Six Nations Team of the Week: Double Curry as EIGHT England players named while ‘world class’ Dan Sheehan locks down Lions jersey
Tom Curry, Ben Curry and Dan Sheehan make our Six Nations Team of the Round Five.
Following another captivating round of Six Nations action that saw Ireland, England and France claim victories, it’s time for James While to pick his Team of the Week.
England have the most representation after their emphatic result against Wales with eight players named, while France come next with five and Ireland and Scotland complete the side.
Six Nations Team of Round Five
15 Blair Kinghorn (Scotland): The rapid full-back racked up the metres in Paris to edge his personal battle with club-mate Thomas Ramos, who was impressive in his own right. Elsewhere, Hugo Keenan has been a bit quiet in recent times but the last two rounds has seen him really come into form, whilst Blair Murray was easily Wales’ best performer in Cardiff.
14 Tom Roebuck (England): A really classy outing from the giant wing as he did so much right for England in attack. Scotland’s Darcy Graham needs a shout out for an impressive try-scoring outing whilst Ange Capuozzo had some wonderful moments for Italy in attack.
13 Gael Fickou (France): Les Bleus have missed the massive frame of Fickou in defence and attack and it was great to see him back. Nacho Brex put in a skipper’s shift for Italy, whilst England’s Tommy Freeman shone in his new position in the backline.
12 Yoram Moefana (France): Moefana has slowly grown into the tournament and his last two outings have been outstanding, none more than Saturday where he grabbed two tries. Tommaso Menoncello and Ben Thomas may have been on the wrong side of the result but shone in adversity, whilst England’s Fraser Dingwall has added oodles of shape into their back division.
11 Louis Bielle Biarrey (France): We’ve got this saved to our clipboard as a cut and paste as not a weekend goes by without the UBB star shining. He broke all manner of records in Paris as he scored in his eighth successive Test match. Monty Ioane was another Azzurri worth a mention, whilst Elliot Daly had some really classy interventions for England.
10 Fin Smith (England): This youngster is growing with every Test match. His miss pass for Roebuck’s try was superb and his control in midfield was outstanding. George Ford also is worth a shout when he came on. Romain Ntamack might have been without his spiritual brother at nine but shone once more in a classy outing, whilst Finn Russell played a superb rearguard innings in defeat.
9 Maxime Lucu (France): A really tough call at scrum-half with Alex Mitchell having a stormer in Cardiff and Jamison Gibson-Park one of Ireland‘s better players, but Lucu turned it on in the second half as he once again reminded us he’s a world class player in his own right.
The forwards
8 Ben Earl (England): ‘Yeah, but he’s not a proper eight’ is one of the laziest and inaccurate tropes on social media – purely because over the last three seasons, Earl has shown himself to be one of the best eights in the world. And he had 30 minutes at centre too! Gregory Alldritt was his usual massive self for France whilst Tom Willis added something for England for periods during the Wales Test.
7 Ben Curry (England): A masterclass in being ‘A Curry’, he demonstrated that you simply can’t have too much of a good thing as he joined his brother in a brilliant display. We must also single out Henry Pollock – from dark arts to tries, the young tyro did it all, whilst Oscar Jegou made yet another impact for Les Bleus.
6 Tom Curry (England): When a back-row is as effective as England’s, why not pick the unit? Well, we have and rightly so, as all three of them were so scary together they resembled the three witches from the opening scene of Macbeth. Harsh on Francois Cros, absolutely relentless for France, whilst Scotland’s Jamie Ritchie emptied the tank in defeat for the Scots.
5 Chandler Cunningham-South (England): Wow. Two tries, a massive shift in a position he has hardly played in showed just what an athlete this youngster is. So much so he keeps out the nuclear bomb himself, Emmanuel Meafou, who replaced another outstanding player, Mickael Guillard, for France. Tadhg Beirne was one of Ireland’s brighter lights as they misfired in Rome.
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4 Thibaud Flament (France): World class in every aspect of his game, his defensive and set-piece work provided Les Bleus with their platform. We could type exactly the same testimony to England lock Maro Itoje, who opened the scoring for England and led them to a record win.
3 Will Stuart (England): The most improved player of the Six Nations tournament and a massive presence as he nipped over for another try. Simone Ferrari did a number on Andrew Porter and we’re quite sure that Joe Heyes‘ try might be extended to another 15 metres in carrying distance when he tells his kids all about his first Test score.
2 Dan Sheehan (Ireland): What a player. Lions hooker elect, hat-trick hero and just a world class athlete in every respect. England got great value from both of their hookers, Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie, whilst Julien Marchand was a key part of La bombe squad.
1 Ellis Genge (England): Has turned a corner as a force in the tight as he gave WillGriff John a torrid time at scrum time. Danilo Fischetti started well but faded for Italy, whilst Cyril Baille had a wonderful frolic around Stade de France off the bench.
