The 2010 tournament is well and truly underway. With Ireland sleepwalking their way to an unimpressive victory against Italy, it was left to England and Wales to produce a gripping finish to their match, one that was only decided through an interception try in the last minutes. In Edinburgh, Mathieu Bastareaud managed to put his personal problem aside as his brace of tries saw France past a lacklustre Scottish outfit. Sport.co.uk takes a look at the winners and losers following the first week of action.
Winners:
Steve Borthwick:
The forlorn England captain had been surrounded with nothing but negative headlines before this weekend. Former players have been lining up to tell the world that Borthwick was not good enough to play in the team, let alone captain it. Well on Saturday evening Borthwick produced one of his finest displays in an England shirt (albeit a limited edition anniversary England shirt). Borthwick helped England’s lineout function superbly, while at the same team, he caused chaos on the Welsh ball. With five minutes left in the game, Borthwick rallied his troops to keep out a rampaging Wales with some resolute defence, before the game was put beyond doubt.
Mathieu Bastareaud:
Having been banned from the French national team in the summer for lying about a drunken night out, Bastareaud produced a match winning performance for Marc Lievremond’s team. A relatively simple chance for his first try was followed by a fine 40 yard effort for his second score. Bastareaud’s facial expression following his second try showed a man that was answering a lot of his critics.
James Haskell:
12 months ago, James Haskell’s career was going nowhere. Unable to secure a place in the England set up and with his critics complaining that he was more interested in promoting “Brand Haskell”, the young back rower fled to France to try and revive his career. Having broken back into the squad during the November internationals, Haskell produced his best performance for Martin Johnson’s men against the Welsh. His two tries and man of the match performance look to have put him firmly back in the international scene.
Adam Jones:
The remaining “Hair-Bear” of the Welsh front row. At the beginning of the week, Jones was selected in a fearsome Welsh front row alongside fellow Lions, Matthew Rees and Gethin Jenkins. By Friday evening, he was the only one remaining. Despite that, Jones put in a huge performance to cover the front row losses, being a giant in the tight and performing like a back rower in the loose. His performance was crowned with a fine try, when he was positioned on the wing. It summed up his day.
Losers:
Alun Wynn-Jones:
An easy choice. Wynn-Jones has been vilified by his own coaching staff following the Welsh locks yellow card for tripping up Dylan Hartley. Wynn-Jones is now an experienced international player and British & Irish Lion, so why he had the urge to trip up someone who was running down a blind alley is something that only he will know. Unfortunately, it cost his team 17 points while he was off, a margin that ultimately cost his team the match.
Ireland:
The Irish were the pre-tournament favourites and tipped to destroy a brave but ultimately limited Italian team. While Italy matches are generally fairly dull affairs, this one was shocking and an insult to the Irish public who paid up to 100 Euros to get into Croke Park to watch it. If Ireland are serious in their attempt to record a back to back Grand Slam, then they will have to improve tenfold if they want to compete with the stronger nations in the tournament.
Scotland’s Front Row:
With a back line that will fail to put fear into any team, Scotland relies heavily on their pack, specifically their front row. On paper, it includes Lions Ross Ford and Euan Murray, but with Murray unavailable due to his religious beliefs, the Scottish scrum suffered terribly. With the French props destroying their opposite numbers at almost every scrum, you had to feel for Ross Ford trying to hook. Despite the demolition job done on them, Scots will be quite pleased that they did not concede more points.
Aurélien Rougerie:
Probably the most fired up player at the weekend, Rougerie nearly knocked himself out in the first five seconds of the match attempting a huge tackle on Scottish flanker Kelly Brown. Having dusted himself down Rougerie did not learn his lesson and his game was over within 3 minutes as he tried another massive hit, only to succeed banging his head again before heading to the subs bench to sleep it off.