Can anyone unseat Ireland at the top? Who will make the difference in the final two rounds? And can Italy win a game?Ireland will claim a first Six Nations title since 2015 if they achieve a bonus-point victory over Scotland and England fail to do so in Paris. There was certainly an element of fortune to their victory against France but, as seen in recent years, away wins anywhere but Rome are at a premium – and they followed it up with an emphatic win over Italy and a powerful performance against Wales. Andy Farrell will not be happy with the six tries conceded in those matches but perhaps the most impressive thing about Ireland is how they have coped...
Scotland’s next task is to improve on the road, Wales show their worth with the ball and France still off the paceIt seems cruel that anyone in Scotland should have to talk about anything other than their victory, but in the hours after the match Gregor Townsend was already thinking about their next Test, away to Ireland. “We’ve got our own issues to deal with,” he said, “we have to show a truer picture of what we’re about when we’re away from home”. Scotland have been a poor side when they’re playing away for a long while now, but those two recent defeats, to England at Twickenham and Wales in Cardiff, were particularly bitter given how much better they’ve become...
A team once renowned for flakiness and unreliability now take some beating but the Wales coach will leave after the World Cup with praise rather than fanfare or gratitudeWarren Gatland will on Saturday reach 100 Test matches as Wales’s coach. He will get to the landmark 20 years to the day since he took over from Brian Ashton in charge of Ireland: his sacking three years later, in circumstances that read like something from a spy novel, remains the low point in his career, a blot all his success since has not entirely erased.As the amateur era drifted to its end, the winner of the match between Ireland and Wales tended to avoid the wooden spoon. Between 1986 and 1995...
England should venture outside their London moneypit and take a big game to rugby lovers otherwise disenfranchised by geography and, in some cases, historyIt is October 2007 and the clear Mediterranean sky is turning from sapphire blue to purest velvet. England, against all the odds, have just beaten Australia in the World Cup quarter-finals and down in the Vieux Port area of Marseille a monumental party is brewing. Even before France’s tournament-shaping game against New Zealand in Cardiff kicks off the harbourside vibe makes Twickenham feel like a suburban vicarage.So bienvenue with knobs on to Marseille as the Six Nations’s newest host city. Whether this Friday night’s contest between France and Italy in the 67,000-capacity Stade Vélodrome will induce a...
The visitors’ showing when it dried up at Twickenham will give hope to Scotland when Eddie Jones’s side visit MurrayfieldIf it rains for the next five weeks, England will be crowned Six Nations champions because Eddie Jones’s side have once again demonstrated they are the best wet-weather team in the world at the moment.As seen against Wales, England had a plan and they executed it perfectly. What impressed me most was how the half-backs – and I include Owen Farrell in that – dropped those kicks in behind the wings and just showed far superior tactical awareness than their opposite numbers throughout. Related: Jonny May’s early tries take England over the line against battling Wales Related: Greig Laidlaw’s nerveless kicking...