Jeff Probyn: It was the Scotland game that cost England the title

Sometimes in life everything conspires to bring about the right outcome and make dreams come true, even if it takes a little luck. First we had the fairytale ending to this year’s Six Nations as Ireland held on to secure BOD the send-off he deserves, despite the valiant efforts of the French and Cian Healy to spoil the party.
If Healy’s deliberate head butt (a red card offence) had been punished at the time it would probably have cost Ireland the game.
What is surprising is Healy seems to have escaped the eye of the citing officer as well and has escaped any sanction for what was at best a very reckless act that could easily have badly injured Louis Picamoles.
Under the leadership of Joe Schmidt for the first time in a Six Nations, the Irish made all the running in this year’s Championship – despite losing narrowly to England at Twickenham.
It has been said that this was a good Championship because it went to the wire, but I don’t agree. With so many teams now laying out their stall for the World Cup it was always going to be all or nothing in these games as the players tried to stake their claim for a place in next year’s World Cup squads.
Barring injury this was the last chance for many of the players to cement their place in those squads even though we have the summer tours and next season’s Six Nations before the Cup.
Although much will be made of this summer’s tours, the opposition faced by each of our Home Unions, England to New Zealand (three Tests), Wales to South Africa (two Tests), Ireland to Argentina (two Tests) and finally Scotland to USA, Canada, Argentina and South Africa (playing one Test in each) are so different in playing standard, that it will be hard to judge whether any of the sides have made progress from the Six Nations or not.
Added to this, I am sure that some of the coaches will choose to rest some players this summer after last year’s Lions, which seemed to combine both that year and this into a single extra long season.
Despite attempts at player management, the toll of games for club and country stretching across two seasons, when a Lions tour is included, is bound to have an effect. If some of the senior players aren’t allowed a break this summer in a similar manner to a few of the New Zealand stars, it is liable to have a negative impact on World Cup performances.
It will also be the last chance for coaches to look at those players that have emerged from the ‘A’ team and U20 games who may be valuable additions to each country’s World Cup squad.
Fortunately for England, a number of forced absences through injury have allowed players like Manu Tuilagi to rest and recover, while identifying quality replacements like Luther Burrell, causing a rather difficult but pleasant selection dilemma for Stuart Lancaster and his coaches.
Speaking of Lancaster, I can’t believe that some have had the audacity to criticise his choices during the Italian game, given that his team posted 52 points and inflicted on the Italians a worst ever home or away  Six Nations defeat!
It is a fact that Italy have been steadily improving and had even rested players (including the inspirational captain Sergio Parisse) against Ireland in preparation for their last game at home in Rome.
If, however, questions were asked about the England-Scotland game, I am sure Lancaster would be the first to admit to being more than a little disappointed as to some of the decisions made during that game and in reality it was England’s lack of clinical finishing against Scotland that cost them the Championship and ended their dreams.
It appears that the fates have conspired (along with BT and Sky sports) this week to enable the Heineken Cup to be rescued from the abyss with a new deal that all are happy to buy into.
The new deal will increase funding and provide the clubs with almost double the money that they currently get from the European competition. Hopefully, this will be the starting point for a cash bonanza that will roll out across the club/region game.
Despite the rhetoric and the harbingers of doom that European rugby would end, I always knew that, given its importance to all parties, a deal would be struck.
It doesn’t matter whether it is the Unions or the clubs, the need for a meaningful European competition is paramount in driving up standards, promoting the game and raising much needed revenues for all.
It has to be said that although Premiership club rugby along with the French Top 14 are the best club leagues in the world, they are not of a high enough standard to develop international quality players.
European rugby is the bridge between club and country that has replaced regional rugby in England as a testing ground.
Playing for a club in Europe, or in the top national league, will never be as good a development tool for players as taking them out of the comfort zone in a club and combining them with different players in regional/provincial teams, but Europe is a far greater test for players than the weekly grind of league club rugby.
With RWC next year it is the perfect time for the new competition to start, as it will take focus off the club game and give time for the play-off system to be streamlined, particularly with the new third tier competition for emerging nations.
As BOD sails off into the sunset, it looks like the club game has taken the first steps to becoming solvent – now that would be a dream come true.