6 Nations Review - Are you taking anything away?

True to history the 2021 Six Nations tournament had its fair share of surprises and the odds-on England finishing 5th would have broken the bank.

To all coaches, players, and spectators.

What are the takeaways? What caught your eye? What frustrated you? What excited you?

Did we lose an audience or gain an audience because there were no spectators?

In an earlier article I spoke of the importance of 4 key preparation areas, technical, physical, mental, and tactical.

Technical. Did we see an improvement in basic techniques, technical competency across all players? Did any player improve his positional skills execution? (Dan Biggar)

Physical. Are some players too big, at the expense of agility and field mobility? If the Americans can produce basketball players of second row size and weight, who can move forwards, backwards, and upwards with pace and control, playing 80- games a season, why can’t our big guys move like that? Or are they all in Fiji?

Mental. Did any team, unit, player, freeze during a game? France looked non-plussed in their final shot at the title against Scotland. Ollivon certainly took a long time to make decisions. On one occasion Wayne Barnes had to speed him up…. for a scrum decision 10 meters from the Scotland posts!

Tactical. What caught your eye? The French try from a lineout against England? The efficiency of the Welsh forward drive? The winner by the length of the M1 motorway…. Dan Biggar

Dan Biggar’s performance at 10 for Wales. When a fly-half attacks the line, squares the defence, before arching away, the defence panics. When he can make accurate passes to two hard running centres in North and Davies the least you get is penetration. This could be the Lions 10, 12 and 13. Someone has transformed Dan Biggar. Stephen Jones must be credited with the transformation.

Coaches at all levels will take something from the series.

If you are a Sunday morning coach of young players, you must surely avoid coaching the pick and drive. Just because you have a big lad, (could be huge) in the squad, don’t succumb to the temptation. Young player rugby is about winning quick ball, pass, support, run fast and score. Then add some tackle technique for when the opposition have the ball.

If you are a senior coach you might want some creativity in your 5-metre pick and drive. Stats suggest the longer you pick and drive the least likely you are to score! Maybe some close quarter second man plays or little circle balls, a deceptive runner going open to blind?