Tom Henigan
In the biggest week of this year’s Six Nations, there was plenty of movement at the top half of the table. France put in a dominant display against Ireland, ending the hopes Simon Easterby’s men had of a second Grand Slam in three years. England’s bonus point win over Italy has kept them alive in the race for the championship. Wales are still looking for their first competitive win since the 2023 World Cup after they fell to Scotland at Murrayfield. Impact has all the latest from the most recent round of Six Nation’s matches.
Ireland 27-42 France
Going into the tournament, many people circled this game as a Grand Slam decider. After England’s close win over France at Twickenham back in February, fans were denied that spectacle but this was still a match surrounded with excitement and anticipation. With no disrespect to Italy, a win for Ireland against France would have all but sealed a third straight Six Nations title, making them the first team ever to do so, and would have also made the men in green massive favourites for a second Grand Slam in three years.
But France had other ideas. The visitors went into Dublin knowing a bonus point win would make them big favourites for the title going into the final week, and they delivered. Despite putting up 42 points, it was the defensive performance that was most impressive about France, particularly in the first half. They soaked up Ireland’s pressure for the first 19 minutes, not allowing a point despite the hosts making several trips inside France’s 22-metre line.
A Sam Prendergast missed kick didn’t help Ireland but they were clearly struggling to take their opportunities as a whole. France, on the other hand, took advantage of the pressure they created against Ireland. On one of their first attacks of the game, the visitors caused problems for their opponents as Joe McCarthy was shown a yellow card for a cynical foul against Thomas Ramos, bringing Ireland down to 14 men for 10 minutes. One minute later, Antoine Dupont found Louis Bielle-Biarrey in the corner and France had the first try of the match.
Ireland clawed their way back into the game, managing to stop any more points being scored while they had one less player. Two Prendergast penalties either side of a Ramos kick left the hosts trailing 6-8 at half time. Despite the yellow card and the great France defence, the first half’s biggest story was Dupont’s injury. The world’s best player ruptured cruciate ligaments in his knee just before the half an hour mark, forcing him off for Maxime Lucu. Of course, losing their best player was a huge concern for France in this match, but the other issue they potentially faced was the fact that Lucu was their only other back in the squad, meaning France’s only options left on the bench were forwards.
Ireland started the second half strong, finally breaking through their opponents’ defence, which at times seemed unbreakable. Dan Sheehan was the man who got the try, scoring in the corner as he followed the path his teammates provided him with by overpowering France’s defence for one of the few times on the day. Prendergast made the difficult conversion and Ireland had the lead for the first time on the day, up by a score of 13-8. But it was just over two minutes later where the momentum of the game swung back in France’s favour. Paul Boudehent scored a huge try for the visitors despite a Television Match Official (TMO) check on France’s Thibaud Flament for taking out Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony off the ball. That wasn’t the only TMO decision to go against Ireland in the build-up to the try. Calvin Nash was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi.
Bielle-Biarrey once again caused havoc
After Ramos’ conversion, Ireland found themselves trailing 15-13 and with 14 men once again. This time round, Ireland couldn’t limit France’s attack with one less man to defend. Only a few minutes after Boudehent’s try, Bielle-Biarrey once again caused havoc. Receiving the ball on the left-hand side, the France winger avoided going into touch and kicked the ball ahead, perfectly placing it past the try-line as he used his immense speed to race past Prendergast and touch the ball down for a score. This was the highlight of the game for the 21-year-old, and for any player, as he was named Player of the Match on a day where he could not be stopped. Ramos’ second successful conversion of the day gave Ireland a mountain to climb as the visitors now led 22-13.
After Bielle-Barrey’s sensational second try, the hosts never found their feet again. A Ramos penalty was followed by an Oscar Jegou try, securing France a bonus point before the hour mark. Ramos converted and then added another penalty eight minutes later to make the score 35-13. With five minutes to go, even a losing bonus point now seemed unlikely for Ireland but they pushed on nonetheless.
Once again, though, France’s defence stood up strong as Prendergast’s pass right in front of the visitors’ goal-line was intercepted by Damian Penaud. The 28-year-old took the ball all the way down the pitch, scoring France’s fifth try of the day, and the 38th of his international career, tying Serge Blanco for the most in France Rugby history. After another Ramos conversion, France had a 42-13 lead, a statement win for a team out to avenge the fact that they will not be Grand Slam champions this year.
Ireland scored two consolation tries to end the game. One of the few positives from the match was that Cian Healy scored in his final home game, a great moment despite the loss for Ireland’s most capped player ever. The full time whistle was blown after Prendergast kicked a conversion to reduce the final score-line to 27-42. Ireland will now need a lot of help to win a third straight title in Rome.
A bonus point win for France at home against Scotland and they are champions, with a non-bonus point win likely to be enough as well. They’ll be without Dupont but given their second half performance in Dublin, it is clear this team is much more than a one man show. Lucu, Dupont’s replacement, had an excellent game and will look to repeat that performance in the tournament’s finale in Paris.
Scotland 35-29 Wales
Scotland survived a late Wales fightback to hand their opponents a 16th straight loss in competitive matches.
It was a dominant first half for the hosts as they secured a bonus point after just 33 minutes. Blair Kinghorn was the first to get over the line, racing down the left wing to score in the corner. That try came after just under 5 minutes, in response to a Gareth Anscombe penalty that had given Wales a 3-0 lead to start the day. After a bad kicking game against England, Finn Russell started his day well, making a tough conversion to give his team an early 7-3 lead. Scotland continued to find success down the left-hand side, with Tom Jordan finishing off a nice move, having enough space to give Russell an easy conversion.
Wales gifted the hosts their bonus point try
The only time Wales showed any sort of life in the first half was when Anscombe played a lovely kick through the Scottish defence, with Blair Murray getting to the ball first to score. But Scotland’s relentless attack continued as they responded almost instantly with a Darcy Graham try. Wales gifted the hosts their bonus point try as Ben Thomas kicked the ball out to Murray on the right-hand side in Wales’ own territory. Murray just about stayed in play as he hurled the ball back to Thomas who knocked the ball on, spilling it to Jordan as Scotland’s number 12 gracefully accepted the opportunity, kicking the ball forward and following it in for a try. Wales were playing with 14 men at this point in the game after a yellow card for Will-Griff John, and Thomas’ bizarre kick from his own 22-metre line had many thinking their was an advantage for Wales not being shown by the television. At half time, Scotland had a 28-8 lead as Russell made his fourth conversion.
Despite another Kinghorn try for Scotland just 10 minutes after the break, Wales’ second half performance was much better. Thomas atoned for hie earlier error, scoring right by the posts to breathe life into his team. Teddy Williams then powered over the line with just over 10 minutes to go as a few nerves began to creep into Murrayfield with Scotland now leading just 35-22 after once being 35-8 up. Those nerves grew even larger when, with four and a half minutes to go, Murray received the ball deep in his own half, and evaded several Scotland defenders before running over another in what was a tremendous carry. He then found Taulupe Faletau who scored and seemingly reduced the score to 35-27 with a conversion pending.
Unfortunately, though, the try of the day, and one of the tries of the tournament, was overturned by the TMO because Murray jumped to avoid a tackle, one of the highlights of his epic run. While the referees did seem to follow the rules correctly, a try like that being overturned is why Rugby is struggling to grow as a sport. Murray’s run should be encouraged, not disallowed. A try that would have generated many more eyeballs for the game was overturned and practically killed any possibly of a Wales comeback. The match ended with a Max Llewellyn try for the visitors, converted by Jarrod Evans, leaving the score at 35-29, giving Wales two bonus points, one for four tries and another for losing withing seven points.
Of course, there is no guarantee that Wales would have scored that final try after Murray’s run and Faletau’s try as Scotland would have been far more committed to stopping them with the game on the line, but Faletau’s score would have certainly made for an exciting ending. Again, the referees probably made the right decision given the rules, but in an age where World Rugby is making a lot of rule changes, they need to look at the one that disallowed Faletau’s try if they really want to grow the sport.
England 47-24 Italy
In a game where England needed a big win, preferably with a bonus point, to leapfrog Ireland in second place, they produced exactly that. Despite an early try, it was not an easy first half for the hosts, against an Italy side looking to bounce back from a heavy defeat at home to France.
England’s response was with a lovely try of their own
Tom Willis opened the scoring at Twickenham as Fin Smith converted to make it 7-0 England with less than four minutes on the clock. Italy responded fast, though, as Ange Capuozzo got on the end of a Monty Ioane kick down the right-hand side. Paolo Garbisi converted to tie the game up. England’s response was with a lovely try of their own as Elliot Daly threaded a perfect kick behind the Italy for defence for Tommy Freeman to latch onto and score. Smith delivered on the conversion again but the hosts once again struggled to contain the Italy attack as Capuozzo received the ball in his own half before racing through the English defence, offloading the ball to Ross Vintcent at England’s 10-metre line. the 22-year-old ran the next 40 metres himself to score. Another Garbisi conversion tied the game again, this time at 14-14.
From then on, England were strong defensively. Ollie Sleightholme gave England the lead once again, with Smith converting for the third time. England learnt from their mistakes and did not let Italy back into the game, despite a Garbisi penalty just before half time. The hosts led 21-17 at the break and came out with a point to prove as Marcus Smith took Tom Curry’s offload and burst through the Italy defence to give the hosts their bonus point try, a statement from Smith who started on the bench in this match. Italy never really got a foothold in the second half as Curry got in on the scoring action, before Sleightholme got his second try of the game five minutes later with former England captain, Jamie George, providing the assist in his 100th game for his country. That put England 42-17 up thanks to another Smith conversion.
Some great work from Manuel Zuliani helped set up a Tommaso Menoncello consolation try, with Zuliani being unfortunate not to score himself as he was tackled right before the line. A Garbisi conversion reduced the deficit to 42-24 with less than 10 minutes to go. Ben Earl finished off the scoring in the 81st minute as Smith missed a conversion for the first time all day, leaving the final score at 47-24.
Heading into the final matches of the tournament, France are massive favourites to win the championship. Saturday, March 15th is the day when everything will be decided. Ireland play Italy in Rome first, in a match where the visitors are big favourites, with many fans from all nations already assuming a bonus point win. England travel to Cardiff for the second match of the day knowing a bonus point win will guarantee them at least second place. Wales will look to end their historic losing streak and avoid a second straight wooden spoon. An Ireland bonus point win followed by a non-bonus point win for England would leave it down to points difference between the two teams, meaning both sides will be going for as big a victory as possible, hoping France fall to Scotland later that night. Of course, neither England or Ireland will be underestimating their opponents on a day where both sides have to win to keep their championship hopes alive.
The title will be decided in Paris as Scotland visit France in the final match of the tournament. A bonus point win for the hosts will give them their first Six Nations title since they won the Grand Slam in 2022. If they win without a bonus point, England could still win the title via points difference but given France’s dominance in that category, any sort of win will more than likely secure the championship for Les Bleus.
It is not out of the question that the visitors pull off an upset
Scotland are still technically in the running but they would need to hope England and Ireland lose, before attempting to beat France with a bonus point, without their opponents getting a bonus point. Scotland would also need to turn around what is currently a points difference gap of 103, so a win by at least 55 points. That obviously won’t happen, with Scotland’s mathematical title hopes likely to be over after the Italy versus Ireland match, but it is not out of the question that the visitors pull off an upset.
Of course, France have shown in this tournament that they are the best team in the Northern Hemisphere, and they dominated Ireland in the second half without Dupont, but given the injury to their star man, either England or Ireland fans will have a glimmer of hope heading into the match. Whichever team is atop the table when the main event kicks off in Paris will be rooting for the upset but if neither of the two teams chasing France get their job done, the celebrations will start early at the Stade de France.
Tom Henigan
Featured image courtesy of Hanson Lu via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @francerugby via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.?
In article image 2 courtesy of @sixnationsrugby via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.?
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