England aren’t exactly doing their best to rebuff accusations of arrogance, France look mighty strong for Sunday and the Millennium Stadium roof issue is far from closed.
Acceptable level of confidence, or misplaced arrogance?
Jim Telfer rubbed a few people up the wrong way with his comments about the English and Welsh teams earlier this week, possibly because although his rant was probably a little over the top, there may have been an element of truth behind what he had to say.
Certainly, there has been a level of arrogance and condescension from English teams in the past and although the current England team don’t deserve to be tarred with the same brush – at least not yet – Stuart Lancaster is probably better off not including England in the same sentence as the All-Blacks if he is trying to adopt a more modest approach.
“To win consistently is important. That is what champion teams do,” Lancaster told PA Sport ahead of the meeting with Scotland tomorrow.
“Expectations have risen and this time last year people were looking at us as an unknown force. Now they know.
“The trick is to win consistently, even when you are the target. That is what the All Blacks do. That is what we have to strive towards. We have to be one step ahead, not one step behind.”
So are those merely the words of a coach who has a right to be confident on the back of a victory over New Zealand in November, or the type of stuff that gets pinned to a dressing room wall as motivation for England’s opposition?
We’ll soon find out.
Beware Les Bleus
If the November internationals and the form of their club sides is to be taken into account, France will very much be a force to be reckoned with in this year’s Six Nations.
Add into the bargain the motivation to banish the memory of their worst Six Nations display in 11 years last year and you have another cause to fear Les Bleus, while last but certainly not least of the reasons to be fearful is the team named by Philippe Saint André to face Italy on Sunday.
Sure, Freddy Michalak can be flaky and one might wonder about the wisdom of leaving the likes of Morgan Parra on the bench, but otherwise one can’t help but be impressed by the strength of the side and you’d fear for Italy on Sunday. Incidentally, you can also check out the Italy team below.
France: Yoann Huget; Wesley Fofana, Florian Fritz, Maxime Mermoz, Benjamin Fall; Frederic Michalak, Maxime Machenaud; Yannick Forestier, Dimitri Szarzewski, Nicolas Mas; Pascal Pape, Yoann Maestri; Fulgence Ouedraogo, Thierry Dusautoir, Louis Picamoles.
Italy: Andrea Masi; Giovanbattista Venditti, Tommaso Benvenuti, Alberto Sgarbi, Luke McLean; Luciano Orquera, Tobias Botes; Andrea Lo Cicero, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Martin Castrogiovanni; Quintin Geldenhuys, Francesco Minto; Alessandro Zanni, Simone Favaro, Sergio Parisse.
Roof issue not closed just yet
The one downside about the few stadiums around the world with a retractable roof is that the debate about whether to close it or not seemingly always becomes an issue before, during or after the game.
If it’s left open, the surface is obviously exposed to the elements that aren’t always favourable in this part of the world, especially around Six Nations time. If it’s closed, conditions become a little stickier and it arguably lends a greater advantage to the team who are more used to said conditions and who are already benefitting from playing at home in the first place.
Despite the inclement weather in Wales in recent days and weeks, it seems as if the roof at the Millennium Stadium will remain open tomorrow afternoon at Ireland’s insistence, with the forecast predicting showers tomorrow morning, but a cold and sunny afternoon by the time kick-off arrives.
Rob Howley won’t be a happy bunny if that is indeed the case:
“We would like the roof closed with the conditions of the last 10 days; which have been pretty awful,” he said.
“We always want to play good rugby in good conditions.”
Does that mean that Ireland don’t want to play rugby in good conditions?
Oh it’s on Rob, it’s on.
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