England Romp Home To Grand Slam
Following an impressive set of performances, England were in the position to secure their first grand slam in over a decade against the French in Paris on Saturday night. And they did just that, with yet another hard fought win that they thoroughly deserved. And that just about sums it up in black and white. England have played five games in this tournament, have deserved to win all of them, and henceforth, crucially, have won all of them.
That's not to say England have been exceptional, because they haven't. There's been mistakes, troubles, dodgy performances at times in matches and overall this has been a reasonably well-matched Six Nations, with every side apart from Italy arguably as close as they have been in years, with Wales and Ireland declining and picking up injuries, and Scotland and England strengthening. Even the French have played better than they did in the World Cup (albeit that's not saying much). But England wanted to win more, needed to win more, and put more points on the board in all of their matches. They thrashed Italy, but other than that all of their games have been reasonably close, by their standards this ten point win could almost be described as comfortable.
And it was another well-earned win, as England fought hard throughout and ultimately just had the extra bit of quality and strength when it mattered. Tries from Care, Cole and Watson were enough for England on the night, but every time they tried to get away from the French in the opening three quarters of the match, they found themselves pegged back. Even after Watson went over to make it 25-18, England never looked like they weren't going to let the French back into it, as a poor showing of seven penalties were conceded, allowing the relentless Maxime Machenaud to keep kicking France back into contact, before ultimately, it was not England's indiscipline, but the French's that cost them, and England were able to kick a couple of pens to take the match to 31-21 and from there, see it out.
England will want to focus on the minor areas for improvement in their performances, as will any Grand Slam winning team. They won't want to rest on their laurels and think that they're the finished article as the truth is that the Southern Hemisphere is way ahead of the game at the moment. England will want to touch up their indiscipline, make sure they finish more chances and try to avoid any cracks under pressure like we nearly saw against the Welsh. But overall, this was a really good win for England, both on Saturday and for the tournament as a whole and they thoroughly deserved it.
T20 Triumph
And this year's T20 World Cup continues to be one of the most exciting on record, with yet more evidence that the associate nations deserve their place, as Afghanistan gave South Africa a real terrifying run for their money before eventually falling 37 runs short. It was another disappointing display from South Africa's bowling line up for the most part, before a couple of good overs each from Abbott and Morris saved the situation as South Africa's class showed at the end. Setting Afghanistan over 200 to win looked comfortable, but they looked anything but defending it, nerves still showing after England showed them up by chasing 230. You just get the feeling that South Africa need to chase to win a game, as their bowlers don't seem to know how to defend a lead, and against a team of a higher quality than Afghanistan, it will cost them.
And likewise, Australia, another pre-tournament favourite, struggled slightly, before eventually managing to chase down the 156 that Bangladesh set them to win with three wickets and nine balls to spare, after a decent bowling display but some more nervy batting. Ultimately, the 58 that Usman Khawaja scored at the top of the order was enough for the others to see it home, but there looked for a while in the later middle overs like it was going to be very close.
At the other end of the scale, the West Indies, led by a sublime bowling performance from Badree and a colossal 84 not out from Andre Fletcher, beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets, with ten balls left over. They showed in this match that they really are more than just Chris Gayle and now are firm favourites to top Group 1, baring any slip ups from here. This means that it's looking increasingly like a straight shot between England and Sri Lanka for second spot in the group, but don't count out South Africa yet, although losing to England puts them at a disadvantage unless they can turn over the West Indies. Either way, there's some interesting match ups to come.
And as I type in Group 2, New Zealand secured a 22 run win that realistically sends them through Group 2 as winners. They aren't going to slip up against Bangladesh so it's looking like four wins out of four, and the new tournament favourites are creating one hell of a storm, meaning that with two defeats in two, Pakistan are going to struggle to compete from here, making India arguably the favourites to see off Australia and take second, but that will be a huge battle for that second spot. And New Zealand finally got their batsmen firing as well as the exceptional Mitchell Santner, whose 2-29 once again put the pressure on the opposition chasers. It was 80 off 48 from the awesome Martin Guptill that won the match for them today, and they look in ominous form going into the semi-finals, plausibly against England.
The Hard and Fast Section
- United won the Manchester derby. Helpful I suppose.
- Nobody won the Tyne-Wear. Helpful for Norwich.
- And Spurs clattered Bournemouth. Helpful for my fantasy team.
- Martin Skrtel is an idiot. Helpful for my migrane.
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