Signing off

For the last Six Nations 2014 post it seems fitting to focus on another departing legend, Brian O'Driscoll. Yesterday he played his final game for Ireland, and after the long goodbye in Landsdowne Road last weekend the post-match farewell seemed subdued by comparison. Still, O'Driscoll did charmingly admit that although the France match might be the last time he wore the Irish jersey in an official capacity, nobody could stop him slipping it on in the privacy of his own home.

Back Row Shenanigans

It's been a strange week of ups and downs for back row players. Fresh-faced man-child Iain Henderson, who's really more of a 2nd Row, will start at blindside for Ireland against Italy. One man he won't have to face is Sergio Parisse, Italy's World-class No. 8 and captain. Depending on what paper you read, Parisse is being 'rested', or has a 'slight calf strain'. Scotland, meanwhile, have finally seen sense and selected their three best back row players in the same XV – Johnnie Beattie, captain Kelly Brown and David "Duran Duran" Denton. Determined to be their own worst enemy, France are continuing their bizarre selection policy by dropping their hard-running No. 8 Louis Picamoles. This could be Scotland's moment to cause an upset.

The New Arrogance

It used to be so easy to dislike the English rugby team. The memory of Martin Johnson's red-carpet strop in Landsdowne Road in 2003 (the year they won the Six Nations and the World Cup) summed up the attitude of that group of players: nobody likes us and we don't care. They were arrogant but they were very successful. In the years that followed they stayed ahead of the pack in the arrogance stakes, but their performances started to fall behind. As mouthy winners they earned a grudging respect, but as mouthy losers their limited appeal waned further. Annoyingly for those who love to hate them, Stuart Lancaster's England are a different proposition, hard to beat on the pitch and quietly respectful off it. But I'm starting to detect just a hint of English hubris in all this humility. Might it be a little immodest of them to be so proud of their lack of arrogance? 

Who Is Rugby For?

Type the words "rugby is for" into a search engine (google is a popular one I believe) and the first four suggested search categories are "rugby is for wimps", "rugby is for idiots", "rugby is for posh" and "rugby is for sissies". All technically true I suppose. I decided to embrace this negative online perception and illustrate the first image result under each of those four categories – wimp, idiot, posh and sissy. I had to turn on safe-search filtering for "sissy", be careful of that one...

This crying child was the first image result for the search term "wimp". It seems a little harsh, but then I don't know the guy, maybe he is a wimp. In terms of his rugby credentials, the shirt he's wearing looks a little bit like a rugby jersey, so that's a start.

Lost In Translation

I'd forgive Johnny Sexton for being a bit confused today. His coaches at Racing Metro released a statement saying that his hand was more or less shagged and that he'd be out for ages. Then the Irish management said that was a load of cobblers, there's nothing wrong with that hand, he'll run it off, sure what do you need a thumb for on a rugby field... Who to believe? The only way we'll get the truth is if we hear from the thumb itself, but it's notoriously media-shy I'm told.

Home-grown Players

Mr. Gatland, of Westgate Street, Cardiff, takes first prize with his 109kg marrow "George".

The idea behind this drawing came from a comment under an article in the sport section of guardian.co.uk (unfortunately I can't remember the article or the poster's name, if it was you let me know and I'll include a credit). The poster compared Wales' outsize backline to overgrown prize marrows, and I immediately pictured Warren Gatland happily pottering around a greenhouse filled with bulging Norths, Robertses, Cuthberts and Williamses.

A War Of Politeness

The build up to the today's England v Ireland match has mostly consisted of both teams saying nice things about each other. Luther Burrell is honoured to play against Brian O'Driscoll, Conor Murray thinks Danny Care is one of the best scrumhalves in the world and Owen Farrell has a great passing range, Joe Schmidt predicts England will be the biggest test he's faced as Ireland's head coach. At this point it's hard to imagine these two sets of players knocking lumps out of each other in a few hours time, since they're all so in awe of their opponents.