Loose Pass on the Six Nations: Debating the competition’s fly-halves

Lawrence Nolan

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with a look at the variety on offer in the Six Nations’ number ten jerseys…

If this year’s Six Nations might end up being harder to pick than the worst wine on a Pizza Hut menu, picking the best – or most effective – fly-half is an especially nuanced decision in this edition.

There is variety everywhere, from the sheer will and derring-do of Romain Ntamack, through the dependable boot and tackling of Dan Biggar, to the emerging all-round genius of Marcus Smith, the men in the number 10 jersey in this year’s tournament represent perhaps the most diverse set of skill sets and characters we’ve known in the professional era.

This column was tickled into life because of several things this weekend past. Firstly, there was Finn Russell’s latest yellow card. Fly-half is not a position in which you would expect habitually to be yellow-carded, yet Russell has developed a real habit. He has seen yellow in his last three Six Nations away games, and we should not forget the red last year against France.

Moments of madness

Russell is at the heart of so much that is good about this Scotland side; it was notable how they struggled for any ideas without him in those final frantic minutes against Wales. Yet being without him in crucial phases has happened all too often to Scotland recently. How exactly do you react as a team, or a coach, when your best player inspires the team to winning positions and then leaves them hanging with moments of madness?

He is an unerringly light-hearted character. Mistakes – and there are more than average – are usually brushed off with a big cheesy grin, yet when you’ve just smacked a restart out on the full, a word of apology might be more judicious. But take away that laissez-faire attitude and you take away the line-attacks, the panic-inducing chip-kicks, the mesmerising cut-out passes, the plays that put Scotland in positions. Flawed genius doesn’t even come close. But one day, the indiscipline and hyperchill will cost too much: how does Scotland react then?

Should he be more like Marcus Smith? Smith, in most circumstances, has no chill. When he scored his try on Saturday, he did seem to momentarily forget his adrenaline persona, rising up from the turf with a childishly innocent grin on his face like he had just scored his first try on a Sunday morning in mini rugby. Then he seemed to remember where he was, and the faux-aggressive ‘COME ON’ was screamed at nobody in particular before he celebrated further by kicking the ball very hard in a direction.

But Smith is all energy. He takes contact both with and without the ball and likes it. His footwork is copyright Shane Williams at times. He kicks goals with nonchalance. He whips passes out wide and narrow with ease. He is at the heart of all that is good about England – and thank goodness for it, for all is not always good about England at the moment.

That innocent look of happiness when he scored his try was revealing: this is a player who just loves playing rugby, loves running with the ball, loves challenging opposites, loves action. The aggression is not faked, but the happiness at playing with a ball is often concealed underneath it. He might be, in time, the best since Dan Carter – he will need a performance a la DC against the Lions to cement that, but he is eminently capable of such.

As is Ntamack. He has confessed to modelling himself on said DC, to getting up early in the morning to watch his distant mentor. And shades of DC are permeating his game; Ntamack makes surprise movements and unusual skills look natural.

He tackles too. But unlike Smith, he hides nothing. What you see is what you get. He is cool personified – in a team in which cool appears to be a watchword. As France heads towards its own World Cup, Ntamack could get the moment DC was so cruelly robbed of: being the world’s best 10 in peak form and steering his side to a home World Cup.

There are three real players, one a little older, two still in relatively tender years. And Italy’s Paolo Garbisi can also count to this young and skilled group, despite being stuck in the thankless task with steering a limited and young attack against defences with deeper resources and longer years of experience.

But what about the others? You won’t mention Dan Biggar in the same sentence as Marcus Smith without there being a ‘but’ in between the two clauses, yet Biggar has not survived for so long, nor assumed the captaincy so maturely, without being a world-class player. He does not have Smith’s pace. He does not have Ntamack’s vision. He does not have Russell’s sleight of foot.

Yet Biggar has for so long been every coach’s dream: a fly-half who understands his role and for Wales has so often been the catalyst for his team being greater than the sum of its parts. It is noticeable wherever Biggar has moved, or whenever there has been a coaching change in the team in which he is playing, that Biggar’s game changes too. He does pass rapidly and accurately if that is what the game-plan requires. He will kick the ball with accuracy and resolution if that is what the game-plan requires. He can do it all – and he has so often shown a deep understanding of the game which has more than made up for his lack of twinkle-toed steps or top-end acceleration.

Finally, how do we leave out Jonathan Sexton? Pushing 37 years of age, yet still keeping out young talented pretenders to his Irish throne, Sexton has encompassed all of the above. When younger, he was the hot-stepping Smith to Ronan O’Gara’s Biggar. He’s pushed the limits of discipline a few times, a la Russell. He’s been given some thankless cameos in unpleasant positions like Garbisi. There’s no Ntamack chill, but as his years advance there is every bit a Biggar-ish ability to execute a game-plan and understand what is being asked of him, backed up by a superlative skillset. This is a player who has journeyed through all the phases of the modern fly-half profile, excelling in them all.

Don’t ask us to pick one out as the best. Just enjoy the variety on offer. For students of pivot play, this year’s Six Nations is a gold mine.

READ MORE: Six Nations Team of the Week

 

video thumbnail

Debating the best Six Nations fly-halves

Planet Rugby’s Loose Pass focuses on the Six Nations fly-halves. Never before has the northern hemisphere had such a bumper crop of outstanding 10s.