Quick Tap: Six Nations Week 3 Round Up

The middle week of the Six Nations served up the game of the tournament so far, serving up a middle finger to World Rugby wanting to dispose of the championship. Either side of the monumental clash in Cardiff, France piled on to Scotland's woes, and Ireland did the minimum required in Rome. Read on to find my less obvious takeaways from each game, in this week's Quick Tap.

When Adams crossed the line Cardiff went crazy, and the 2019 Tournament was blown wide open.

France back to being France
At the start of the tournament, I spoke about how France needed to rediscover what made them great in the 00's. France had always been a team based upon a pack so physically aggressive they could bully a troop of gorillas, with a backline so carefree and skilful that it was like trying to tackle Casper the Ghost. Now while it's only one game, against Scotland they once again looked like the French of old.

Dupont managed the French pack with aplomb,
he's not just about the flashy stuff.

This was showcased in the nature of their four tries, which included a length of the field break linking forwards and backs with wonderful skill, a pushover scrum, and battering over by forwards. France combined simplistic rugby, a dominant set piece, with backs willing to take a risk and trust in their
vision. The selection of Ramos at fullback got the crowd on their feet, and the halfback partnership of Dupont and Ntamack looks like the dawn of a new era. They both played exceptionally executing the game plan, managing the tempo, but also lighting up the pitch with their skill. Dupont was basically ever present on any line break made, the mark of a world-class scrum-half.

So France may have finally woken up from a long slumber, the next two games will be critical for them to prove it's not another false dawn. Ireland in Dublin will be a sterner test for them.

Ganging Up in Defence
Wales v England served up a dozen storylines: Biggar's impact, Welsh discipline, Farrell's struggles, Wales' lineout, Sinckler's substitution, and many more. The one I'm going to focus on was how both teams utilised gang tackling in defence. England evolved their ferocious defence by hunting out Welsh ball carriers to hit with two men at a time. There was one memorable moment where the sight of the talismanic Alun Wyn Jones being picked up and driven backwards by Sinckler and Moon defined England's first-half dominance. John Mitchell showed he was willing to not settle on something just because it was working, England's aggressive defence became more intelligent identifying the Welsh ball carriers in advance and timing their hits perfectly.

Navidi never was far from the action, or Vunipola.

Shaun Edwards was not to be outdone, his work in the previous week and a half saw the Welsh deploy a similar tactic. Like Mitchell he didn't divert from his primary system just tweaked it for the specific opponent. The Welsh backrow roamed in pairs - often Navidi and Tipuric - tracking Billy Vunipola with wolf-like tenacity. Vunipola was kept relatively quiet, especially when returning the ball from kicks. The technique was repeated in the midfield with Parkes never taking his eyes of Tuilagi, aided by Moriarty in tighter exchanges and Adams further out. With England's superstar centre only having one telling carry all game.

Both teams have shown the ability to tweak their gameplan to nullify their opponent's strengths, while still trusting in their own ethos. And while the result denied England the grand slam yet again, the tournament remains wide open.

Italy need a kicker
Italy have a number of small details which means they can't stand up to the big hitters for an entire game, but a significant issue is they lack a true test-standard goal kicker. It means they regularly fail to come away with points and makes it difficult to put the opposition under pressure via the scoreline. Last weekend Ireland pulled away in the second half, largely in part as Italy couldn't come up with points.

Allan is settling in nicely as a playmaker, but still
lacks a deadly aim from the tee.

That's not to say they would have won in Rome if they had Farrell or Halfpenny, Ireland were enough on the day, and even going into the break at half time behind there weren't many who were convinced Italy would claim the victory. While the 16-12 half time scoreline was a statement it could have been
more impressive. Take away the Stockdale try (coming from a poorly dealt with kick off), and tack on the two missed conversions and that Ireland have to find two converted tries. That kind of scoreline would have kept the crowd in the game for the start of the second half, and maybe, just maybe, they could have ridden the atmosphere and gone the distance.

Italy scored some wonderful tries, and frustrated Ireland all day with their aggressive ruck defence, but unless they find the ability to make teams fearful to give away kickable penalties they will always struggle to challenge at the top table.

That's what I took from the weekend, what small things did you notice in each game, did any particular moment stand out for you? Let me know on social media.