O’Gara’s return for Ireland could give Scots a chance of a win

Rugby’s Six Nations resumes this Saturday with what is probably the title decider: England v France at Twickenham Stadium in west London.

This is traditionally one of sport’s great grudge matches. This year, ahead of the World Cup in the fall, it is also a particularly enticing prospect of great, running rugby.

France have always been typically … well, French. Wonderful to watch when in full-flow, with flair and some inspired back play. Yet they have also been horribly inconsistent and mercurial.

England, the 2003 world champions, have always been associated with a fairly one-dimensional, forward-dominated, dependable, yeoman approach, which during the past decade owed much to the territory gained and points accumulated from the boot of Jonny Wilkinson.

Yet over the past year, with the introduction to the side of the likes of Ben Youngs at scrum half, Ben Foden at full back and the try-scoring maching that is Chris Ashton, England have grown wings and, on occasions, have flown.

But now comes the real test.

Wednesday brought news that Lewis “Mad Dog” Moody, England’s all-action flanker and captain, will again not be fit to play, after having missed the wins against Wales and Italy.

In some respects, this is almost a blessing for the England coach, Martin Johnson, since he does not have the dilemma of choosing between playing his skipper or changing a winning side. Indeed, such has been the growing understanding between England’s back-row forwards, the best Moody might have expected this week was a place on the replacements’ bench.

Northampton’s Tom Wood and Stade Français’ James Haskell will continue as England’s starting flankers, with Leeds’ Hendre Fourie in reserve.

Mike Tindall will again lead out England, who show just one change from the side who thrashed Italy 59-13. Sale’s imposing 280-pound prop forward Andrew Sheridan, who missed that game with a bad back, is poised to return, with Alex Corbisiero reverting to the bench for a game involving the only two remaining unbeaten teams in this year’s tournament.

In Edinburgh, the burghers of the Scottish Rugby Union may be ruing awarding a five-year contract to coach Andy Robinson ahead of the Six Nations. Scotland’s form in the opening two games has been mixed: a decent performance against France still ended in defeat; while against Wales, the Scots were over-confident and sloppy.

Robinson is still waiting for his first Six Nations victory at Scotland’s Murrayfield home stadium since becoming coach in the summer of 2009. For Sunday’s clash with Ireland, he has ripped up the team sheet and started again, making seven changes.

Against Wales, Scotland struggled to take the game to a side who had not won for eight matches, even when they had a two-man advantage for eight minutes. The more ball Scotland won, the less they looked like scoring a try.

Robinson kept the fly-half Ruaridh Jackson on the bench against Wales but the 23-year old now takes the place of Dan Parks in a back division that sees the return of Chris Paterson, Sean Lamont and Mike Blair.

Richie Gray, who withdrew from the side on the morning of the Wales match with a virus, returns to the second row and John Beattie is fit again at No. 8. Moray Low takes over at tighthead prop from Euan Murray.

Scotland have gone two years not only without a Six Nations victory at Murrayfield but also without scoring a try.

“We have made the changes with a view to both securing our first win in the competition this year and to give our supporters the lift they deserve,” Robinson said.

Declan Kidney, the Ireland coach, has made changes, too, to his side. Like Robinson, he has changed his playmaker, the fly-half. Unlike Robinson, Kidney has opted for age over youth, recalling 33-year-old Ronan O’Gara in place of Jonny Sexton.

Also back in the Ireland side is wing Tommy Bowe, recovered from injury, to add better cutting edge to a side that could only just edge past Italy, the tournament’s whipping boys, and which squandered the chance of beating France in Dublin two weeks ago.

Alan Gaffney, Ireland’s Australian-born backs coach, had an unusual take on the shortcomings of the Irish side, blaming a lack of communication from No. 9 to 15.

“It’s an Irish thing,” Gaffney said, “that we don’t talk much.”

O’Gara has been brought in to add calmness to the Irish attack. The selection somewhat overlooks the reasons why Sexton has been preferred of late: old warhorse O’Gara is slowing down, is vulnerable with ball in hand to the blitz defense from the opposition back row, and his one-time flawless kicking is not what it once was.

If O’Gara turns around Ireland’s faltering season in Edinburgh on Sunday, he might also move ahead of Sexton in Kidney’s thinking for the World Cup. It would be a backward step. But against Scotland, who are in even greater disarray, O’Gara might just get the sort of easy ride that could deceive his coaches that it is still 2008, and not 2011.

So many changes to both sides make Sunday’s game tougher to call. Even with home “advantage”, the suspicion must be that the Scots ultimately lack the personnel to be able to take on and beat their rivals from across the Irish Sea.

If ever Jackson needed a gilt-edged opportunity to make a name for himself against a new half-back pairing (Ireland have called up Eoin Reddan at scrum half), this could be it.

Ireland are 1/2 to win this game, compared to the Scots 2/1. If the Irish win this, they still have a chance of winning the Triple Crown. Go green.

The third match of the weekend is Italy v Wales. Wales are 2/9 to win, despite having the disruption of moving James Hook, the inspiring fly-half in their win over Scotland, to the centers because of injury. Italy in Rome are always a tougher proposition, but after the mullering they got at Twickenham two weeks ago, you cannot but think the Azzurri will struggle to come back.

And as for the title-decider? England at 1/2 does not reflect the tightness of the contest in prospect. Ashton at 7/1 to be the first try scorer could be where the value lies.

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