Why are some tries worth more or less than others? Well, refer to Tommy Bowe. He managed to translate the 3 tries he scored over the course of the Six Nations into the Player of the Tournament award, given out today, largely I assume because of those tries. I argue, though, that scores are actually worth less than their face value.
Bowe, for all his clinical finishing, is no more deserving of this award than Aurelian Rougerie of France who, if you don't know, put in one massive hit in the opening minute of the opening game, put in a second one 10 minutes later and injured himself doing it, ruling himself out of the tournament. How so?
Rougerie made two very good, memorable plays that ultimately contributed far less to the outcome than the hype at the time would suggest. Enter Bowe.
Bowe scored twice in the England game, and once against Scotland. He was largely anonymous against the Italians, and contributed little in the victory over Wales. The France game was his low point, in which he was completely out of the races. The overall poor performance of the team factors in here, but that works both ways.
Bowe's two tries against England were both good bits of individual skill. But one came as a result of an injured Wilkinson failing to cover the channel at the rear of a lineout, and Haskell failing utterly to make a tackle. For the other try, there were two other Irish players, one of which was the excellent David Wallace I believe, outside of him waiting to score if Bowe didn't. We can say that, reasonably, Bowe had little real impact in the actual winning of the game. The overall team performance won the Irish that game (i.e. the forwards' effort).
Against Scotland, Bowe scored a good try, shrugging off a weak Sean Lamont tackle. Other than that, he completely failed to best Max Evans, his opposite, in any phase of the game to any real degree, in spite of his size advantage.
A player of the tournament needs to contribute much to a teams victory, and he needs to be one of their best performers should they lose. At the centre of everything champions France did right was the Basque hardman Imanol Harinordaquay, and the not so hard Morgan Parra. Others have claims to be that important to their team; I would name Stephen Jones, Stephen Ferris, Clement Poitrenaud, Johnnie Beattie (perhaps all the Killer B's of Brown and Barclay too) and Alessandro Zanni as being up there.
At the end of the day, France dominated all but the England game, and thus their best performers are inherently more worthy POT6N winners than the Irish flyer.
GM
Bowe, for all his clinical finishing, is no more deserving of this award than Aurelian Rougerie of France who, if you don't know, put in one massive hit in the opening minute of the opening game, put in a second one 10 minutes later and injured himself doing it, ruling himself out of the tournament. How so?
Rougerie made two very good, memorable plays that ultimately contributed far less to the outcome than the hype at the time would suggest. Enter Bowe.
Bowe scored twice in the England game, and once against Scotland. He was largely anonymous against the Italians, and contributed little in the victory over Wales. The France game was his low point, in which he was completely out of the races. The overall poor performance of the team factors in here, but that works both ways.
Bowe's two tries against England were both good bits of individual skill. But one came as a result of an injured Wilkinson failing to cover the channel at the rear of a lineout, and Haskell failing utterly to make a tackle. For the other try, there were two other Irish players, one of which was the excellent David Wallace I believe, outside of him waiting to score if Bowe didn't. We can say that, reasonably, Bowe had little real impact in the actual winning of the game. The overall team performance won the Irish that game (i.e. the forwards' effort).
Against Scotland, Bowe scored a good try, shrugging off a weak Sean Lamont tackle. Other than that, he completely failed to best Max Evans, his opposite, in any phase of the game to any real degree, in spite of his size advantage.
A player of the tournament needs to contribute much to a teams victory, and he needs to be one of their best performers should they lose. At the centre of everything champions France did right was the Basque hardman Imanol Harinordaquay, and the not so hard Morgan Parra. Others have claims to be that important to their team; I would name Stephen Jones, Stephen Ferris, Clement Poitrenaud, Johnnie Beattie (perhaps all the Killer B's of Brown and Barclay too) and Alessandro Zanni as being up there.
At the end of the day, France dominated all but the England game, and thus their best performers are inherently more worthy POT6N winners than the Irish flyer.
GM
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