Men's Six Nations 2025, Week 3

In Wales the news is that Gatland has walked away, head high, and we have a temporary coach (Matt Sherratt, from Cardiff, but going back) for the rest of the 6N. He’s torn chunks out of Gatland's teamsheets and we’re hoping for brighter things while facing the Irish. Ouch. In England, the media seem to believe that beating the French was due to English brilliance rather than poor French handling and a second Hammering of the Scots is due. I’m doubtful. France are out for redemption in Italy.

Match Reviews

Wales v Ireland

If I told you before the match that Wales would dominate at scrum time, virtually milking penalties at will, and would be winning the lineout battle too I would have doubted my own sanity. Add to that Hymns and Arias ringing around the Principality Stadium as Wales looked to secure a halftime lead and you could have sectioned me. But when Morgan grounded it by the posts with the clock red at the end of the first half, the roof lifted, both there and here, as Wales took the lead.

Wales are not yet good, but they are much better than they have been. They’ve kept their defensive intensity and, while it’s sloppy at times - very new, unfamiliar faces, lots of reasons - they are also more creative and dangerous in attack. There were a bunch of scrum penalties, but a bunch of others and a red card, against Ireland from Welsh attacking pressure.

In the second half Wales stretched their lead as they continued to take advantage of the extra man, but with the arrival of Aki the Irish gradually forced their way back into a lead. Although Wales got heartbreakingly close in the corner and were unlucky with the final play as well, ultimately it was a team that are rebuilding against a team that have been excellent and are in a slow decline to merely very good.

Ireland have won the Triple Crown already. But Wales showed promise and promise in attack as well as willing and effort in defence. Against one of the best two teams in the competition in round one, Wales lost 43-0. This week they lost 27-18 and scored the same number of tries as Ireland. In a fortnight we’ll worry if it was just a Sherratt bounce. Today, despite the loss, it was a performance and there’s hope back in Wales.

England v Scotland

This was a match that, again, somehow England won.

There are really three parts to their victory and, in my biased opinion, none of them really credit England all that much. It’s more true to say that Scotland were their own worst enemy. (OK, the English forwards defended well on their try line too.)

1. Russell's kicking, he was not only 0 from 3 from the tee, but his kicking from hand was good rather than excellent. Two of the three conversions were right on the touch line, but one was inside the 15m line and he missed them all. Scotland lost by one point.
2. Scotland blew chances. An England fan will tell you this was English defensive pressure, and some was, but a lot of the time the Scots rushed things and just blew it.
3. Scotland self-destructed. They gave up four penalties in the first half and five in the first 15 minutes of the second. They carried on leaking penalties, and the Smiths kicked a conversion and three penalties, enough to take the win.

I’m going to mention the referee. I want to be clear that overall I thought he had a good, possibly even great, game. There were decisions I disagreed with of course but the big ones all seemed to go in England's favour. I’m not suggesting bias, there were only two and one had bad replays, one was just odd.

England mounted two meaningful attacks. They were awarded with a try and blew the other one. Italy, and if Wales continue to improve, them too, will fancy their chances against this popgun offence. Scotland will be ruing misses chances of all kinds. Neither side leaked penalties like Scotland did either.

Italy v France

Last year this match was a draw, with the last kick falling off the tee and the repositioned ball hitting the uprights to deny Italy the win. With Danty's red card and Le Garrec’s amazing pass, Galthié finally rang the changes after this match and, until the England game two weeks ago, France had not looked back. But that game left France with a point to prove, whilst Italy were hoping to improve from last year’s draw.

To the delight of the home fans, what looked like an early French try was chalked off. Moments later, Italy scored. Whilst that wasn’t their only try, they ended with three, it sort of felt like it when weighed against the 11 France scored. With the exception of Penaud, dropped for insufficient effort in defence, all the stars who dropped try-scoring passes last week kept hold of them this week and got on the scoreboard. Ramos might not have scored a try, but certainly set up several and kicked 8/9 conversions. This was not a win that papered over the cracks, it was record breaking (highest points total by France in any M6N match and highest points total against Italy) victory. But there are cracks. Meafona and Barassi were woeful in defence, disjointed and disconnected. Italy exploited that for their first two tries clearly, and exploited France trying to cover it for the third. Edwards will be working hard with them, or looking to bring back Fickou if he plays well next week to stiffen up the midfield a bit. For all their shortcomings in defence they, like everyone else in white, ran riot in attack. Dupont won POTM - it’s hard to argue against two tries, three assists and an enormous number of run metres - but watching it Barré (two tries, an assist and even more run metres) - looked like a good shout too.

Quesada has a lot to do after this match. Galthié has some work, and some heavy work in the midfield defence but there are a lot of doubts set to rest. Attisogbe played well enough to make me wonder if he’ll keep his place. I don’t know how angry Galthié was but Attisogbe seemed to do everything you could want of him. Good decisions for a coach to have to make. Barré looked good at 15, and while I wouldn’t replace Ramos, France purred with Ramos at 10 in the way they do with Ntamack at 10. Another good problem for Galthié.

Happy Coaches

1. Sherratt. Called in to a job where he had nothing to lose, he almost got the best possible result. For large parts of this game, if you told someone who didn’t follow rugby this was second v twelfth in the world, they’d have picked Wales as the higher ranked team. Ireland might have come out on top, but Wales looked like a good team again, competitive with the current number 2 team in the world (for all I think they’re falling from greatness, they are still the number 2 in the world).
2. Easterby. Although I put Sherratt above him, Ireland are on track for a third M6N (hopefully not, allez les bleus!) and a second grand slam in three years. There were cracks and issues, sure, but they ran it out to a win.
3. Galthié. He will be happy with a big win and the attacking effort shown. But, in defence, Italy scored at least two tries from the same defensive weakness and if Italy can score two tries, Ireland can score 22. So, third place.
4. Borthwick. I think this ought to be relief rather than true happiness. England's attack was woeful and their defence was cut to shreds repeatedly, although it stood up in places too. But a win is a win.
5. Quesada. Italy were not going to win unless France were off the boil, again. And after the last round, they had something to prove. He'll be upset that they leaked so many points and that they fell off in the last 10 minutes or so. But they scored some nice tries too.
6. Townsend. Missed chances, missed conversions and too many penalties giving the game away. There’s a lot to regret. The final miss might have been Russell's but Scotland blew that as a team.

Looking Ahead

Next week is a rest week again. In two weeks we have

1. Ireland v France. This might not live up to the billing out on the pitch, but it is probably the match that decides the championship. If Ireland win, another grand slam is almost certainly theirs. If France win, we have an exciting final round. Without seeing a team sheet I just don’t know.
2. Scotland v Wales. A dispirited Scotland v a rejuvenated Wales. On paper this is an easy home win but there is hope again and who knows?
3. England v France. Again on paper this is an easy home win. But Italy can attack out wide, like Scotland, and England are vulnerable to that. England has an attack that doesn’t fire at all reliably and Italy’s defence can probably contain most of the few attempts it does mount. They’re also pretty clean, which was Scotland’s Achilles heel. I expect an English win, but I won’t be surprised if the Italians sneak it.