It was carnival time in Cardiff, but a day to drown sorrows in Dublin. The final round of Six Nations fixtures brought one of the most unpredictable tournaments of recent years to an end, but as the dust settles on Wales' Grand Slam success, how will the winners and losers remember this season's competition?

WALES

FROM World Cup hell to Six Nations heaven in the space of five easy steps.

Warren Gatland's arrival as head coach has transformed Welsh fortunes, and a second Grand Slam in the space of four years was a fitting reward for the latest successful reconstruction of Welsh rugby.

The question now, given everything that happened in the wake of 2005's Six Nations victory, is whether that success can be sustained.

All the signs are positive, with Gatland determined to lead Wales to the 2011 World Cup and the inspirational Shaun Edwards equally committed to the cause. Of all the mistakes England have made in the last 12 months, allowing Edwards to slip through their fingers was unquestionably the most costly.

In winger Shane Williams, Wales boasted the best finisher on display this spring, and in flanker Martyn Williams, they also laid claim to the player of the tournament.

When Gavin Henson's mercurial return to form is nothing more than a footnote, you've clearly been doing something right.

ENGLAND

AWESOME one minute, but awful the next - England's Six Nations campaign was effectively their World Cup journey writ small.

Fifteen minutes of madness put paid to their hopes of beating Wales, and this month's display at Murrayfield was as dispiriting as anything England have produced in the best part of a decade.

But those performances must be balanced against a forward-inspired triumph in France and a final-day trouncing of Ireland that finally proved that Brian Ashton's side are capable of expansive, attacking rugby.

Whether the head coach is retained to build on the win, though, is still to become clear.

Ashton remains a talented coach, but he rarely convinces as a leader.

Danny Cipriani's emergence bodes well for the future - unless your name happens to be Wilkinson - and the likes of James Haskell and Tom Croft have also grown in stature this spring. Quite what Iain Balshaw has to do to get dropped, though, remains a mystery.

FRANCE

RIP it up and start again was France coach Marc Lievremont's philosophy, and boy did he stay true to his words.

Players came and went as if they were heading through a revolving door, and while defeats to England and Wales ensured there would be no Six Nations title, Lievremont's experimentation revealed enough gems to ensure he finished the campaign marginally in credit.

Scrum-half Morgan Parra and wing Julien Malzieu proved exciting prospects, while fly-half Francois Trinh- Duc could be a star of the tournament for years to come.

Bouts of inexperience were to be expected, but the sight of the French scrum being embarrassed by Ireland, England and Wales gave genuine cause for concern.

Rediscover a bit of their renowned snarl, and France will be more than a match for anyone.

IRELAND

HOW the mighty have fallen. Dark horses for last year's World Cup, Ireland's players trudged from the Twickenham turf last weekend a bedraggled and ramshackle bunch.

Defeats to France, Wales and England exposed glaring weaknesses in the Irish ranks, and must surely herald a changing of the guard that could claim some notable scalps.

Head coach Eddie O'Sullivan seems certain to be the first of them, despite a four-year contract that was supposed to take him through to the next World Cup.

Ronan O'Gara and Brian O'Driscoll, previously the untouchable totems of the Irish team, will not be breathing easily either, although Ireland's entire backs division under-performed spectacularly this spring.

That the malaise eventually spread to the pack as well, a group of players who could yet win the Heineken Cup with Munster, was perhaps the most damning indictment of O'Sullivan's failure to inspire.

SCOTLAND

THE more things change, the more they stay the same. Having promised to finally start throwing the ball around, Scotland reverted to type and bored anyone who was unfortunate enough to have to sit through all five of their matches.

This month's victory over England was enough to retain the support of a majority of Scottish fans, but being marginally the better of two bad teams is hardly something to brag about.

That said, there are things that Scotland continue to do well. Alasdair Strokosch has appeared from nowhere to bolster a back row that was already as good as any in the championship, and Chris Paterson's metronomic boot remains a reliable accumulator of points.

Beyond that, though, there was nothing. Whether it's down to a lack of ambition or a lack of skills, Scotland's inability to attack from the deep continues to hit them hard. And will somebody please show Dan Parks how to pass the ball to a player in blue.

ITALY

FOR Scotland, read Italy.

There's not much point winning plenty of ball if you have no idea what to do with it once you get it.

The Italian pack was its usual strong-arm self, and skipper Sergio Parisse cemented his reputation as one of the foremost number eights in world rugby.

But unless the Italians discover a fly-half who can kick, opposition teams will continue to run riot as soon as the ball breaks free into the loose.

Things might have been different had Gonzalo Canale not dropped the ball within spitting distance of two separate try-lines, and last weekend's victory over Scotland at least prevented a five-game whitewash.

Ultimately, though, this year's tournament will be remembered as another wasted opportunity for the Italian game.

Team of the tournament: Lee Byrne (Wales), Vincent Clerc (France), Tom Shanklin (Wales), Gavin Henson (Wales), Shane Williams (Wales), James Hook (Wales), Mike Blair (Scotland); Andrew Sheridan (England), Dimitri Szarewski (France), Martin Castrogiovanni (Italy), Ian Gough (Wales), Nathan Hines (Scotland), Jonathan Thomas (Wales), Martyn Williams (Wales), Sergio Parisse (Italy).

Replacements: Cedric Heymans (France), Danny Cipriani (England), Mike Phillips (Wales), Ryan Jones (Wales), Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), James Haskell (England), Huw Bennett (Wales).

10:58am Thursday 20th March 2008

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