Crikey, what a weekend that was. In a game week packed with action we saw some incredible tries, tough to break defences, and a slightly cross fly half. For the first time in forever, the two best teams in world rugby met in the Six Nations with the aim of putting themselves in the driving seat of this year’s championship. There was also the matter of two other fixtures which maybe weren’t as hyped as the early Saturday fixture, but they weren’t without their exciting moments. Even though the competition is still in its early days, the table is starting to take a little bit of shape. Ireland were many people’s pre-tournament favourites and are starting to prove why, the Borthwick revolution is very much underway at England, and Scotland managed to get over their bogey coach in the form of Warren Gatland with a huge win at Murrayfield. As I try and do absolutely anything to take my mind off the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles lost the Super Bowl and Cardiff City are looking more like relegation shoe-ins by the second, let’s get on with the grading!

Ireland: The unstoppable force

Statement. Made. Ireland went into this fixture ranked number one in the world but without a win against France for three years. Andy Farrell’s men set out to justify their place at the top of the world rankings against the current Grand Slam holders. The pressure that Ireland put on from the first whistle was immense and forced France on to the back foot. Much like the Welsh game, Ireland got most of the work done points wise in an incredible first half. Hugo Keenan opened the scoring for the Boys in Green followed by an unbelievable finish from James Lowe and Andrew Porter. Should the Lowe try have stood? On a later angle it did look like his foot was in touch so maybe Ireland were lucky, but at the same time France were lucky to not get Uini Atonio sent off so equals pequals on that front. Much like the Welsh game, the second half performance was a lot cagier and felt quite tense at times which wasn’t aided with the losses of Johnny Sexton and Tadhg Beirne to injury. However, they kept calm and frustrated France throughout the second half with brilliant defence and having a strong breakdown. With there only being a converted try in it with 10 minutes to go, Gary Ringrose went over the try line to confirm the bonus point win. Overall, it felt like the perfect Irish display. Free flowing in attack, tight in defence, and managed to keep their cool when they were under pressure from one of the world’s best teams. Perhaps the kind of performance from a team that could maybe, oh I don’t know, go far in a World Cup? We’ll see as it’s early days yet, but the signs are promising.

Grade: A*. Perfect yet again! Start of the week.

France: The moveable object

For the first time in forever, this French team looked human. The 14-game winning streak is over, as their grip on the Six Nations title started to loosen. To give them their dues, the French responded pretty much perfectly to everything Ireland threw at them in the first half leading to one of the all-time great halves of Six Nations rugby. Keenan’s opener was met by an unbelievable early try of the year contender from Damian Penaud, where flanker Anthony Jelonch stormed through the middle of the park before laying off to Penaud who split the defence in two in a move akin to Moses with the red sea. Penalties and the conversion from Thomas Ramos made sure that they were never out of sight in the first 40 and kept the game within touching distance. The defence improved since last week, most notably for Antoine Dupont’s unbelievable certain try stopping tackle on Mack Hansen, but in the end it just wasn’t enough. They couldn’t beat Ireland at the breakdown and struggled against a strong Irish defence. It wasn’t an awful performance; Ireland just had the perfect game plan to deal with them. Thus, the majestic streak is over. A run which saw Les Bleus win a Grand Slam, dismantle New Zealand in Paris, and get the better of the World Champions South Africa in the autumn. The nuclear button is far from being pressed, and perhaps it’s better now to get a loss before the World Cup, but it’s a reminder that no team in international rugby is perfect.

Grade: B-. Not bad, but not amazing. Don’t let this undo your hard work.

Scotland: Rejoice!

Finally, after so long they finally did it. For the first time ever, Scotland won against a Warren Gatland managed Wales team. I was reserving judgment because we’ve seen this from Scotland for the last two years. Get a win against England and look promising before bottling it against Wales and setting them on a poor trajectory for the rest of the tournament, but that didn’t happen. It looked early on that it might be a close affair, with Ken Owens responding to fellow hooker George Turner’s try to make it 13-7 at the break, but once the Scots put the pedal to the floor, they never showed any sign of slowing down. Finn Russell was instrumental in pulling the strings as Scotland started to pile on the pressure. They forced Wales into giving away silly penalties with Kyle Steyn, Blaire Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe starting to take the handbrake off in a big way leading to a massive 35-7 bonus point win. Who would’ve thought when you abandon the plan of make chances out of nothing and actually play to your players strengths that you’ll end up getting a great result? Crazy. On paper, Scotland probably are contenders but that might be a bridge too far at the moment. I can’t see them winning it this year, however a top 3 finish is definitely on the cards which would be a massive improvement on last year.

Grade: A. Fantastic effort and great work, well done. Keep it up!

Wales: Yikes…

So that was… yeah. Simply put, that wasn’t great. Wales saw plenty of the ball in the first half and had some decent opportunities but couldn’t really get anything going, much like the second half against Ireland but both sides were far scrappier. Rio Dyer had a great opportunity just before half-time to score but couldn’t quite make the catch. The second half speaks for itself really. Wales just couldn’t keep up with the Scottish pressure. They gave away silly penalties when they didn’t need to and were punished for it massively, and when you pair that with how clinical Scotland were with their chances and the performances that Finn Russell and Kyle Steyn had it was only going to go one way. This being said, there are some positives. I thought the front row looked strong yet again with Wyn Jones, Dillon Lewis, Ken Owens, and Leon Browne scrummaging very well while Rhys Carre had some great carries when he came on (Scott Baldwin only played about 10 seconds so he didn’t have much of a chance to do much). I was also impressed with Christ Tshiunza, Tommy Reffell, and Jac Morgan who should 100% be Wales’s starting flankers and number 8 going forward. I’ll put my neck on the line and say that those three will be the Dan Lydiate, Sam Warbuton, and Taulupe Faletau of this team. The break has come at the perfect time for Wales, as they’ll need a time to fully reassess from two poor games. Also, up next is England and as people always say, form goes out the window when you play your biggest rivals*.

*Absolutely not true in the slightest but hey it’s a fun cliche

Grade: D-. Poor yet again. Take some time over the break to work on weaknesses before the big one in two weeks.

England: The Borthwick revolution is underway (take 2)

On what felt like the most Sunday England v Italy game of all time, Steve Borthwick got his first win as England coach. It reminded me of an early Leicester Tigers type of performance under Borthwick, inoffensive, hardly set the world alight, and sometimes a bit scrappy, but they did what they needed to do. The defence improved massively since last week’s opener with Jack Willis being a huge addition to the side. There were periods where Italy really struggled to make any dent in the England team and lost a lot of territory. Ellis Genge had some brilliant carries yet again while Ollie Chessum is growing more and more into this England team with each game. The same can also be said for Ollie Lawrence, who surely must be a shoe in at 12 now. Going for 80 meters from 10 carries meant he was deservedly the player of the match in what was his best England performance yet. Although if I’m going to nit-pick, and it’s my blog and I usually do so I will, England still kicked far too often. On more than one occasion they’d find themselves in decent field position only for Owen Farrell or Freddie Steward to kick it away to either try and put pressure on the Italian attack or create some cute chances, with neither of them happening often. But I digress. It was a bonus point win and the kind of result that England needed and will hope that they can get some confidence to take to Cardiff for the big one in two weeks’ time.

Grade: B+. Even if it’s not the most memorable or exciting display you did what needed to be done, well played.

Italy: Not the Italy of old anymore

Strange one. After coming so close against France last week Italy probably won’t really feel too satisfied, but it still wasn’t a bad performance at all. The intensity was still high and despite the England tries, they didn’t give up like the Italy of old might’ve. Ill-discipline ended up becoming a bit of an Achilles heel with Lorenzo Cannone and Simone Ferrari both being shown yellow cards, with England scoring two tries whilst Cannone was in the sinbin and England getting a penalty try as a result of the Ferrari incident. But overall, it was still a performance that we’d come to expect from Italy nowadays. The rugby was fast-paced and free flowing, whilst Ange Capuozzo remained a menace with some silky moves and was dangerous going forward. Up next for the Azzurri are the world’s number 1 team, Ireland. After the first two games you’d expect Ireland to win this one convincingly just because of how good they are, but in the words of our friends from across the pond, any given Sunday (even though the game will be on a Saturday, just try not to think too much about it).

Grade: C+. Good, but couldn’t quite piece it together. Can still be very proud of how far you’ve come though. Well done.

Class clown of the week: Dan Biggar. To talk that smack in the build-up and only back it up with swearing at the opposition and shouting at Rio Dyer because he misplaced a pass is legendary status class clown of the week material.