I watched Scotland-England from the safe haven of departures at Dublin Airport, fortified by a margherita pizza and a pint of Beamish. These details are offered only because they seemed to offer protection from the despair provoked by the game.

I enjoyed it. It was jam-packed with head-banging commitment and utterly devoid of imagination, which says a lot about Britain old, new, or middle-aged. It certainly says a lot about England, and not just under Martin Johnson.

There was a time in the 1990s when England very nearly cut loose. But do you remember that when they tried, unscripted, their hand at running rugby in the World Cup final of 1991, they failed because they were more conditioned by the style of Rob Andrew than Jeremy Guscott? Even when they were very, very good, England were never at ease with freedom of expression.

The same thing happened in 2003. The Six Nations grand slam of that year was claimed with a 20-minute burst of genius in Dublin, soon followed on the summer tour by a first-half of flowing beauty in Melbourne. And then the shutters came down.

And that's where they have stayed. No wonder Brian Ashton lost his job. England is not a natural home for adventurous rugby. Even in the days of the 1970s when they had David Duckham and John Spencer in their midfield, what made England special was their absolute refusal to give their centres of excellence the ball. Frustration at the England style is nothing new.

England will win again when they have a pack that earns the field positions that allow their kicker to accumulate points in batches of three. When the threes tot up to a winning margin then they might extend the limits of their passing, but trying to run cold at modern defences is as counter-intuitive as a sheep eating meat.

The problem for them at the moment is that they win enough ball but do not take it forward with the controlled power needed to drive opponents into error if not to distraction. Given that the rest of the world has discovered the gym, it may take some time to restore English pre-eminence.

Throwback France beguile again

Weren't France gorgeous on Sunday? Clément Poitrenaud, slim and rather sensitive, should have been placed on the waste heap years ago. But he has had a marvellous championship.

Any wing shorter than Shane Williams should have no place in rugby after the age of 12, but in Marc Andreu France seem to have found a little gem, feisty and buzzing. We shall know that the game has truly gone retro when we see Stephen Jones hanging a kick towards Wales's left wing. Go on, Shane, beat him in the air.

It may be worth mentioning that as France grow more and more confident and as the offloads increase in frequency and daring, Thomas Domingo and Nicolas Mas have more than done their bit in the front row to make it all possible. The French pack in general is not heavy, but they remain devoted to their scrummaging responsibilities. The slog takes precedence in France, too.

In fact, France are not very chunky anywhere, with of course the exception of Mathieu Bastareaud (is he really heavier than Sébastien Chabal?). And this may ultimately count against them when they run into, say, the South Africans at a World Cup. Or even Argentina. Again.

But while we worry about the future of rugby if it continues to be played in the style of the Calcutta Cup match, with tacklers refusing to have any more regard for their personal safety than the runners who seek nothing but contact, what a relief it was to see France instinctively drawn to the discovery of space once the slog was complete.

And then have the hands in place to deliver the pass out of the tackle. If France beat England this will be one of the most welcome of all grand slams.

Wales can run but can they walk?

Ireland had a surprisingly comfortable day against Wales. They did their usual number at the line-out, where Paul O'Connell, Donncha O'Callaghan and Jamie Heaslip reduced the Welsh line-out to a trembling wreck.

John Hayes produced the drive of his life to foil the Welsh scrummage at the five metre scrum in the second half, and Keith Earls and Tomás O'Leary gave the most reassuring evidence, on the day Brian O'Driscoll joined Hayes in the 100-cap club, that Ireland need have no fears about the generation that follows.

As for Wales, Paul Wallace summed it up for me when the old Ireland prop and brother of David said that if there is a list of five things, in rising order of difficulty, that you have to tick off in order to become a top team, then Wales can do four and five without difficulty. It's just they can't master the simpler requirements on one, two, three. They can run but not walk.

Which just leaves the question: would you prefer to be England, who can do the first three things in their sleep, but can't get their heads around four and five, or Wales?

Pablo brings a taste of honey

The cameo role of the weekend had to that played by Paul Derbyshire of Italy. On he came, with the game lost and France poised to make the last 10 minutes a living hell for anyone in their way, and prompted instead a mini turnaround. Suddenly there was this back-row forward taking the fight back to France and showing that the off-load was not exclusive to Poitrenaud & Co.

The cruellest exit of the weekend had to be the replacing of Tito Tebaldi after just half an hour. Perhaps Italy's starting scrum half might have survived longer if Nick Mallett wasn't haunted by the memory of picking Mauro Bergamasco there last year. The coach may think he has an issue with the position, but the way Pablo Canavosio has played in the last two games suggest that perhaps it is not be such a problem after all.

Elsewhere on guardian.co.uk

Paul Rees illustrates how England and Scotland took a whistle-stop tour of Murrayfield

Eddie Butler on Mathieu Bastareaud, a kind of pugilistic Philippe Sella

John Hayes and Ireland pack held the key to emphatic victory over Wales, says Kevin Mitchell

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