Wales secure their third Grand Slam in seven years in a tense finale at the Millennium Stadium.It has been a pulsating tournament in which the Welsh back-line has taken Northern Hemisphere rugby closer to the level of the Southern Hemisphere sides, than ever before. George North has made a similar impact to that of a young Jonah Lomu, there is a balance in all departments, and the age of the team suggests that there is more to come.On an emotional day after the death of Welsh legend Merve ‘the swerve’ Davies, Wales’s myriad error count almost cost them, but their application and bel ief carr ied them to a memorable 16-9 victory at the Millennium stadium.Interim manager Stuart Lancaster will feel he has done more than enough to secure the role as full time head coach a f t e r E n g l a n d ’ s p r o m i s i n g p e r f o r m a n c e s i n t h i s y e a r ’s championship. The RFU will need good cause to look past a man that has inculcated pride back into wearing the England shirt. Whilst they scrapped victories and may have felt fortunate in Edinburgh and Rome, a young inexperienced side showed Anglo-Saxon steel that hasn’t been seen in the red rose since the Johnson-Woodward era. A telling statistic that is particularly pertinent at a time when England are

considering their appointments for the next Football and Rugby managers is that a country has never won a World Cup in either sport with a foreign coach in charge. Thus, why look abroad, especially when in Lancaster you have a man that has a good rapport with players and clubs and maintains traditional values for performance and behaviour.Scotland have been the nearly men in th i s year ’s S ix Nat ions , and unfortunately for Andy Robinson a perennial problem of losing games ‘they should have won’ has been the prominent characteristic of this forever improving Scotland side. The cognoscenti will say that Andy

Robinson is doing a good job with a small pool of players, yet despite the encouraging performances, results in the six nations and the world cup have not been favourable to the former England coach, and the loss in Rome looks to have signalled the end for Robinson.Ireland will be bitterly disappointed with their Six Nations campaign, more for what it could have been than for what it was. The form of the Irish provinces in the Heineken cup put Ireland as many people’s favourites before the tournament, yet this didn’t translate into the national side. They will perhaps feel the presence of their talisman and Captain O’Driscoll

might have edged them to victory in their tight defeat to Wales and their draw with France, but their scrum will continue to hinder their grand slam chances in the future. Like Ireland, France will feel they have underachieved in this Six Nations tournament. They could quite easily have come into the tournament as world champions, yet they will end it as mid table mediocrity. There was

a l a c k o f u r g e n c y i n t h e i r performances; against both Ireland and England it took them until the second half before they showed what they are capable of, but it wasn’t enough on both occasions, and many Francophiles will be disappointed that they did not see – bar Wesley Fofana – the flair that makes them such an enjoyable side to watch, and such a dangerous side on their day. ‘New

Year, new coach, same story’, would perhaps be an adequate dissection of Italy’s performance. Many had hoped that Jacques Brunel might be able to bring in a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ that might ignite dynamism in their back play to match the fire power in their pack, but once again a scrappy victory at home over Scotland will be deemed sufficient to an accepting Italian public.

THE SPHINX 27

RugbyMike Dolan

Six Nations 2012 review

St Helens' early season slump continued as they went down to their fourth consecutive Super League defeat losing 12-8 to Bradford Bulls at Odsal to condemn the club to their worst run of results in 23 years. Both sides entered the game keen to pick up a much needed win with Saints looking to reverse their recent form and the Bulls searching for their first home win of the season. Both sides had injury problems going into the game. Saints had key man James Roby and scrum half Jonny Lomax absent from the side.The wet conditions set the tone of the match with both sides matching each other set for set up the middle in the early stages. The home side thought they had opened the scoring on 15 minutes as following a period of substantial pressure in the Saints half, forward John Bateman barged over from 10 metres out only for the video referee to spot that he had initially

grounded the ball short of the line and was penalised for a double-movement easing the pressure on St Helens.Within five minutes the visitors had made them pay as Saints did get the scoreboard ticking with a well-worked try. Anthony Laffranchi's short ball put Jon Wilkin through a gap who found Paul Wellens. The Saints fullback was tackled just short but on the next play Saints made the most of the overlap as Wheeler and Gaskell slickly moved the ball out to Andrew Dixon to go over to make it 4-0. Jamie Foster failed to add the extras in what would turn out to be a difficult evening for the goal-kicking winger.Handling errors became increasingly eminent from the home side but St Helens failed to take advantage of their territorial dominance putting the ball down themselves on several occasions and neither side managed to take a stronghold on the match. On 32 minutes the Bulls got themselves on the score-sheet. A chip kick towards the corner from Jeffries took a fortuitous ricochet off Karl Pryce before Eliot Whitehead hacked the

ball forward and pounced on it to score. The referee awarded a rare 8-point try as Bradford were given an extra kick at goal as Jamie Foster was penalised for his attempt to kick the ball from Whitehead's grasp as he touched down. Paul Sykes was successful with both kicks and Bradford had an 8-4 lead which they would take into half time. Straight after the break the hosts found more joy from Jeffries' boot as a high kick was not dealt with by Foster, who allowed the ball to bounce and opposite number Karl Pryce picked it up to go in at the corner to extend the Bulls' lead to 12-4. Ill-discipline continually let Saints down and when they had position near the Bradford line they lacked the attacking finesse to break the Bradford defence. The visitors' cause was further dented as Foster's nightmare evening continued when he was sin-binned for a professional foul. Captain Paul Wellens produced an outstanding last-gasp tackle to prevent Ben Jeffries from going over to seal the match for Bradford. The visitors did seem to be spurred on momentarily playing with a bit more purpose in attack. However Tony Puletua dropped the ball with the try

line at his mercy after a cutting edge move sliced through the Bradford defence epitomising the lacklustre display. Much of the closing stages saw Bradford camped in their opponent's half as the Saints' forwards failed to dominate their opposite numbers. However Saints did eventually score again in the last minute as Francis Meli went nearly the full length of the field but it was too little too late with the final hooter s o u n d i n g a s F o s t e r ' s s e c o n d conversion attempt hit the post.Another disappointing display does not bode well for the Saints who will need to improve drastically ahead of a tough run of fixtures, for the next t h r e e w e e k s , a g a i n s t L e e d s , Warrington and Wigan.

Saints slump to fourth consecutive defeatSimon Mulligan

Bulls v Saints20/01/1946

Final score: 13 - 8Referee: Richard SilverwoodAttendance: 11,316

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