Five talking points from Round 3 of the Six Nations Championship

While the Super Rugby season is just kicking off, the Six Nations is past the halfway point now and with just two rounds left there were some crucial clashes taking place.

France were desperate to start rebuilding some sort of pride, Scotland and Ireland needed to build momentum after one win from their opening two games, Italy were hopeful for progress while not expecting a win and the match-up between Wales and England was being viewed as the one that would decide the eventual winners of the entire tournament.

In the end there were wins for France, Ireland and Wales and with two weeks until the next set of matches, there is a lot to talk about. So let’s get chatting…

French youth give the fans hope
The French lost their first two games in this year’s tournament and the reports from within the squad after the pounding they received from the English in Round 2 were pretty brutal. Morale was low and there players telling journalists that there was no plan and they had no idea where they were meant to be standing or what they were meant to be doing in that game.

Hardly what the under-pressure coach Jacques Brunel would have wanted to have heard.

His reaction was to drop his experienced halfbacks Morgan Parra and Camille Lopez, and in doing so got rid of over 90 caps from his team. More surprising than the lack of experience in the coach’s replacements (Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack only have three starts to their names) was the fact that Ntamack has only played at flyhalf three times for his club side this season.

This could have gone so horribly wrong and you wouldn’t be surprised if Brunel had been updating his LinkedIn profile ahead of the match just in case. But in the end not only did France win, but this new half-back pairing played well together and Ntamack also added a try to his good game management.

Now France overall were much better than their first two performances, but some of the best players in the match are also the best hopes for the future. Along with Dupont and Ntamack, full back Thomas Romas was really exciting and the flame-haired lock Felix Lambey showed both power and great offloading ability.

It is only one win and it was at home versus a Scotland side who were missing key players. But if these two halves and their young teammates can keep this going, then that’s a core that the French can build a side around for years to come.

Speaking of good performances from halves…

Italian scrum-half troubles world best
Italy unsurprisingly lost to Ireland this weekend, but the Italians put in a very impressive first half and were leading when it was time for the oranges. A lot of this was down to the great effort from their scrum-half – Tito Tebaldi. Tebaldi has been in and out of the side since his debut against Australia back in 2009 and has racked up 27 caps in ten years.

So not exactly dominant but against arguably the world’s best scrum half – Conor Murray – this weekend he was so exciting to watch. He provided a real edge to the Italians and was not in awe of his more famous opposition at any point. One highlight was where he ripped the ball from Murray’s hands deep in the Italian 22 and launched a counterattack that saw the home side score a wonderful try a few phases later.

He epitomizes a lot of what Italy did to get ahead of the Irish in the first half – balancing passion, aggression and clinical execution when it mattered. He’s found it hard to cement a place in the Italian side but you’d hope his performance this weekend will get him another cap in the next round.

Scotland are too reliant on a few players
So there aren’t too many rugby fans who don’t admire the attacking approach that Scotland have brought to their rugby under Gregor Townsend. Against some of the world’s best sides, the Scots have unleashed wave after wave of attack that have unlocked defences and left scoreboards in tatters.

It’s exciting to watch and with players like Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg in your team, it makes for the perfect combination.

The problem is that if Russell and Hogg are missing then the reality is that the Scots just don’t have the talent to deliver on that attacking ambition. Unfortunately, they also don’t have a plan B that the players who are playing in Russell and Hogg’s absence can execute.

Against the French this weekend the Scots were awful and reminded everyone of the dark old days. Yes, they were missing their top talent but that’s the point – Townsend still wants his team to attack no matter who is there. That’s admirable but they just rely too heavily on Russell and Hogg.

If those two are playing then the team have proven that they can scare almost any team on the planet. If those two are missing then the team have also proven that they are no threat whatsoever. That’s a big gamble.

(AP Photo/Scott Heppell)

Speaking of no plan B…

England have no plan B
The match against Wales this weekend was being heralded as the clash that would decide the title. Both sides had won in the opening two rounds and with the Irish struggling for form, it had come to look like a two horse race. Despite the fact that Wales were unbeaten in their previous 11 outings and were at home, England went into the game as favourites in many people’s minds.

They had blown the Irish off the Dublin park with an intensity that the men in green couldn’t live with and in Round 2 they had totally embarrassed the French with clinical play.

In the first half, the English story went pretty much to script – they ran hard with ball in hand, they ran even harder when they didn’t have the ball and the kicking game that had caused the French and Irish so many problems was working well.

But in the second half, something happened. In the previous two games they had run hard and direct with the ball, got the defence on their back foot and then used their kicking game to take advantage of these situations they had created.

Or they used intense defence to knock the opposition backwards and then when there was a turnover they used the boot to take advantage of the situation and put even more pressure on the opposition.

Against Wales, in the second half they forgot all about those crucial bits that they did before kicking the ball. There were signs of it in the first half but in the second half the men in white went to the boot again and again and far too early in their sets.

They hadn’t caused the Welsh any issues with the ball in hand first – they just kicked.

Add to this the fact that the Welsh back three were in fine form – especially Liam Williams – and the match gradually slipped out of England’s hands and the harder they tried to keep hold, the more they lost their way.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that the English lost this game rather than the Welsh winning it. They earned the win without a doubt. But it is fair to say that the English failed to kill them off when they had the chance early in that second half.

This should alarm Eddie Jones. His England forgot how to execute their primary game plan and then when things started going a bit wrong, they couldn’t find a way back into the game. The momentum of the Welsh overtook them bit by bit and England had no way to stop the gradual drowning.

Wales might just be the real deal
So it might sound strange to say this after they’ve won 12 Tests in a row, but Wales really might be onto something here.

In those 12 wins they’ve beaten England, Australia and South Africa twice so they definitely deserve some respect. Yes, there are a couple of names missing from that list but we won’t have to wait too long to see how Wales go against the Irish as they meet on the final weekend of the championship – a game where it is very likely the Welsh will be gunning for the Grand Slam.

It’s certainly true that the Welsh have not really been blowing away the top sides, but it is impossible to argue with the effective and efficient manner that they are picking up win after win. It’s almost as if they focus on what needs to be done to beat the opposition on the day rather than trying to score as many points as possible.

(Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images)

Against the Wallabies last year they ground out a 9-6 win in a huge slugfest where attacking rugby was MIA. Then against the English, they absorbed everything the English could throw at them, found a weak spot and exploited it. They wound the English up, sapped their energy and then struck in clinical attacks.

Wales are not the huge, aggressive heavyweight who looks to blow you away. They are the talented welterweight who is going to take some time to figure you out but will find your weakness, exploit it and before you realise it you’re lying flat on your back from a punch you never saw coming.

A lot of this is down to the way that Warren Gatland has reinvented his team after the Warren-ball phase and that is just one of the reasons why Gatland is such a great coach. Can he take them all the way to the World Cup final?