Six Nations
Been pretty quiet on the subject this year - mainly because I haven't had much to say with it being a rather subdued competition. Wales won the Grand Slam and deserved to having been the better team this season without being outstanding. England are rebuilding and it showed, but made good strides forward. France were as weirdly French as usual and were either excellent or awful. Ireland were disappointing for an experienced side and the demolition of their scrum today has to be a major worry. Scotland showed flashes of promise then collapsed in a messy heap towards the end, and Italy still need a competent 9 and 10 before they'll be able to compete regularly at this level. The standout issue of the competition has been some horribly bad reffing. Alain Roland (not my favourite ref at any time) has had a nightmare; Steve Walsh was his usual rubbish self; Dave Pearson has been unusually poor. Other than that, scrums are still a complete mess and the sooner they eliminate the hit from the game the better. The 30 second fussing around to get a box kick away from a ruck has to be stopped, and the "not held" in a tackle rule needs to go - if you're tackled you should have to stop and get rid of the ball, held or not.