Phil Greening’s throwing at Murrayfield on Sunday was very nearly as bad as Garin Jenkins’ performance in Dublin 24

Phil Greening’s throwing at Murrayfield on Sunday was very nearly as bad as Garin Jenkins’ performance in Dublin 24 hours earlier. If the two of them fought a duel, they would probably shoot their respective seconds.Thank goodness, then, for Steve Brotherstone, the unheralded hooker from that well known Scottish club, Brive. His accuracy under pressure in the Calcutta Cup game was something else, and there is no obvious reason why his injured first-choice rival, Gordon Bulloch, should come swanning back in for the opening Test against the All Blacks in New Zealand this summer.Brotherstone began the campaign as Scotland’s No 3, but as Ian McGeechan, the national coach, so eloquently pronounced during the build-up to Sunday’s finale: “Sometimes, a player can create a whole career out of 80 minutes of rugby.” Brotherstone may well be proof positive of that particular truth.That England were the team of the championship remains self-evident, despite the wet-weather walloping they received at Murrayfield. They touched new heights of interactivity, especially when protected by a doctrinaire referee with a whistle in one hand and a rulebook in the other.

It was then, when the opposition were unable to interfere with the ball on the floor, that the Hill-Back-Dallaglio triumvirate looked and played like the finest loose trio in the world game. If the use of Healey as an all-singing, all-dancing, all-court virtuoso was fascinating at worst and deeply rewarding at best, Greening was equally effective in the looser games, although his disappearance during the Edinburgh dog-fight raises a question mark over his value when the solids hit the air conditioning, as they will on the high veld of South Africa this June.Happily, there are no question marks over Italy’s value to the burgeoning game in Europe. They have lost Massimo Giovanelli and, unless he changes his mind under pressure exerted by the odd black-suited Sicilian, Diego Dominguez, the two men largely responsible for the Azzurri’s progress with the strange-shaped ball. But they have gained something infinitely more important: a competitive tradition of their own. The Italians are on board for the duration, and they intend to enjoy the ride.Chris Hewett’s Team of the Six Nations15 M PERRY (England) A greater work ethic than the average Trojan, more precise than a Swiss clock. If next year’s Lions are going to flourish in the southern hemisphere, they will need some defensive iron.

England’s full-back is positively ferric.14 A HEALEY (England) The Leicester Lip promised to do his talking on the pitch and despite the fact that rugby is compressed into 80 minutes, and is therefore hugely restrictive in terms of the Healey vocabulary, he was as good as his many words. Unique.13 B O’DRISCOLL (Ireland) The best Irish midfielder since Mike Gibson? At the risk of sounding blasphemous, all the evidence points in that direction. O’Driscoll is a Yeats of a centre, a Beckett of an attacking runner. The player of the tournament, without a doubt.12 M CATT (England) John Leslie’s interminable struggle with his own body denied the championship its most influential inside centre, but Catt’s belated arrival in his optimum position filled the gap. More at peace with the world than he ever was at outside-half or full-back.11 C DOMINICI (France) Missed much of the Tricolore campaign, for which he will be eternally grateful.