Ireland and Wales serve feast after Calcutta Cup famine

Is there a single sight in sport more predictable than Scotland finding an ever-more ingenious way of not scoring a try?

Scotland dominated large spells of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield yet, faced with a reasonably competent defensive display from England, they simply could not turn it into points on the board.  They could not even get penalties as England suddenly seemed to be a team on speaking terms with self-discipline.

Scotland have not scored a try in four Test matches, two of which were against Georgia and Argentina.  At Murrayfield, they went left and dropped the ball.  They went right and dropped the ball.  They went down the middle and dropped the ball.  For dropping the ball is what the Scotland rugby team do; at Murrayfield, it is almost endemic.

When they weren’t dropping the ball, they were giving away penalties inside the England 22, or turning over possession through being outnumbered in a ruck, or failing to find touch from a penalty.  Dan Parks, the starting Scotland fly-half, had one of those games that commentators are wont do describe as ‘not one for the scrapbook’.  His kicking game was poor.

At the start of the second half, one Parks kick did at least set up a try.  For England.  Charlie Hodgson’s charge-down score summed up the grotesque lack of finesse that the game suffered from start to finish.  Hodgson was excellent, as was England’s second-rower Moritz Botha.  That they stood out merely for looking like international footballers is the perfect condemnation of a dreadful match.

The following day, at Lansdowne Road, Ireland and Wales appeared to be playing a completely different sport.  Their encounter was everything you could ask of a sporting contest: high quality, high scoring and dramatic right to the end.

George North, superficially human, clattered through massed Irish defenders to set up the first try of the match for Jonathan Davies II, and clattered through massed Irish defenders to score the last.  The lead, by the end, had changed hands four times.

The main talking point was the referee, as indeed it usually in high profile rugby Tests.  It was in the World Cup semi final, when Sam Warburton was sent off for a clumsy but, ultimately, non-dangerous ‘tip tackle’; in the Final, when local desperation to see New Zealand crowned world champions evidently invaded the soul of Craig Joubert, the South African whose inept officiating cost France the tournament; and at Murrayfield, where replacement fly-half Greig Laidlaw was denied a try by the Television Match Official.

Wales lock Bradley Davies’ tackle on Donnacha Ryan was, without question, a much worse offense than Warburton’s in Auckland.  In the words of the touch judge Dave Pearson, he ‘picked him up, turned him upside down and dropped him on his head’; the very definition of a spear tackle.  So why only a yellow card was recommended, and why referee Wayne Barnes failed to instantly enquire as to Dave Pearson mental wellbeing and show a red card, only they know.  To make matters worse for Ireland, they lost the game to a borderline penalty, when Stephen Ferris clumsily but safely mis-tackled Ian Evans.  Ferris, ludicrously, was sin-binned for the remaining seconds of the match.

Yet all of this merely added to the excitement.  Scotland v England was a great advert for the 6 Nations; immersive, tense and committed.  This, though, was the great advert for rugby union football.  Wales showed class to add to the quality of character that, on its own, was enough for England to achieve their victory.  Against Ireland, Wales needed something extra.  So will England.