Jeff Probyn: Let’s hope the rugby gets better as Six Nations goes on

As we take a break in the Six Nations, it gives us all a chance to evaluate how   everybody is doing. First are the teams living up to expectation, or, as some have suggested, are they producing the worst Six Nations ever?
After the World Cup, expectations were completely off the wall as the one-off games in that tournament made your team potentially either the best or the worst bet for this Six Nations.
Much as it will disappoint Scottish fans, it was obvious that what appeared to be a good World Cup would have little or no bearing on their prospects of avoiding this year's Wooden Spoon. They will have to be at their belligerent best to beat their annual rivals, Italy, to avoid that honour, particularly with the game in Rome.
Italy have finally put a team on the pitch that can compete in all positions but, like Scotland, they have no strength in depth, so, when injuries occur, the team quickly fall apart as they did in the second half against England – but they will be targeting next week against Scotland as a must-win game.
England and France are not currently firing on all cylinders and are hiding under the excuse of having a new coach and new players who will take time to adjust their style of play at international level. While this may be true of France under Guy Noves, Eddie Jones' England have more or less the same group of players that Stuart Lancaster took to the World Cup, even if they are playing in different positions.
Their stuttering performance against Scotland, although enough to win, didn't show any signs of improvement in the first half of the Italian game, only getting better once the Italians suffered a raft of injuries.
Eddie Jones must know that beating the two traditionally weakest nations is no measure of the capabilities of his team and they will need to improve dramatically in the following games if they are to have a real chance of claiming the title.
Meanwhile, the two favourites, Ireland and Wales, have suffered different fortunes. Ireland have a list of injured players that seems to be getting longer by the game, while Wales have been able to welcome back some of their long term casualties,
After a World Cup, all the teams should be fitter and better organised than is usual for the Six Nations, as all have trained together for long periods in preparation for the World Cup that ended 13 weeks before the first Six Nations games. Yet the stuttering performance of all has raised the question of the quality of the competition, in comparison to the Southern Hemisphere.
The rivalries and history that exist between the countries competing in the Six Nations can be stifling for players, as the pressure to perform for your country in the hothouse condition of expectation among fans permeates through every step of your preparation.
For our Celtic cousins their result against England can truly affect the mood of the whole nation.
I remember Robert Jones telling me after England had beaten Wales at Twickenham, that his life would be hell for the next few months as a result and the elation of the Scots in 1990 was more about beating England than winning the Grand Slam.
With the break in play this week allowing for more practice, rest and possible injury recovery, we should see some better, more consistent error-free rugby.
Another area that has also disappointed are the match officials with some bad refereeing and over-zealous TMOs who do not seem to understand their role.
Despite referee control, scrums are still a mess with too many collapses, stand-ups and resets and even when they finally get the scrum set, the referees inevitably allow a crooked feed.
The new maul law that no longer allows the ball carrier to move to the back of the maul as players build a wall in front of him, seems to be confusing everyone and is being enforced only randomly.
Last Sunday I was co-presenting Talksport's Full Contact show with Brian Moore. During the show there is a weekly spot with the current best referee in the game, Nigel Owens, who said that he felt referees had generally abdicated their responsibility at the maul but the new laws would help the referees control mauls more effectively and laughingly added they might even begin to enforce the ‘not straight at the scrum'– let's hope so but I'll believe that when I see it.
Dean Ryan's release of the ‘Trend Report' at a Worcester press conference that shows his Warriors suffer more ‘wrong' refereeing decisions than any other Premiership club is not the surprise he feels it is. Believe it or not, referees are human and they follow trends just like everybody else.
The All Blacks seem to get away with blue murder on the field because they are perceived as the best team in the world and are expected to win.
Worcester Warriors, who have yo-yoed between the Premiership and Championship are expected to lose, meaning unfortunately (rightly or wrongly) almost every 50/50 decision will go against them.