Who’s hot and who’s not: Fabulous France claim Six Nations double despite ‘thuggery’ while Georgia rampage to another title
Check who's hot and not following the week's on and off-field action.
It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.
THEY’RE ON FIRE!
France: Congratulations to Les Bleus as they wrapped up the 2025 Six Nations title with an impressive 35-16 victory over Scotland in Paris on Saturday night. Tries from Yoram Moefana (2), Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Thomas Ramos, who also slotted 15 points off the tee, saw them overcome a dangerous Scottish side. Fabien Galthie’s team finished the campaign with just one loss while Bielle-Biarrey was the leading try scorer (8) and Ramos finished as the top points scorer (71) and it was a nice moment for injured skipper Antoine Dupont to lift the trophy.
England: While the French were crowned champions, it feels like England were the most improved team in this year’s Championship, and their emphatic success against Wales was the icing on their campaign. A record breaking 68-14 win at the Principality Stadium saw England rack up 10 tries as Maro Itoje, Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Chandler Cunningham-South (2), Will Stuart, Alex Mitchell, Henry Pollock (2) and Joe Heyes all crossed for tries. Steve Borthwick has subsequently silenced his critics and must be feeling pretty content right now.
Georgia: It’s now eight Rugby Europe Championship titles in a row for the Lelos after they beat Spain 46-28 in Tbilisi on Sunday. Georgia continues to bang on the Six Nations door and this latest tournament success will only louden those knocks. Wales (we’ll come to them later) have just lost their 17th straight Test which doesn’t help matters and how good would it be if a relegation-promotion play-off now took place?
Bath: Another side celebrating a tournament success is the West Country outfit after they eased past Exeter 48-14 to claim the Premiership Rugby Cup on Sunday. Both teams rolled out strong sides but it was Bath who came out on top at Sandy Park, with Tom Carr-Smith, Joe Cokanasiga, Thomas du Toit, Tom Dunn (2), Ewan Richards and Louis Schreuder crossing the whitewash as they got their hands on silverware.
Gloucester-Hartpury: The three-peat is COMPLETE as Gloucester-Hartpury saw off Saracens 34-19 in the Premiership Women’s Rugby Final on Sunday. Kate Williams, Emma Sing, Mia Venner, Maud Muir, Neve Jones and Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt all crossed for tries for the victors. It was a dominant second-half as Gloucester put Sarries to the sword, scoring 29 unanswered points to give boss Sean Lynn the perfect send-off.
Sam Prendergast: While many would dub the young Ireland’s pivots first Six Nations campaign as a mixed bag, he still impressed enough to be crowned the inaugural BKT Rising Player Award winner. He beat France second-row Mickaël Guillard, Scotland centre Tom Jordan and Wales back-three Blair Murray to the gong after impressing representatives from the host broadcast partners.
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Record-equalling Crusaders star: Super Rugby’s most successful club have bounced back from a horrendous 2024 to star the new season with three wins from four with their latest victory being a 55-33 thrashing of the Western Force. Sevu Reece starred in the fixture grabbing a hat-trick as he moved into second place on the competition’s all-time scoring charts but even more impressively, fellow winger Macca Springer run in for five tries – equalling the record for the most tries scored by a player in a Super Rugby match, also the late Sean Wainui. The Saders now sit second overall on the long, trailing the Chiefs by four points but also have a game in hand over the league-leaders.
Chiefs complete the double: Staying in New Zealand and the Chiefs bounced back from their disappointing loss to the Fijian Drua to complete the season double over the defending champion Blues. Damian McKenzie was in fine form as he steered last year’s beaten finalists to a one-point victory over their local rivals.
France target Six Nations triple: The Women’s Six Nations kicks off this weekend and France will head into the competition hoping to end England’s stronghold on the title and repeat the efforts of the men’s and u20s teams who both hoisted the trophy this past weekend. The u20s clinched the trophy with a 45-40 victory over Scotland on the final day after Wales did them a huge favour by beating England 23-13. Remarkably, the u20s side used over 40 players to claim the trophy, a stunning showing of the talent in France.
Louis Biellie-Biarrey: It was a memorable campaign for the France speedster who broke the record for the most tries in a Six Nations campaign when he crossed in the victory over Scotland. The winger grabbed eight five-pointers during the tournament, breaking the record set by Jacob Stockdale back in 2018. He is surely one of the best backs in the game right.
🏉 Louis Biellie-Biarrey needs one more try to set an outright record for the most tries scored in a single edition of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations! 🇫🇷🔥
1️⃣ Louis Biellie-Biarrey – 2025
1️⃣ Jacob Stockdale – 2018
3️⃣ Jonny May – 2019
3️⃣ Shane Williams – 2008
3️⃣ Will Greenwood -… pic.twitter.com/VihOH3iFUD— Guinness Men’s Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 11, 2025
COLD AS ICE!
Wales: Just as they looked to be turning a corner under interim head coach Matt Sherratt, the wheels well and truly came off for the Welsh against England. Some have said that maybe it was a match too far for them in the Six Nations and the emotion and effort they have put in over recent weeks to turn performances around possibly caught up with them. However, there is no escaping that the Welsh were all at sea defensively as England ran amok at the Principality Stadium with Wales losing the physical and set-piece battle in an alarmingly heavy loss.
Ireland: Many expected a response from the Irish in Rome as they still mathematically had a shot at Six Nations glory, albeit a small one. However, they were a shadow of their 2024 selves against Italy in a performance that rather summed up their recent Six Nations outings. Clunky was one word used to describe the showing and they just look like they’ve reached a peak, with a seeming lack of forward planning leaving them in something of a dilemma ahead of the 2027 World Cup. Irish media are picking the bones of this campaign and it isn’t pretty.
Peato Mauvaka decision: It’s no surprise that Gregor Townsend laid into the official’s decision not send-off France hooker Mauvaka after his headbutt or at the very least attempted headbutt on Ben White during the Six Nations clash. It was a clear act of thuggery, which shockingly did not get upgraded to a red card. It’s still to be determined whether the hooker will face further repercussions for his actions but luckily for France, hew as not further sanctioned on the day.
🟥 Officials have a ‘shocker’ as Peato Mauvaka escapes red card for ‘flying headbutt’
England coaches to be snubbed: While there is set to be a strong contingent of England players in the British and Irish Lions squad heading to Australia, the same cannot be said of the coaches. According to reports, Andy Farrell will be backing an Ireland-heavy coaching ticket, with Simon Easterby set to be included despite initially being lined up as the interim Ireland boss for the summer.
England fall short: With another U20s Grand Slam within their grasp, Mark Mapletoft’s charges fell oh so short in their final game of the tournament failing to take a single league point from their defeat to Wales. That opened the door for the French to clinch the title in the final game of the Champions and Les Bleus did not let that opportunity pass them by.
Scotland: Another Six Nations, another low-mid table finish for the Scots who have yet again failed to really challenge for the title despite their star-studded squad. Pressure must surely be on Gregor Townsend particularly with suitors sniffing around Franco Smith’s services. The Scots notched up wins over Italy and Wales, which was expected of them, and came close to knocking over England but fell a part in the second halves of their matches against Ireland and France.
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