Six Nations news: Four talking points from the third round

A brilliant weekend of Six Nations action saw Ireland claim the ‘Triple Crown’ and England finally beat Scotland to regain the Calcutta Cup after five long years.

Elsewhere, a ruthless France side bounced back from last week’s demoralising loss in London by brushing aside Italy.

As always, there is much debate to be had over the finer points and what those results might mean going forward.

Sports News Blitz writer Jacob Garrett takes a look at four talking points from the third round.

Calcutta Cup victory papers over the cracks for England

In one of the most intense games of this year’s competition, it all came down to a last-minute conversion for the visitors.

Luckily for England, Scotland main man Finn Russell pulled the attempt just left of the uprights to hand the hosts a memorable victory.

The question is: Did England get lucky or was the win nothing less than what Steve Borthwick’s side deserved?

Given what ended up happening on the pitch and what the post-game stats revealed, England’s performance left a bit to be desired.

One of the most striking issues was laid bare in the attacking stats.

England only carried 468 metres on Saturday, whereas the Scots carried exactly double at 936. At the same time, England managed a measly 99 passes in comparison to Scotland’s 248.

So what do these numbers mean when it comes to the quality of the English attack?

The idea that Borthwick’s attacking set-up is ‘boring’ and ‘blunt’ has been a narrative for a long time. His attack has often relied on competitive kicking – usually via the scrum-half – and keen chasing from the flanks to generate turnovers, either through the air or in the tackle.

As a result, England tend to feel very disjointed in contrast to the likes of free-flowing France, Ireland, and even Scotland.

However, despite these not-so-appealing stats, the home team regained the Calcutta Cup in a massive plus for this new-look England team.

They also won the contest in a period where a lot of their other games – particularly in the Autumn Internationals – have been lost.

England have now won two weeks in a row against top opposition while not playing at their best or firing the way they would have hoped.

Attention thus turns to the matches against Wales and Italy, where Borthwick and his men will hope to not only win but win well thanks to a fluid and entertaining attacking display.

With France and Ireland yet to meet, England are in a favourable position and the pressure is on – there is no pretending otherwise.

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Defeat sends Scotland back to the drawing board

Looking at the cold hard facts, zero from three conversions is simply not good enough at international level, especially from someone like Russell.

That said, considering the dominance they had, Scotland really should have scored more.

In spite of their quality attacking structure, the visitors never truly executed in the red zone, and that is ultimately the difference between winning and losing in Test matches.

Russell, it must be said, was exceptional with ball in hand on Saturday and a key cog in the Scottish strategy of getting the ball out to the wide areas.

Often lurking at the back and chucking fantastic balls to the likes of the ever-brilliant Duhan van der Merwe, Russell helped the Scots work wonders in isolating Ollie Lawrence in the channel and giving the back three one-on-ones with England’s wide players.

Both Lawrence and Ollie Sleightholme had poor games defensively, the latter being dragged off a measly four minutes into the second half.

The two are significantly better with ball in hand than defensively, and Scotland played into that to manipulate the hosts’ new-look defence perfectly.

Unfortunately for Gregor Townsend, his team left several points out on the Twickenham turf due to a lack of ruthlessness.

After two losses from three in this year’s Six Nations, the Scots have little to play for. By all accounts, things have not gone according to plan for a team which had great expectations heading into the tournament.

With both Wales and France left to play, the men in blue will be desperate for a bounce-back game and, if we are being honest, should get at least one.

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Wales valiant in defeat to defending champions

It was a brilliant underdog performance from the Welsh under the roof at the Principality Stadium on the weekend.

The quality of Ireland shone through in the end, though, and they came out deserved winners despite the best efforts of a new-look Wales team.

After the drama that was Warren Gatland’s sacking, in stepped Cardiff’s Matt Sherratt, the former primary school teacher and now potential saviour of a proud rugby nation.

And Sherratt’s attack-coaching background was immediately evident against the Irish.

Much of the criticism during Gatland’s second spell in charge of Wales revolved around the team’s poor shape with ball in hand and how it made them easy to read and defend against.

However, after only three training sessions, Sherratt managed to coax a seriously new look out of the hosts.

The interim coach also changed it up in the personnel department.

Veteran Gareth Anscombe was recalled and ran the game fantastically well. His choice of when to play and when to kick was almost faultless, throwing the right shapes at the right times.

With Scotland lying in wait this weekend, Sherratt and Wales now have something to build on.

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Ireland quality shines through in Cardiff

Despite Wales’ solid effort, the world’s second-ranked side showed exactly why they are one of the very best. Indeed, the cliche that ‘good teams know how to win ugly’ was very apt for this game.

Simon Easterby rotated the team for the clash, with captain Caelan Dorris one to miss out.

A controversial 20-minute red card for Gary Ringrose was followed by the introduction of Bundee Aki, who changed the game with a warrior-like performance immortalised by post-game pictures.

He carried hard and tackled even harder, creating front-foot ball from launch and generating momentum for the likes of Jamison Gibson-Park and Sam Prendergast to do their thing.

Aki was a clear man of the match and, in hindsight, a game-changing substitution.

Another big talking point from an Irish perspective was Sam Prendergast, the new Ireland starlet having one of his more raw performances in a burgeoning career.

Wales targeted him from launch and it worked well enough to highlight the Leinster star’s deficiencies in defence.

He also had a few clear mistakes when Ireland was under the pump, hitting one out on the full as the visitors looked to relieve Welsh defensive pressure.

In the end, though, the positives outweighed the negatives as his fantastic goal-kicking and effortless set-up were effective enough for Ireland to pull away and take the victory.

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