As Six Nations go, it’s hard to call this a vintage one from an Irish perspective.

That’s probably an understatement when we compare last season to this one. A Grand Slam versus third place (our lowest position since the 2016 Championship straight after RWC 2015) is always going to taste sour and, as I wrote here, it’s hard to put your finger on just one element of our play style, playing form or coaching decisions that lead to the drop in quality.

This Six Nations saw a few weird statistics.

The 100 points we conceded was the highest since 2005 yet, on the other hand, we conceded fewer tries than we did last year when we won a Slam. Despite the tries conceded oddity, this was the worst points concession relative to the Six Nations average since the championship after the last World Cup by some distance.

2019: 112 average (-12 below average)
2018: 113 average (-31 below average)
2017: 108 average (-31 below average)
2016: 115 average (-28 below average)

We also scored the lowest amount of penalty goals in the competition (3), making up just 8.9% of our total points scored. That compares poorly with Wales who, despite having the joint lowest number of tries scored with Italy (10), finished with a higher number of points scored overall (116). 48% of Wales’ points were scored off the tee.

Does that reflect the quality of the penalties we won i.e. not in kickable range? Or does it show a change in focus – down the line rather than off the tee – on penalty advantage?

Either way, we had an issue converting our territory and possession into scores. We won the possession battle in every one of our games in the Championship – our worst defeat against England saw us with 60% possession – but still finished with the fourth lowest amount of points in the competition, despite having the joint second highest number of tries (14).

Player Ratings

Rating individual players in this Championship seems a little pointless, given the relatively poor performance of the group as a whole but I’m doing it anyway.

When I went back and tallied my Wally Ratings for the Championship, Peter O’Mahony was the highest rated player with 18 stars out of a possible 25. Tadhg Furlong, Dave Kilcoyne, Keith Earls, Jacob Stockdale and James Ryan make up the next highest ratings.

Here’s the full table, with minutes, starts, sub appearances and the Red Eye Adjusted star rating at the end.

The REA (Red Eye Adjusted) ratings are an adjusted Star Rating for all players when we compare the opposition they faced. My four Red Eye Ratings for opposition teams (Elite, Good, Average, Poor) reflect the relative difficulty of each game and the REA system deducts -1 star for games against Average opposition and -2 for Poor opposition. This is to prevent players from racking up big ratings against poor opposition and scoring higher overall than players who played exclusively against tougher opponents.  

Six Nations 2019 Collected Wally Ratings

Names	Overall Star Rating	Minutes Played	Starts	Subs	REA
Cian Healy	12	227	4	0	10
Rory Best	12	260	4	0	10
Tadhg Furlong	17	313	5	0	13
Sean Cronin	5	75	1	2	2
Niall Scannell	9	66	0	3	6
Dave Kilcoyne	17	156	1	4	13
John Ryan	6	41	0	2	4
Andrew Porter	9	47	0	3	8
James Ryan	13	320	4	0	12
Quinn Roux	10	172	2	2	7
Iain Henderson	7	86	1	1	4
Ultan Dillane	10	108	1	2	6
Peter O'Mahony	18	400	5	0	14
Josh Van Der Flier	11	142	2	2	7
Sean O'Brien	10	190	3	1	7
CJ Stander	10	224	3	0	9
Jack Conan	11	165	1	2	9
Conor Murray	11	353	5	0	7
John Cooney	6	38	0	4	6
Johnny Sexton	11	310	5	0	8
Joey Carbery	7	64	0	2	6
Jacob Stockdale	14	391	5	0	10
Chris Farrell	8	160	2	0	5
Keith Earls	16	355	5	0	12
Rob Kearney	9	225	3	0	9
Jordan Larmour	8	145	1	3	7

A few points;

• Players who came off the bench generally have a slightly bloated score and that explains Kilcoyne’s very high rating. This is because it’s “easier” to have a notable impact off the bench, especially if the team overall hasn’t been playing well to that point so take that into account.
• I only included players who had more than one rating from me in this list. That’s why Conway, Beirne and a few others aren’t included. Some players – like Jack Carty – appeared a few times but were only rated once, so didn’t make this list.
• This is a Munster site and, while I try my best to be completely unbiased, such a thing is pretty much impossible in sport so keep that in mind.

While Peter O’Mahony received the highest overall and REA Star Ratings – and was hugely effective for Ireland during his 400 minutes – my overall player of the tournament after reviewing all five games was Tadhg Furlong. 

In a Championship where we struggled for consistent ball carriers, Furlong (and James Ryan, it has to be said) were the main pillars of our centre-field ball carrying roster, with the only difference being that Furlong started all five games and delivered constant physical pressure. He’s got a sophisticated passing game too, and it’s only getting better as he goes on.

On top of that, Furlong’s physicality at the breakdown, in defence and his excellent lineout lifting were at a high level throughout the championship. His scrummaging, though, is where he really stuck out once again. His aggressive pressure on defensive and offensive ball is probably the best in the world right now and he was beyond rock solid in this facet across all five games. When it comes to everything Furlong does – scrummaging, carrying, breakdown, lineout lifting, defence – there isn’t a tighthead in the world that comes close right now, in my opinion. A superb championship from a very special player.