England – led by stand-in captain Nick Easter, picked up the RBS Six Nations Championship Trophy tonight for the first time since 2003. Going into the game looking to make best use of their positive points difference, it was also expected that England would upgrade their takings, and walk away with the Grand Slam. England’s failure to go all the way, epitomised the inconsistencies in performance across the five weekends from all of the competing nations.
England ultimately slumped during the latter stages of the tournament and that probably had a lot to do with the lack of airborne antics, from a certain english and Northampton Saints winger. France had a blip in the form of the 22 – 21 loss to Italy, and failed to truly click across the channel as a whole. Ireland peaked too late, Wales never really fired on all cylinders and Scotland yet again lacked a certain edge.
As with all international rugby fixtures, desire and intensity are crucial in putting in winning performances and no team consistently embraced those feats of the game across the duration of the tournament. With the rugby world cup in New Zealand just around the corner however, there have been many positives to the tournament. New talent, like new-born skin has been hardened to the demands of the international playing level and perhaps the 2011 Six Nations was merely an experimental training exercise for some teams.