Six Nations 2021 - Round 2 Verdict

Some enthralling games of rugby this weekend, I thought.

Not so much the first one. England were better than a week ago (not difficult) insofar as they at least displayed some attacking intent, albeit the execution was generally very poor. Still, if you haven’t passed the ball in anger for nearly a year then what do you expect? Youngs, B.Vunipola, Farrell and, in particular, Daly still well below par. Cowan-Dickie and Sinckler the standouts upfront and Watson is looking sharp. As for Italy – plucky performance again but desperately need to shore up that leaky defence. Spare a thought also for poor Jack Willis – excellent for the few minutes he was on the field before suffering what looked like a really nasty knee injury.

Then to Murrayfield, where an absolute stonewall red card for Zander Fagerson (it’s not even remotely debatable) handed Wales the advantage, allowing them to sneak home by a point. As some wag commented, the Welsh are now just 3 red cards away from a Grand Slam. What is clear is that they have unearthed a gem in Louis Rees-Zammit. Meanwhile the Scots couldn’t quite deliver back-to-back Six Nations wins but in many ways still looked like the team to beat this tournament, Russell and Hogg in particular rising to the occasion magnificently. The Scots’ encounter with France in Paris should be a cracker.

Finally, Dublin yesterday and, while Ireland did get to within a couple of points, at no stage did I feel that they would win this one. James Lowe’s first half effort aside, for all their effort they really never looked like breaching the French defences. France meanwhile, strangely subdued for most of the game, scored when they needed to and defended as you would expect a Shaun Edwards defence to defend. Two away wins for France sets them on their way nicely.

TF Team of the Week:

15. Stuart Hogg 14. Anthony Watson 13. Arthur Vincent 12. Gail Fickou 11. Louis Rees-Zammit 10. Finn Russell 9. Antoine Dupont 1. Rory Sutherland 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie 3. Andrew Porter 4. Johnny Hill 5. Adam Beard 6. Rhys Ruddock 7. Charles Ollivon 8. Matt Fagerson

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was