SIX Nations rugby is alive and well after last weekends opening round of the 2001 version.

The arrogance of Aussie chief executive John O'Neill in suggesting that England and France could join the Tri Nations in a new tournament was quite misplaced.

There's no doubt that our Southern Hemisphere cousins are intensely jealous of the Six Nations and by hoping to piggy back off the back of it, they could gain much in the financial stakes.

The Lions trip to the World Champions den in the summer is already guaranteed to be a huge financial success and judging by the performance of the English team against Wales in Cardiff who would bet against all 22 of their players making the squad.

I don't think I have ever seen an English side play with so much pace and power and their handling at times especially in the three-quarters was quite sublime.

Wales had no answer to the organisational strength of England whether in attack or defence and were quite literally blown apart.

Only Rob Howley gave the impression of knowing what to do and when you consider that men of the quality of Scott Gibbs and Colin Charvis were blowing hard well before the end of the match you realise how much chasing they had done.

In contrast most of the English team looked as though they had been out for a leisurely afternoon stroll and but for all the replacements coming on who knows what the final score might have been.

England did look very impressive but they have been down this route before in each of the last two seasons before falling over in dramatic fashion right at the final hurdle.

All the talk this season is of maturity and experience and up until now they have done extremely well.

I hope that they continue to play in such a positive manner because in turn that will lift the Six Nations Championship to even greater heights and some of their rugby was truly world class.

What a shame therefore that France's match against Scotland was so poor. Only a typical Bernat-Salles try broke the monotony of one of the dullest second-halves I have ever witnessed in the Stade de France and both teams on this performance will get truly stuffed by the rampaging English.

Thankfully they each have a chance to redeem themselves prior to their visits to Twickenham and how they need to learn quickly.

Battering ram runs straight into the opposition are all very well but against a defence as strong as England's it is somewhat pointless.

Pace is a crucial ingredient at any level of sport not least at the top and Scotland unfortunately for them do not have enough apart from Chris Paterson.

France clearly do but must improve their backline passing if they are seriously going to challenge England.

Ireland finally managed to overcome a nervous start and a spirited Italian side at least for the first half before finding their international legs and cruising away to a comfortable enough victory in the end.

Rob Henderson set the hat-trick of tries target which was brilliantly matched by Will Greenwood later on while punch of the day surely belonged to Troncon for his haymaker on Peter Stringer.

The Irish certainly have some talent which came to life in fleeting bursts of play and they will certainly be competitive in Dublin.

Next weeks matches will certainly give a good indication of which teams have learnt from this opening round.