Following the final Six Nations weekend, our England and Wales fans - give their reaction to the deciding games.
After the Lord Mayor's Show (well done to a fine Welsh side), came high noon, but without the drama.
Weird feeling to watch England play with nothing at stake in Six Nations terms and a bunch of Welsh guys giving us stick - good luck to them, the verve and spirit they have is something England could do with.
The game was odd but a good win in the end, a hat-trick from Jamie Noon, the now typical mixed bag from Hodgson, some great runs from Patterson, some woeful Scots defending and a great counter-attack try. Oh, and surprise surprise a load more injuries!
From the Six Nations tournament, a six-point plan for England to move forwards.
1. Centralise contracts to reduce playing burden - the injury list is ridiculous (though credit Wales for absorbing the loss of four or five big players).
2. Structure the season to allow clubs a fair playing field.
3. Basic skills need improving dramatically - slow ball, wasted overlaps are not acceptable.
4. Young talent must take precedence over annuity contracts for has-been and never-have-been S12 players.
5. The English coaching hierarchy and staff need to be more accountable for their activities - I'm not convinced they are at present.
6. Play with style, and more importantly with a smile.
It has been a fascinating Six Nations, in some ways an old fashioned one with England losing a lot.
Thanks for the style Wales, it restored my faith in the game's character. Let's hope the Lions can adapt/adopt that winning play and knock the Kiwis over.
Isn't it nice when things turn out as they should. No? Hmm, well possibly not if you're a fellow Irishman.
You would, however, have to be a black belt in the deadly ancient art of curmudgeon to say or think that the Dragons were not utterly convincing Grand Slam victors.
They played all the rugby of this tournament and had the belief to see it through. We had belief as well but somehow not the walk to back the talk or thought.
It could be time for Irish rugby to wake up, smell the garlic and leek soup and maybe plan to add a few more spuds to next year's broth. New potatoes anyone?
Anyhow, back to the event itself. We spluttered and spewed our way through the first half, and as horrible a try as it was, ten points adrift at half-time wasn't too bad I reckon.
You somehow get a feeling in such games that the result was decided by the rugby gods well before kick-off, and I indeed had a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach soon after half-time.
End of term report - could do better and we will. I think we saw how in the last half hour on Saturday and I reckon a couple of other boys will be showing and telling to Master O'Sullivan next season.
So well done Wales. Detractors may say that they flattered to deceive at times but really the Boyos deserve nothing but praise.
May they continue in this vein for some time, if they do we are in for some belting battles over the next few years.
No defence, for our poor defence. Tries at last, which is a sign we are making some progress.
The limited gameplan and Dan Parks have been dropped and we actually looked like we
could create tries and eventually did after conceding three.
Hey it's two less than last week's headstart we gave the Welsh.
However positive the attacking play was the defensive work was a major negative with several first-up tackles being missed which is unacceptable at this level.
England like the Welsh last weekend punished Scotland for these mistakes with clinical finishing from Jamie Noon in particular.
Interesting to hear that Matt Williams is running our defensive system, which is nicknamed St Andrews by opposition coaches, due to the number of holes to be found.
For a dead rubber the game was an excellent spectacle with several casualties limping out of the battle early.
Thank God we left Dan Parks on the bench, poor lad might have been hurt out there.
With the Lions tour coming up I think most of the Scottish players will be enjoying a long summer break, the exceptions bring Simon Taylor, Chris Cusiter, Jason White, Sean Lamont and Chris Paterson.
Good luck to the Scottish Lions in NZ, they'll need it the way Howlett, Rokocoko & Carter play.
Congratulations to Wales on a fantastic Grand Slam. They've played exciting rugby throughout and were deserved winners.
Finally, a thanks to the BBC for the chance to share my views over the last few weeks and apologies to anyone who's read them!!
"Every day, when I wake up, I thank the Lord I'm Welsh". So sang Catatonia, and so say all of us. But with the amounts so many of us sunk on Saturday, we were very relieved merely to wake up on Sunday!
No words of thanks or praise to this stupendous team is going to sound adequate, so I won't even attempt it.
All congratulations to the wonderfully understated Mike Ruddock and his support team, especially fitness coach Andrew Hore, who has taken the team to new levels, and skills coach Scott Johnson. They deserve all the plaudits they will inevitably get.
After we collected the Wooden Spoon, any Welshman talking about a Grand Slam two years later would have been kept under observation. But it actually happened!
We now have the Triple Crown, Six Nations title, the Grand Slam, and don't forget we beat the Irish for the first time in Cardiff since 1983!
Walking around Cardiff for the craic five hours before the kick-off, the whole place was buzzing, and the air was already electric.
But the joshing with our Celtic cousins was as good-natured as ever, and their team was just as formidable as we had expected.
And the future looks bright. Due to injuries, the Slam was achieved without major players like Gareth Thomas, Colin Charvis, and Duncan Jones.
What will this young team be like next season when these players return? Or the team is augmented by players from the Under-21 squad who just won their Grand Slam?!"
MMIX
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