Six Nations: Two Cents Rugby picks his top five players of Round Two
With the second week of the Six Nations in the books, Two Cents Rugby selects five of the standout players from another absorbing round.
In no particular order, the YouTube star picks two Irishmen in his quintet so without further ado, here’s his Round Two picks. Have your say in the comments.
Two Cents Rugby’s top five players of Six Nations, Round One
Hugo Keenan (Ireland)
Player of the Match last week against Wales, Keenan might have been even better this week despite not picking up the same award. Still, Mr Reliable at the back, he continued to look safe in the backfield, but this week his offensive abilities were on display in droves, most notably when he scored that phenomenal try. Hitting a gap after a pass from Finlay Bealham, he backed himself to beat Thomas Ramos and Romain Ntamack and rightly so.
His kick-through following a line break almost set up Mack Hansen, if not for an Antoine Dupont wonder tackle, plus his 50/22 gave the Irish field position and kept the French under pressure. One crazy stat is his 205 run metres, which is just over a quarter of Ireland’s total.
Caelan Doris (Ireland)
Another top week for Doris leading the way in the Irish back-row. If he keeps up this kind of form he’ll be in the running for top individual honours in the Six Nations and beyond.
Easily the top ball-carrying forward this week, he made 16 carries, which seems mad considering the French starting back-row had 20 carries between the three of them. His 117 run metres made him the third top performer in the game, only behind Keenan and Damian Penaud and easily the top forward. The pass he let go for Garry Ringrose’s try was a peach and demonstrated well his ball skills.
Finn Russell (Scotland)
Talk about a guy playing with confidence; Russell absolutely had the ball on a string against Wales. The first half may have been an arm wrestle where Russell kept the scoreboard ticking over with two penalties and a conversion, but in the second half, we saw some Russell magic.
Three try assists in 40 minutes, and all of them class. The back-of-the-hand offload and cross-kick for Kyle Steyn, plus the floated ball to Matt Fagerson, all highlight-worthy moments. It wasn’t just those moments, though, as he kicked well for field position, carried for over 70 metres and made eight out of nine tackles.
Damian Penaud (France)
France only scored one try against resolute Irish defence, and it was a world-class one. The fact that Penaud both set up and finished off that try was, in a way, not surprising. Backing himself to break out of his own 22, putting Anthony Jelonch into space and then running a great support line, it was a fantastic try in a game full of fantastic moments.
Looking at the stats we can see Penaud’s attacking prowess as he leads the way for wingers in run metres and defenders beaten with 134 and 11, respectively. Unlucky not to stop James Lowe’s wonder try in the corner, although some will say he didn’t use his arms.
Matt Fagerson (Scotland)
Another big week for the Scottish back-rower where he once again finishes as the game’s top tackler. This week it’s 19 from 21 tackles for Fagerson, and he leads the Six Nations for tackles made so far.
In this game, however, he was given a bit more chance with the ball in hand. His 13 carries were the most of any player in the game, and he capped things off with Scotland’s final try, being on the end of a beautifully floated Russell pass.
He broke a few tackles, took and stole lineout ball, and while he might be getting overshadowed by some of his teammates and some other team’s loose forwards, Fagerson has had two very good weeks to start Scotland’s campaign.