained position as the UK’s key national broadcaster that prevents the average Brit from accepting that ITV is actually capable of doing justice to a major sporting event such as the Grand National, the FA Cup, the Boat Race and indeed the Six Nations.

In practice, of course, there’s nothing technical about the notion – these days, the same expert independent production and outside broadcast companies deliver the pictures to everyone from the BBC to Sky Sport and BT Sport, let alone ITV – but in my view it’s all to do with the commercials.

For anyone brought up in the days before the explosion in British television channels, the terrestrial BBC tended to cover all the major sports and its ITV counterpart used to do odd bits of horse and greyhound racing and what passed in those days for wrestling, all of them interrupted to their detriment by advertising breaks.

Whenever  ITV and the BBC both covered football’s annual FA Cup, the BBC used to gain 70% plus of the ratings simply, it was believed even by ITV executives, because it didn’t have to cut away at every possible opportunity to commercials for Brut after-shave featuring Kevin Keegan and Henry Cooper, Kellogg’s Cornflakes and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

Even today I get irritated watching rugby or football when, just as the players are setting themselves up for the kick-off, those of us watching it on television (and presumably therefore also at the ground itself) have to suffer the nonsense of a two-minute ad break before the referee is allowed to get proceedings under way.

Who pays any attention to TV ads anyway? I don’t think there’s a television viewer in history that thinks they’ve ever been influenced by one (that’s certainly my own personal view) but – then again – I guess we may all be kidding ourselves, just as advertising executives the world over have been making a good living by hoodwinking tens of thousands of manufacturers and service providers to the contrary.

As a result of the above I was pre-programmed to approach yesterday’s ITV coverage of England v France with a degree of trepidation. Soon after we had been welcomed by anchor Mark Pougatch and his studio pundits Sir Clive Woodward, Brian O’Driscoll and Jonny Wilkinson we were advised that – as it had been doing ever since 1991, ITV was going to continue providing the UK coverage of the Rugby World Cup, having just signed a contract for the 2019 and 2023 tournaments. Ho hum.

I am not a Clive Woodward fan. For the past fifteen years he has been trading on his reputation as the man who brought England the 2003 World Cup but for this onlooker he was never a great coach, albeit (happily for all of us) he was astute enough to take full advantage of both the outstanding England players – and the relatively poor opposing nations’ squads – of the time.

These days he babbles on far too much and talks in clichés.

O’Driscoll is always worth listening to – he’s forgotten more about the game than most people know and tells it like it is (yesterday he made no excuses for Ireland’s loss against Scotland, admitting the Scots deserved the victory) – but Saint Jonny, though he speaks with calm assurance, is personally so innately intense and analytical detailed that he tends to lose his listeners.

As for yesterday’s game, England won 19-16 but that’s about all you can say.

For 65 of the 80 minutes one could have been forgiven for believing that France were the better team and nobody could have complained if they’d taken the victory.  Their giant Number 8 Louis Picamoles deservedly won the Man of The Match award for his bullocking runs and dynamic all-round play. In contrast, frankly, England were distinctly lacklustre and generally under-performed until the cavalry arrived in the last quarter of an hour.

George Ford controlled little at fly half. Nathan Hughes at Number 8 was a shadow of Billy Vunipola. Captain Dylan Hartley was mediocre and outshone by his successor Jamie George when replaced just after half-time. On his own terms Mike Brown did well but is hard-wired to take the ball up solo rather than pass – his limitations mean that it may not be long before alternative full backs are tried.

The one player who impressed me was Elliot Daly.

First game back after his autumn red card for a dangerous tackle under a high ball he demonstrated his full range of skills (including a monster penalty) and proved to me he’s set for a lengthy international career.

To be honest, England’s main problems were two-fold: the pack took a bit of a beating all over the park and there were far too many basic errors and turnovers for comfort.

Eddie Jones had spoken beforehand about England needing to develop this year by going out and dominating games from the start.

Despite this yesterday was a bad day at the office until Danny Care (scrum half), James Haskell (flanker) and Ben Te’o (inside centre) came off the bench and raised both the tempo and penetration factor.

Still, a win is a win and the chances of England playing as poorly as this again during the next four to six weeks must be small.

However, on this evidence if Eddie Jones, or anyone else, feels that England are on course for a serious tilt at winning the William Webb Ellis trophy in two years’ time they need to rein in their heads immediately and get down to work.

Based upon the results and performances in yesterday’s matches this Six Nations is wide open.