It’s been an exciting first couple of weeks of the competition and I’m loving that it looks like it’ll come down to the last weekend of the tournament (although I think England might have it all but won by then).

Although the games against France and Wales were “nail-biting” finishes, I was pretty confident that we’d see them both off, even when there was only five minutes left.

Realistically, I think Ireland are the only team who can prevent England from winning the title but they have two tough games before then and I don’t think they’ll have enough to make it happen.

I'm in agreement here about the outcome, Eddie Jones seems to have the magic ingredient to get the killer instinct out of the England players who've been woefully short in this department up till a couple of years ago.

Having said that I'm really impressed by the way Scotland is playing and it's rotten luck they've so injury-stricken. Although Laidlaw is a great Napoleon tactically he's getting a bit pedestrian and this is an excellent opportunity for the no. 2 scrum half to inject some speed and terrier tactics into the side. Let's hope he keeps his rashness confined to that one crazy moment minutes after he can on last game....

Really impressive and exciting rounds first two weekends up, can't wait till Saturday.

Another interesting weekend in the tournament.

I’ve been a bit disappointed with Wales but fair play to Scotland, I didn’t expect them to be so strong given the injuries they have. They certainly aren’t going to be the pushovers I expected/hoped when England play them in two weeks’ time. I still think England will do enough to grind out the win, but it won’t be pretty and I think Scotland will pick up a losing bonus point.

Ireland, for me, weren’t particularly great but they did enough to beat a sporadic French side. It will be interesting to see how Ireland get on against Wales in the next round. I fully expect them to win, but will it a strong performance or will Wales turn up to try and spoil the party? I reckon an Ireland win, but not a bonus point victory.

The England – Italy game was fascinating, if only for Italy’s unsporting unusual innovative tactics. To be honest, I was impressed by the method of not committing to the ruck and therefore not creating an offside line. There has been a lot of chatter on social media about it not being in the spirit of the game and it being anti-rugby, but you do what you need to to win. Italy know that they don’t have the firepower to go toe to toe with England, so they came up with a way to baffle England and it worked very well for 40 minutes.

I still had no doubt that Eddie Jones would quickly find a way to counter this and once he’d had the boys in at half time to tell them what needed to be done, they came out swinging and Italy didn’t have an answer.

What I couldn’t understand is why, if there’s no ruck formed, were the Italian players just standing there waving their arms about when they could legally go and compete for the ball?

England were guilty of it in the second half too. On a few occasions England employed the same tactic of not creating a ruck when they downed an Italian attacker, but then no one went “offside” to disrupt the play or challenge for the ball. They all still stood there in a defensive line waiting for the half-back to play the ball.

I guess it’s engrained in them how to defend and the natural instinct is not to encroach beyond the back foot. It must be quite difficult to unlearn it in 40 minutes.

I’ll be very interested to see how this new tactic develops and whether or not other teams will start to use it. Perhaps not all the time but if someone can make a call on the fly and get it right it could result in huge number of turnovers and it could turn games around.

I presume they would have to go in from the back as otherwise in forming a ruck they would have been penalized for entering from the side. I may be wrong, it's a long time since I blew a whistle and even longer since I played.

because the ref was asked about the tactic before the match and said to stay within the spirit of the law they should not be within 1m of the player.

Maybe they should have played 14 forwards and a kicker, like England did for years and years?

My struckthrough words were intended to be tongue in cheek and an example of what other commentators are saying.

I was impressed with the approach and, as I said, you do what you need to to win.

Yup - you'd have thought the game was called Rugby Football...

The Irish Coach's comment afterwards was interesting - if a match between ...... and ...... (don't recall the teams) that had employed that tactic recently and been praised for their ingenuity then why suddenly the change of opinion in the England-Italy game? Smacks of hypocrisy.

I remember when Scotland for example used to use harrying tactics against the lumbering English forwards of yesteryear with great success - it was the out-planning of the opponents which needed to be dealt with.

On Sunday it took them a while to cotton on and it was fascinating to see the brain-gears taking on this new (for most) phenomenon. If it's used again another team will spot it and react much more quickly now that the tactic is out in the open.

Good for Italy I say!

Great result for Scotland too and nothing less than they deserved, especially with notable injury absences - Strauss in particular who had a massive game previously.

Should be a cracking Calcutta Cup in a fortnight - just realised I've let myself in for an entire afternoon and evening's hosting for a local competition so won't see any of it live

I think Italy were clever but I also believe it's not in the spirit of the game. To have employed the tactic occasionally would have been interesting but relentlessly was a bit tedious. Once England had figured it out, they tore through the Italians, who will end up with the wooden spoon.

Yep, that's why they did not sack the English flyhalf as he stood there clueless like a rabbit in headlights!!!
Most people I know figured out what to do whilst it was going on, which was to drive up the middle until they did commit to the ruck.
Then Haskell started to ask the ref what to do which was hilarious!!!
Eddie Jones could barely do any wrong, but his harping about not being rugby is undermining his mystique.
Italy won't do it again, as everyone will now have it drilled into them what to do. No need to change any rules.
I can see many amateur teams giving it a go though, especially as it gives you an excuse not too commit to a ruck!!!!

Despite Scotland's excellent recent form, I'm feeling optimistic.

England to win by more than 10 points.

Aye we're doomed. Didn't expect a win against England, but from early on, the points are just accumulating. Looks like a big score for our opponents.

Wow what a truely disappointing performance from Scotland. I had high expectation for this game being a real show piece but alas not. England were good but Scotland flattered them with a lacklustre performance with no real direction. Ireland game to finish will be interesting now the pressures is off.

Ireland will want to spoil the Grand Slam and the record consecutive wins.

Have no doubt, this will be as big a game for Ireland as it will for England.

However, England are the real deal. The only weak link is Ford defensively and they cover it off well by sticking Lawes or Launchbury or Itoje next to him.

England will beat Ireland. It won't be the drubbing Scotland suffered today but the final result will look convincing and the England wagon will match on with confidence into the summer tour and the autumn internationals.

This team are a force to be reckoned with. New Zealand beware.

i think we need to temper the expectations. yes we have a great winning run and a team full of real potential but New Zealand are the real deal. even if we beet their winning run theirs is/was still more impressive as the stats are better in every way.

I think we can honestly challenge better than any other team but still not sure we have the winning ability to close out a game like the all blacks.

Amazing performance from England.
Disappointed though with the 3 Scottish scores, something NZ will have taken note of.
The Wales v Ireland game was absolutely awesome!!!
Hopefully the Irish have a full team out for the final game, as they will offer this aspiring England team a proper test.

Agreed. The England let in were a little to easily made. Good work from Scotland yes but you know the All Blacks wouldn't give them away so easily.

Some needs to teach Ford to to tackle properly. He will be a liability against an on form southern hemisphere side and he can't rely on have a second row next to him to help cover - they will have their own problems to look after.

Overall very positive progress from a team that was knocked out of their own world cup but there is plenty of work to be done to make a truly world conquering team to hopefully knock the All Blacks off the No.1 spot. (I can dream right?)

The Lions tour should bring some real perspective of England and the 6 Nations standing.
Really looking forward to it!

Well done Ireland, they really hung on.

Yep they certainly had the measure of England this game, who looked powerless

Good to see Scotland having their best season for many years, and scoring shedloads of tries!

Fair play to the Irish - didn't let us relax on the ball.
Can be disappointed to have lost the Grand Slam and record but still a great tournament and room for improvement. Eddie Jones is the man and has really made Lancaster look poor.

England will beat Ireland. It won't be the drubbing Scotland suffered today but the final result will look convincing and the England wagon will match on with confidence into the summer tour and the autumn internationals.

This team are a force to be reckoned with. New Zealand beware. [/quote]


Where are you Ali......

The media horseshite that has been spread about England's invincibility has been believed by a lot of fans getting caught up in the grand slam and unbeaten record.
They are a good Northern Hemisphere side that play well to thier own strength if the other team let them.

Ireland is a hard place to go to win a grand slam.

I still can't believe Ireland won what with the last minute changes forced on us.
We are getting close to being a very good team with schmitts leadership,and this year has showed we,at times can beat anyone.

I'm a happy Ireland supporter this morning.

Seems poor Wales just can't catch a break. But they are a good team and will be back at some point.

Excellent 2 seasons from Scotland,but thier coach has left now. So that's something to watch unfold next season.

Opinions eh?

The England v Ireland result is not unexpected Ireland are always a dangerous side, especially at home. A good performance by Ireland paired with generally underwhelming England performance. As i had said the record stuff is just a distraction for the media

Scotland. well a mixed bag for them and a slightly uncertain future with Cotter leaving. A very decent win but Italy were not playing very well with too many errors and trying to force the play a little too much.

France were very er.... French! They blow hot and cold. Thought they deserved the win as Wales were very poor an never really looking like a team out to win. Wayne Barnes was not as good as he normally is making a few mistakes which tended to favour Wales and they still struggled.

Well I’m not too proud to eat humble pie.

Personally, I didn’t think either Ireland or England played particularly well. There were a lot of unforced errors but that’s probably a result of the conditions and the scale of the occasion.

Ireland were the better team though, no doubt. Fewer errors and they didn’t miss as many tackles.

However, even though they played poorly, England could still have won that game were it not for a poor decision from a penalty.

With less than 10 minutes to go, and trailing by 4 points, why send a kickable penalty to the corner? Especially when your lineout hasn’t been completely perfect?

If Farrell had knocked that over, England would have then had 5 minutes (or 25 if you consider the Wales/France game) to get any score to win the game.

Anyway, as Hartley said after the game, this will ground the players and fans like me from thinking we’re invincible. I don’t think the much talked about additional fixture against New Zealand will happen now.