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Sun 22 Mar 2015 | 07:37
Ireland take Six Nations 2015 title after dramatic day in tournament's history

8
Comments

Paul O'Connell and Ireland lifted the Six Nations trophy for the second year in succession as Wales and England couldn't quite do enough to get their points difference above that of the defending champions, despite convincing victories against Italy and France respectively.

Ireland celebrated at Murrayfield shortly after Twickenham's final whistle. Irish fans, who had stayed in the stands to watch England vs France on the stadium big screens, were treated to historic celebrations as the Ireland team took to the field to accept their trophy.

We'll have more highlights and clips from the dramatic day soon

Posted By: Grant Constable

8 Comments

  • larry
    6:48 PM 22/03/2015

    I haven't seen any highlights of that game yesterday. I picked the Ireland-Scotland match to watch, as I had a game to referee and had to leave home by 10:30 to get there. I'll check it out.
    This past week I saw an old tape of the '97 England-France match when France came back in the last quarter to score three tries and win. If yesterday's was anything like that game I want to see it.

  • larry
    6:39 PM 22/03/2015

    You do have a point, and I do see it very clearly. I don't think there is a need for more 'playoff' games in the Six Nations. Perhaps the system developed is a good one after all, because it takes all the matches in consideration, not just head-to-head games where the current scenario was played out as you discuss.
    Here in America the want for wins is over the top, and now it is considered the 'real' season when the basketball professional playoff games start in another month. It lasts until mid-June.
    So then, with Ireland beating England by more than enough points, and only losing by seven to Wales, and Wales losing by a good margin to England, then Ireland seem to be the real champion when considering the three games played amongst themselves.

  • drg
    4:13 PM 22/03/2015

    I enjoyed most of the matches this tournament. I thought there were many hard fought games. The underdogs seemed to play some good rugby at times, which was promising, but equally disappointing when it seemed to descend into a form of 'head up bum' syndrome later on.

    I think Scotland and Italy have excelled in areas they were once poor at, but Scotland especially; whilst doing some things correctly, seemed to forget all the things they were maintained being pretty good at in the past. - Naturally I saw Jim Hamilton resorting to what he is good at, giving away penalties... I thought he had overcome that aspect of his style.

    Onto the England game.. I personally had not endured the levels of excitement that others had with Englands playing through the tournament, they played well but they looked, not overly interesting 'yet'... however against France I thought they did extremely well. It was interesting to see them play under a huge amount of pressure and adapt. I think against Ireland they were not in the mind frame that they were capable of beating the Irish, but against the French they had it in their minds that they were going to win, it nearly back fired on them but then they stepped up and the whole thing almost looked improvised... but it was brilliant.

    The commentators or pundits asked Clive Woodward whether players are told before the game to calm down and not make a big deal of the game, or whether it's hyped up. He replied that he would hype the game up and put pressure on the players to see how they performed, I personally thought they performed very well!

    Congratulations to all the teams, I thought they all played well in certain areas and they made this 6N a far more exciting tournament than I have seen in a while!

  • drg
    4:05 PM 22/03/2015

    Larry I understand your comment about Ireland losing to Wales, but then on the flipside, Wales lost to England and England got beaten badly by Ireland... so if for instance Wales had won the competition then surely the Irish fans would say "Well we beat England?" etc...

    The only way to overcome this would be to have a longer competition where you eventually break it down into a semi final and final... but that would get a little long and tedious and it also wouldn't really overcome the 'We beat you but you still won over all' comments.

  • sevenseven-7
    3:34 PM 22/03/2015

    Congrats to Ireland on winning the Six Nations, but I think that the England vs France game was the match of the tournament. There were so many ups and downs, I didn't think I would survive the whole match without biting through my fingertips. That was a valiant effort from England and France deserve equal credit, they didn't dare sit back and accept defeat at any one stage in the game. If only more games of rugby were like this!

  • larry
    2:43 PM 22/03/2015

    I question Ireland's winning the Six Nations because they lost head to head against Wales, but I don't make up the rules that are based on overall scoring of points, the aggregate. I guess that's the American in me. Our championships are based on who wins and loses, not on scoring of points when teams are tied with the same record.

    Ireland were clearly the better team yesterday against Scotland, who get the Wooden Spoon once again. I read 1980's halfback Roy Laidlaw's assessment of Scottish rugby on the BBC website before the match yesterday. He had some interesting things to say, and he's Scotland's scrum half's uncle.

    Now it's on to the World Cup. Can Ireland and Wales compete with the Southern Hemisphere teams and either come away with the Web Ellis Trophy? I hope so.

  • larry
    2:34 PM 22/03/2015

    There might have been lots of tries scored yesterday, but that's because the games opened up some. There was a passage of play during yesterday's Ireland-Scotland match in which "end to end" stuff happened, more because of errors made than anything else. Knock-ons and kicks led to counterattacks. There seemed to be more inter-team passing than ball carriers just running into opposition to set up another boring 'ruck' followed by another a few yards up the pitch, to be continued on ad-naseum. So many times this season I've yelled at my computer (I've gotten the games on the net, not the TV) for players to pass the ball when they haven't. It's supposed to be rugby union, not rugby league!
    The only law changes I would like to see are getting rid of "truck and trailer" (legalized obstruction) and a redefining of where or when a ruck ends, as in if there's just a few players involved in a ruck, and a ball is sitting at a "rearmost" player's foot, the ball actually has to be footed beyond the foot before a scrum half or acting scrum half can pick it up and handle it, because as it is now, a scrum half can pick up the ball in that situation (isn't that really hands in the ruck?). Other than that, perhaps the "use it or lose it" has to be applied quickly, as in the ball needs to be played immediately in that situation to avoid static rucks (as it is now there's sort of a delayed command from a ref to use it, but it's only after some time has elapsed). That might lead to more counter-rucking and getting more forwards in actually fighting for the ball instead of spreading out on defense across the field, or spreading out into the backline regarding the team in possession, and then there might be more space out in mid-field.
    I also question some of the tactics. Is it wise to run dummies ahead of the ball?
    Other than the risk of obstruction if there's contact with potential tacklers, dummy runners aren't in support of ball. It's overused in my opinion.

  • notawelshdavies
    12:10 PM 22/03/2015

    I went all tournament thinking 'defences are on top, the game needs to evolve to allow for more tries'. Then there were over 50 points scored in all three matches!

    I've all been blaming the rule makers, but it is conservative coaching philosophies that are the issue; the players have got the skills and need to be allowed to take risks by the people in charge.

    Hopefully this is a watershed moment for Northern Hemisphere rugby, where the importance/ease of scoring tries is realised

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