Summary
Satisfied with the Six Nations? It all depends whether your glass is half-full or half-empty. Of Guinness or bitter. Irish eyes are of course still smiling at the achievement of a first Grand Slam in 61 years, and Irish players are still basking in the knowledge that ,unlike their predecessors , they had faced the severest of tests of nerve and courage , and not been found wanting. But , while Irish coach Declan Kidney, has been congratulating himself on master- minding the sweetest of Grand Slams at the first time of asking, fellow Six Nations novice Martin Johnson has already fallen prey to the "what ifs".
The England manager is convinced that if the championship were to be played from now on there would be a different outcome. He points to the narrowest of defeats for England both in Cardiff and Dublin and argues with some justification that but for the rub of the green here, a different refereeing interpretation there, they both might have gone the other way. But in emphasising the imponderables surrounding those two matches, Johnson is in danger of playing down the luck that undoubtedly fell England's way in the other games.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Alistair Hignell Column
What for instance might have happened if Italy had been able to field a specialist scrum-half in the opening match instead of taking a wildly optimistic and hideously ...
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