Key Six Nations Round Two takeaways
SPOTLIGHT: England’s hopes of landing their first Grand Slam since 2016 went up in smoke as they came up against a Huw Jones-inspired Scotland in Edinburgh, while Ireland got their campaign back on track with victory over Italy in Dublin.
Reigning champions France then made it two wins from two as they trampled over Wales in front of the smallest ever crowd at a Six Nations match in Cardiff.
AFP looks at three things we learnt from another vibrant weekend of rugby:
Jones at the double
Jones has scored 25 tries in 60 Tests for the Dark Blues, but his record against England is exceptional, with eight tries in eight appearances against the Auld Enemy. Saturday’s 31-20 Calcutta Cup triumph featured his third ‘double’.
Jones sent Scotland on their way with the first of their four tries, swerving round England captain Maro Itoje to finish a neat backline move.
He was quickest to react when Matt Fagerson charged down England flyhalf George Ford’s attempted drop-goal early in the second half, sprinting in from halfway to put Scotland beyond reach with a fourth try that secured a deserved bonus-point for the Dark Blues.
Errors a major worry for Farrell
Ireland may have shown character as coach Andy Farrell said in the thrilling 20-13 win over Italy, but he has a lot to work on leading up to facing a wounded England at Twickenham.
Farrell admitted there had been too many “errors”.
The slew of mistakes stemmed largely from two areas – the scrum and flyhalf.
Fixing the problem with the scrum is going to take a lot longer than a week, as they were steamrolled for the second successive match.
However, the flyhalf conundrum is easily solved – Jack Crowley coming in for Sam Prendergast.
Prendergast was at sea; if anyone lacked confidence, it was he, and the Irish were a different side when Farrell put him out of his agony and sent on Crowley 15 minutes into the second half.
Farrell eulogised about Crowley and excused him for kicking the ball dead, instead of finding touch, when, with time up, Ireland pressed for a fourth try and a bonus point.
“It was a bit of a shank, but that wouldn’t be the overriding thought that I took from Jack’s game. I thought he was outstanding when he came on,” said Farrell.
Wales losing the public
As if losing 12-54 to France wasn’t bad enough, Wales had to do it in front of just 57,744 people at the Principality Stadium.
It’s the lowest ever Six Nations crowd in Cardiff, fewer than the previous smallest crowd of 58,349 against Italy in 2002.
In the lead-up to the game, coach Steve Tandy insisted that Wales was still a rugby nation, but a run of 25 games in which they have won just two matches appears to have turned the public off.
Thousands of tickets remain unsold for the coming matches against Scotland and Italy.
On the flipside, it was a bonus for the French supporters who put in a superb performance in the battle of the anthems and had no trouble making themselves heard as they cheered their side’s eight tries.
“I had the impression there were more French than Welsh supporters,” said France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
