I’m intrigued by Wales. Although they’ve won a grand slam, and that gives the pundits the chance to talk their game up, all their games were close – just one score against England, Ireland & France, a struggle against Italy, and Scotland just rolled over.
Thinking back to the 70s team, and even their previous two grand slams (which as a Welsh supporter I regard as flashes in the pan) there were games in which they really cut loose. I’m thinking of the 2005 matches against Scotland and Ireland, where, IIRC, Wales were completely out of sight by half-time in both matches but lost the second half of each. In 2008 they conceded only one try in the whole championship and, in the final game, against France, ground them down to the extent that they had the last 20 minutes to themselves – very much as England did to Ireland today. Well done to England!
There was one interesting set of statistics read out at the start of the match. Before today, Wales and France had met 89 times with 43 wins apiece and three draws. Wales had scored 1305 points, France 1304.
Possibly the highlight of today’s game was the tackle by Dan Lydiate in which the crunch was picked up by the ref’s microphone.