We let it slip out of our hands

So at last the Mick's have won a Grand Slam. First one since about 60 years ago. Just days after Paddy's day they've got another thing to celebrate and the Triple Crown and Grand Slam are theirs. Do they deserve it? Well the jury may still be out on this year's Six Nations. To my mind, it was a poor tournament. Each team in turn disappointed and never got to grips with the ELV's to produce the type of rugby that one would remember. Indeed, making a highlights package from this tournament may be more difficult to edit than one may like to imagine.
So what is my assessment. The Irish play a very limited game, the pack seem to thrive on slow ball and don't mind taking the ball millimetres from one phase to another and then flop over with the ball just touching the line courtesy of the TMO.

It will be interesting if they can repeat next year as they have to fill in some key personnel, mainly O'Gara at Fly half, who is being singled out for some individual attention which limit's the game. (The Aussies targeted him on the Lions Tour so what will the Bock's do in the summer if he makes it) John Hayes may very well try to make it to 100 caps but is beginning to show some rough edges. They need to decide who's going to be their No 9. O'Leary was poor today and Stringer may have been more effective today. They have some emerging youngsters namely Luke Fitzgerald and Heslip in the pack. Time will tell. how may of them will make the Lions squad? Scotland have progressed this year. they are now competitive. One can also see some improvement in the English side. Again they need to identify core squad members and build a team around them. Then there's the Frogs. What can we say about them. Selectorial problems, new blood not being able to have an extended run in the team and the ability to produce one week and be crap the following. The Italians keep on bringing us the outtakes of the tournament. The term "Bergamasco" will soon make it's way into the Oxford English Dictionary. So that leaves us. Could we have? dare we think that we are building a dynasty? Well, in this day of the video analysis we should be aware that there will be people will be working on laptops deep into the night working us out. In most sport, people try to eliminate players out of a game by either double teaming or man marking them as Worsley did to Roberts on Match day 2. Again some say that if we had put 50 points on the Italians as the French did today, we could have relaxed a lot more and may have been able to keep in the groove. Selecting a strong team for the first hour and going 30 points ahead will allow you to bring on the likes of Hook and the others, especially the front row to go for broke in the last twenty minutes. Thus now we have the remainder of the Magners League to look forward to, the Knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. I will be very disappointed if the Munster factor will prevail as just as those Tigers ground down the opposition when they won those titles. Then there'll be the British and Irish Lions Tour of South Africa on the horizon. Come back and see who I think they'll take and who I'd take on this very arduous tour.