KEY POINTS:
An umbrella was needed in Cardiff with so much champagne sprayed, strong smelling salts at Twickenham, given England's sudden renaissance. In Ireland this morning, a call to the nearest undertakers would be appropriate: A body needs to be removed. As for Scotland, they limp on like some marathon
runner with a torn muscle; dreadful to see such a pitiful sight.
Italy? A young child whose future we know not. And France? As ever, le grand enigma.
The 2008 RBS Six Nations Championship was an event of such alarmingly fluctuating fortunes that a discernible pattern was hard to ascertain. Only Welsh excellence, at last given structure and proper discipline by a New Zealand coach who doesn't do sympathy and egos, represented any kind of consistency. For the rest, it was a roller-coaster ride.
But where is rugby in the six nations at the end of this six-week rugbyfest? Maybe it's most appropriate to use that old joke to describe the current scenario in five of the six European nations.
Question: Which state do you live in? Answer: Denial.
Certainly those who run most of the national rugby unions of the six Nations seem to be in a constant state of denial. A disastrous rugby season by Ireland, with flops in both World Cup and now the Six Nations, brings a deafening silence from the corridors of power in Dublin. The team is drifting, as rudderless as a damaged ship. The captain busies himself but his mind is closed to voices that point out the rocks. He cannot see them.
This is an ageing team going the same place as a coach who has been in office too long: Nowhere. Fresh thinking - the kind offered Wales by Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards - is urgently required.
Something similar applies in Scotland although in truth, they have such little material with which to work that the only person qualified to replace Frank Hadden would be a magician. The nadir of Scotland's season was defeat to Italy in Rome; the zenith, their victory over a dire England - they'll dine out on that for years. It is their way.
And with so many keen but desperately limited performers - players really not good enough to play international rugby - who can blame them? Firing the coach would be idiotic. Who else could do better?
Firing the coach is firmly in the conversation in England or at least it was until Sunday's 33-10 rout of Ireland. Here, it is the standard of administration that bedevils the collective, not the players. There are enough of them to make England world champions again. But the autocratic, bumbling RFU have again made such a mess of choosing their best coaching panel that uncertainty remains. Had they possessed a modicum of vision, Messrs Gatland and Edwards would have done for England what they instead did for Wales.
France started with a flourish of old-fashioned running rugby but had the carpet pulled from beneath their feet by England and Wales. At Cardiff only one side craved victory - the enterprising, entertaining Welsh, a team with plenty of skills, who prevailed. This season, the balance has been imperfect. But for sure, they have the players to do it.
Italy, under Nick Mallett, gave England, France and Ireland a proper game. They were routed in the second half at Cardiff but earned a merited award with late victory over Scotland in Rome. But Mallett, too, could use a good magician. In his case, a couple of world-class halfbacks to capitalise on the quality work of Sergio Parisse and his forwards would be nice.
So the parties continued and splendid nights out were enjoyed by all. The Six Nations Championship never comes up short in that respect. But in terms of taking rugby forward in this part of the world, Wales excepted, the tournament was again poor.
And that was how Wales won a Grand Slam - they put pace on the game, asked questions of defences and showed some invention, wit and cunning. May others follow such a creed.
