Weekend Round-Up

Given a full weekend of international action, I only watched one match, and that was Ulster vs Ospreys. Apparently I value sleep over watching England play. Anyway, I mention the Ulster match as before that game, most of Ulster's support was showing distinct signs of anxiety following a very casual couple of warm-ups. Ulster then went on to roflstomp the poor Ospreys and now all is well. The moral of this story is 'think very hard before assigning importance to warm-ups'.

So in that spirit, I will now proceed to talk about games I didn't even see.

From everything I've read, it doesn't sound like Ireland pushed England too hard. The moral importance of this game as a launchpad will be talked up but as a guide of what to expect, it remains a little shaky. It's like John Wanamaker nearly said: half the analysis I spend on warm-ups is wasted, the trouble is I don't know which half. The three things I have been more interested in reading about after the game are the things where I think this is the most accurate guide we've got. They are:

1. Is Ben Morgan fit?
2. Did we look like shaking off the self-inflicted wounds in the set-piece, discipline and finishing areas?
3. How did the centre pairing we've never seen before go?

The answers appear to be:

1. Getting there. This is important to me as I believe him to be quite comfortably England's best ball carrier.
2. 100pc in the lineout and only six penalties conceded - good. Losing two of your own scrums and only two tries off of 9 line breaks and 55pc of the territory - not good. 
3. Seems to be an area of contention. Since I didn't see it, I will hold my peace here, but the whole situation makes me nervous.

In fact, the best news for England's World Cup campaign came from Cardiff, not Twickenham. That's a nasty way to spin the injuries to Webb and Halfpenny and I really would have rather seen them go but it hasn't happened that way and England's chances improve as a result. It's quite possible the Welsh will line up for our game without Samson Lee, AWJ, Webb, Jon Davies and Halfpenny; even if some of them make it, their training will be disrupted. That's a huge loss for the Welsh and while I'm not writing them off, it should definitely tilt things in England's advantage.

Going back to England's opponents from the other day now and I doubt the Irish camp will be as upset as some of their fans seem to be. They have longer to wait for a difficult match than just about anyone else and not only does that give them plenty of time to get things right, it also means they don't want to be completely right just now. If they peak now, they risk being too tired come the big games at the end (assuming they get there). Yes, they might be making a mistake with their build-up - or they might still be the same beast that has strangled the life out of the majority of its opponents over the last twelve months. My bet would be that the coach who masterminded the latter is too canny to be caught doing the former.

That leaves one member of the Home Nations unconsidered - Scotland - and they will be kicking themselves after they snatched another defeat from the jaws of victory. Their propensity for doing so makes them ideal quarter-final opponents for England, assuming everything goes right, but I'm too cynical to leave it there. After all, Scotland do have some serious talent, and the last two World Cups have seen a team step up big style. In Vern Cotter they have their best coach since people liked Tony Blair, if not longer, and he clearly has a plan for his new charges, and I don't mean just "replace all of the Scots with better rugby players", although that does seem to be part of it. It seems a little early for his plans to come to fruition, but then it always does until it happens. It's to be quite devoutly hoped that, when push comes to shove, the main thing Cotter brings from his Clermont days is the ability to lose the majority of important games. 

In other news, most of Europe's major club competitions are now underway, except for the Aviva Premiership. This is a serious relief to me. Some people don't like the leagues playing at these times because they feel the fans get short changed but me, I actively enjoy it. Yes, I'm no longer watching the best vs the best, but that's actually a bit of a benefit. Those games often have something of a predictable feeling to them. Everyone knows what a full strength Saracens or Bath are going to do. That's not something you can say when Ulster put out a reserve back three player at fly-half and hand goal kicking duties to their bosh inside-centre. I don't want that experience all the time, but every now and again, it's really good. 

As it happens, as an Ulster fan, I was immensely happy with how that combination went down. In particular, I would like to take the opportunity to gush about said bosh inside-centre, Stuart McCloskey. It's doing him a bit of a disservice to call him a bosh player, actually. Yes, he is rather powerful - just see here:

But he also plays like a genuine centre. He looks for space, he looks for offloads, he can pass and kick and the rest of it. He just happens to be the same size as the average blindside flanker at the same time. It is a potent combination and a lot of people seem to be tentatively pencilling him in for Ireland in the near future as a result. The interesting part for most people (other than dat hand-off - goodbye poor Welshman) is how he developed - after all, everyone wants a genuinely skilled old school centre who just happens to be the same size as Stonehenge. McCloskey's school days were spent as a scrum-half prior to what must have been the mother of all growth spurts. Imagine what they must have spent feeding him at that point! Mrs McCloskey's weekly shop is not the point here though. The point is that in an era when many of England's groomed from birth superstars seem to have embarassing gaps in their skillsets, and most of the AP's most devastating carriers didn't come through England's academies, it does offer food for thought. No answers yet though. In any case, if McCloskey does keep on developing like this, he'll be one to follow for rugby fans everywhere.

Aside from the Pro 12, we also have the French leagues, and the Championship. I guess calling the Championship a major league is stretching it a little, but it is probably one of the top five leagues in Europe and will be minus a few players over the World Cup. The big loser there is, unsuprisingly, Bristol. In fact, Bristol are the main reason I'm bringing up the Championship. I don't follow the Championship that well, because I'm not too familiar with the teams, but most rugby fans are familiar with Bristol and just how much absurdly bigger than the rest of the Championship they are. Right now, the Championship is like watching an 800lb gorilla smashing itself against the walls of its cage, while all the other inhabitants slip through the bars. It's kind of funny, in a mean way, but at some point the joke will get thin, particularly for the residents of Bristol. It would be great if Bristol could stop Clermonting it up and get promoted before that point, as they do have a lot to add to English rugby. For now though, the joke remains funny, particularly if you're Bedford, who beat Bristol in this first round of the season. That might just be the only time Bristol lose this season though - until the next play-offs.

And that's everything remotely interesting I have to say.