THE MATCH WINNING BENCH

A gulf has emerged once again between the Top Tier Northern rugby nations and the rest, but it is not so much down to the understandable reasons of player skill, fitness, conditioning and coaching, but more to do with player numbers, resources and strength in depth, ie: not so easy to replicate quickly. This is demonstrated by the first two rounds of the Six Nations, where the strength of the bench is the main differential between the winners and the losers (not the only one). A quick analysis of where the games over the weekend were won by England, France and Wales illustrates the issue.

Wales v Scotland match

Scotland once again were the better team in the first half, despite conceding a soft try early on and had Barclay looked left he would have put Hogg under the posts for an even greater lead at half time. The game turned entering the final quarter, following a period of pressure on Scotland's line, with a Roberts try on 65 minutes. This was partly caused by Hardie spilling the ball in the Welsh 22, but also by the impact of such Welsh bench players as Jenkins, Davies and Lydiate. Unusually, it was not the replacement front row that did the damage as Scotland had the edge all game, but old experienced heads with fresh legs in the loose that tipped the game in Wales' favour.

Welsh Replacements: Owens (for Baldwin, 47), Jenkins (for Evans, 47), Francis (for Lee, 68), B Davies (for Charteris, 47), Lydiate (for Tipuric (61), Priestland (for Biggar, 75), Anscombe (for James, 65).

Scottish Replacements: McInally (for Ford, 65), Reid (for Dickinson, 65), Swinson (for J Gray, 68), Cowan (for Barclay, 65), Hidalgo-Clyne (for Laidlaw, 77), Weir (for Russell, 68), Jackson (for Hogg, 28),

England v Italy match

England were poor in the first half against a team that has never beaten them, and had Canna not missed a late penalty, would have been behind on the scoreboard at halfway. Again the game turned, earlier than expected, when Italy gifted England an easy intercept try, when Leonardo Sarto's looping, obvious pass on his own 22 was picked off by Joseph. This was quickly followed by a well worked third try for England by Joseph when (sub) Danny Care grubber kicked through for him to touch down. England's cause was undoubtedly helped by being able to call on such quality from the bench as Launchbury, Marler, Itoje as well as Care. It is not surprising that Italian heads went down, when they saw the arrival of further reinforcements such as Alex Goode, Jamie George, Paul Hill and Jack Clifford, arguably as good if not better than the players they replaced. Inevitably the floodgates opened in the final quarter, with England reaching the 40 point mark, a scoreline which flattered them.

Italian Replacements: Pratichetti for Garcia (32), Padovani for Canna (60), Palazzani for Gori (75), Zanusso for Lovotti (62), Giazzon for Gega (41), Castrogiovanni for Cittadini (58), Bernabo for Fuser (14), Steyn for Zanni (30).

English Replacements: Goode for Brown (69), Care for Youngs (49), Marler for M. Vunipola (47), George for Hartley (69), P Hill for Cole (69), Launchbury for Lawes (47), Clifford for Robshaw (62), Itoje for Haskell (54).

France v Ireland

The first game of the weekend was a real arm (and shoulder) tussle between two teams re-building after RWC 2015. Once again, an already injury depleted Irish team, having lost O'Brien and Kearney early on, could not sustain their first half dominance of possession and territory, and slipped behind in the contest to Medard's 70th-minute score. France have such strength in depth up front, that they could afford to leave their two best props on the bench until the 50th minute, and also bring on quality players out wide such as Machenaud and Bonneval to close out a tight contest.

French Replacements: Chat for Guirado 47, Slimani for Poirot 44, Ben Arous for Atonio 44, Jedresiak for Maestri 58, Goujon for Camara 67, Machenaud for Bezy 56, Doussain for Danty 76, Bonneval for Thomas 44.

Irish Replacements: Strauss for Best 71, J Cronin for McGrath 73, Furlong for White 62, Ryan for McCarthy 62, O'Donnell for O'Brien, Reddan, Madigan for Sexton 69, McFadden for D Kearney 29.

So what I hear you say, it is always been this way, but my point is, rugby as a sport will not develop globally, or even within Europe, if the money flowing through English and French league systems (and the RFU) continues to increase the (already large) gulf in strength in depth between the Top Tier and the rest. Shocks happen regularly in football, but never in rugby (okay, maybe Japan), and will never happen again with the current model. Soon, the English Premiership will have 14 teams, to match the Top 14 in France, whereas Ireland/Wales struggle to field 4, and Scotland only 2. 

Lewis Moody summed it up yesterday, by proclaiming that Scotland, whilst improving, are not able to close out tight games, as the Pro 12 does not provide them with experience of playing enough games at the highest level. So what is the answer then - should the Scottish, Welsh and Italian players all move away to play for English or French franchises leaving their disillusioned younger generations so bereft of local heroes, they drift off to other sports? I know there are some that would prefer to just watch England/France play New Zealand or South Africa every week, but I am not one of them. World Rugby needs to grow some balls, take its finger out of the crumbling dyke, and work with the clubs and international unions to start re-building a better, fairer, sustainable commercial model for rugby going forward in the Northern Hemisphere.