The number of wins for England in their past 16 games away from Twickenham? Four (with three of them in Rome)
The away trip. Try as they might, teams find life very different once they leave the security of home. How often have players uttered the time-honoured line: "It's just another field with the same-shaped posts." Who are they kidding? If away games are nothing to be worried about, how come visitors struggle so consistently? The green, green grass of home is a hugely powerful stimulant.
Which leads us directly to the guts of this year's RBS Six Nations championship. Would you believe that, statistically, the best travellers in Six Nations history are the French? As the statistics below reveal, they have won 18 games out of a possible 27 on foreign soil in the past 11 seasons. Contrast that with, say, Scotland who have won away just four times over the same period. England? Guess how many victories they have managed away from Twickenham in their last 16 Six Nations forays? Answer: Four. Three of those were in Rome and one in Paris. You have to rewind seven years to locate the last English away win against a rival home union.
When you consider Scotland haven't exactly set the world ablaze in that period, it is a mighty revealing statistic. Martin Johnson was suggesting this week that Cardiff was the most hostile Six Nations environment for an Englishman. The stats would suggest he is mistaken. Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin ? they're all as bad as each other if you happen to turn up wearing a white jersey.
If England were to triumph in Cardiff this Friday, therefore, it would be a major achievement, regardless of how precisely they do it. Securing a place in the most stunning top five away wins since the Six Nations began in 2000 will be even harder. As the English team bus makes the short journey from hotel to stadium through the teeming streets of Cardiff, those on board could do worse than ponder the top five all-time Six Nations ram-raids, listed here in reverse order:
5) Scotland 17 Italy 37 ? Murrayfield 2007. Still Italy's only away win in the championship.
4) France 25 Ireland 27 ? Paris 2000. An extraordinary Brian O'Driscoll hat-trick ends years of Irish hurt
3) France 35 Wales 43 ? Paris 2001. One of the great Welsh away-days of any era.
2) Wales 15 England 44 ? Cardiff 2001. The most commanding display by any northern hemisphere visitors to the Millennium Stadium.
1) Ireland 6 England 42 ? Dublin 2003. A quite ruthless demolition of a previously high-flying Irish side; England have not won a title since.
It is a list with a blunt postscript. Any European side who fancies doing well in the 2011 World Cup needs to start winning away now. Only by conquering foreign fields in Europe will a team stand any chance of doing the same in New Zealand in the knockout stages. You could even be brutal and argue that no player can truly be called great until he has won a Test match in every major rugby-playing nation. By that yardstick, even stand-out competitors like O'Driscoll still have something to prove.
Six Nations records by country (2000-2010):
France
Home P28 W23 D0 L5 F 800 A 449
Away P27 W18 D0 L9 F 707 A 507
England
Home P27 W22 D0 L5 F 963 A 406
Away P28 W13 D1 L14 F 636 A 456
Ireland
Home P28 W22 D0 L6 F 759 A 446
Away P27 W17 D0 L10 F 656 A 642
Wales
Home P28 W15 D1 L12 F 687 A 584
Away P27 W10 D1 L16 F 553 A 754
Scotland
Home P27 W11 D2 L14 F 459 A 610
Away P28 W4 D0 L24 F 441 A 800
Italy
Home P27 W6 D0 L21 F 446 A 889
Away P28 W1 D1 L26 F 391 A 995
Fixture fun
In an interesting move, Six Nations organisers have already released the fixtures for 2012 and 2013 in an attempt to help unions, sponsors and television companies alike. An easy process? Hardly. A senior official confided to me that 17 draft versions were drawn up and sent out before all the various stakeholders were satisfied.
Watch out this week for ?
Romain Poite (France). Monsieur Poite is the referee in charge of Italy's game against Ireland in Rome. He is an official who, where possible, likes to reward the dominant scrum. Italy have some serious scrummagers while Ireland are less well stocked in that department. It has all the makings of a tough afternoon for the Irish front row.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/feb/01/six-nations-2011-winning-away
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