Who’s hot and who’s not: ‘World-class’ Italian on track to become ‘household name’, Steve Borthwick ‘waffles on’ and Antoine Dupont’s ‘petulance’
Italian midfield Tommaso Menoncello has his name up in light but it's another miserable weekend for England boss Steve Borthwick
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!
Italy: What is rare is wonderful in sport, and the spectacle of the Azzurri defeating England for the first time in a men’s Test rugby match was wondrous. Without a doubt, the dithering, error-prone Italy of old would have butchered last Saturday’s opportunity and penned another chapter in their woe-is-us Six Nations story. However, they are becoming a different beast with Gonzalo Quesada at the helm. They weren’t perfect against England; far from it, but they didn’t need to be given the vulnerability of a visiting team being robotically coached by Steve Borthwick.
Italy’s pack collectively packed a powerful punch, and in Tommaso Menoncello they have a world-class midfielder who is on track to become a household name around the rugby globe. The swashbuckling manner of the 23-year-old’s 34th-minute try and then his 72nd-minute assist in the 23-18 win was the type of creativity England’s dull midfield were crying out for but simply didn’t have. Bellissimo!
Italy player ratings v England: Azzurri’s attacking ‘maestro’ shows his class in historic triumph
Scotland: What a roller coaster Six Nations campaign the Scots are having. Their travels have consisted of drowning in a Roman puddle and only scraping a late win in Cardiff, but they have been majestic at Murrayfield, restoring it to ‘Fortress’ status after a November wobble. Duffing England in the Calcutta Cup was admittedly nothing new, but putting 50 on the Grand Slam-seeking French was an irresistible development that not even their most fiercest fans could have dreamed up. They led by just five points at the break but were in no mood to allow a French power surge to materialise and take the game away from them.
Instead, they remarkably scored the next 28 points, producing one of their greatest ever periods of dominant rugby. Of course, the French finished with a garbage-time flourish, which was enough to secure the four-try bonus point that had them leading the table on points difference heading into Round Five. But that shouldn’t detract from the merit of Scotland’s seven-try, 50-40 triumph. The victory was about 10 Hogmanay nights rolled into one, so joyous and rumbustious was the compelling nature of their play, and it leaves them with a championship title and Triple Crown to play for in Dublin next Saturday. What a situation for Scotland to be in after their opening round Roman disaster.
Alex Mann: Wales’ leaky defence has been a major reason why they are on the brutal run they are on. Another defeat – their 25th in 27 Test matches – was ultimately their fate last Friday night in Ireland, but the defiance they demonstrated in only losing 27-17 suggests they are now potentially a team enjoying a rebound from hitting rock bottom, not a team that has further to fall. Collectively, they played for the badge in an impassioned fashion that reconnected lapsed fans with the team and they had several warriors who refused to yield. Top of the pile was flanker Mann, who was making just his 15th appearance. He’s certainly no giant to look at, but what he lacks in size was no weakness in his business of mowing down as many Irish ball carriers as possible.
To walk away from any match with 32 tackles, let alone a lung-bursting, attritional Test, was quite the feat, and there was a willing support cast in the likes of Dafydd Jenkins and James Botham. Mann could have lost his mojo after falling victim last November to Eben Etzebeth’s shameful eye-gouge, but that grubby incident has only served to fire up the Welshman even more. The 24-year-old’s display in Dublin broke the record for the number of tackles in a single Six Nations match, staking his claim to be a long-term must-pick in Stave Tandy’s back row.
The Six Nations: Not even the most madcap Hollywood director could have come up with the script for the engrossing 2026 championship. Forget Netflix and all this noise that rugby needs better behind-the-scenes access than what was seen in the dud Full Contact series. It’s the action on the pitch that is the real currency, and the drama served up across four rounds of rugby this year has been intoxicating. Instead of week-to-week twists and turns, we have been getting them on a match-by-match basis.
Round Four wins for Italy and Scotland wouldn’t have been on anyone’s bingo card before the tournament started, but this latest delicious development now means we have a ‘Super Saturday’ finale in store with three teams gunning for the title and so much intrigue surrounding the remaining three teams. It’s a fantastic situation for a competition so sure of popularity in the calendar that it released the fixtures for 2027 on Monday before we have even signed off on this year’s unmissable edition.
Caleb Clarke: The winger reminded everyone about how clinical he can be with his try hat-trick in the Blues’ Super Rugby Pacific dismissal of the Crusaders in Auckland. He had demonstrated his value to the All Blacks when scoring a half-dozen tries in the 2024 Rugby Championship, but injuries pegged his momentum in 2025 and his prolonged absence was perhaps a contributory reason why the performances went the way they did in Scott Robertson’s second year in charge before his eventual sacking.
Set to turn 27 years old later this month, his finishing at Eden Park was the perfect way for him to put up his hand to new All Blacks boss Dave Rennie and show how keen he will be to add to his tally of 33 Test caps. None of his tries were in any way spectacular – they were all simple, short run-ins – but he showed the patience to hold his width and repeatedly ensure he was the right man to hit at the right time. That was an invaluable contribution in helping the Blues to only their second win over the Crusaders in 11 recent attempts.
Shun Miyake: Despite helping Canterbury to their National Provincial Championship title win last year, the Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars out-half is a relative nobody compared to the host of international stars who took the pitch around the world at the weekend. However, he deserves a hat-tip for his rebound display in assisting his team’s shock 34-15 win over Tokyo Sungoliath in Japan League One.
The 24-year-old scored all 22 of Dynaboars’ first-half points, including a hat-trick of tries, with a performance in sharp contrast to what he endured the previous Sunday. That was a torturous display in which he missed four of his five kicks to leave his team beaten by two points, but he needed just two minutes in Tokyo to score his first try and showed he is made of stern stuff. It shows how fickle the game can be, going from villain one week to hero the next.
BROKEN THERMOSTAT!
Ireland: So much chat about the Irish coming out of Round Three was that rumours of their demise were strikingly way off the mark. They had just pumped England with a performance for the ages and everything was suddenly hunky dory in Andy Farrell’s world again. Except it wasn’t. That type of flourishing display in London should have brought Ireland on leaps and bounds, but some frustrating kinks in their game re-emerged against Wales.
Yes, it was a proper Test match and the Welsh deserve kudos for making it so very difficult for the Irish. But the reality was that Farrell’s side didn’t convincingly kick on from beating England, and they really do need a win next Saturday over the Scots to draw a line under the negatives that have reignited about them. That’s a challenge Farrell will relish, putting things right and winning a trophy or two depending on which way the France-England match pans out. With Scotland also gunning for trophy glory, it’s definitely going to be a defining moment for Farrell after a winter of Irish discontent.
COLD AS ICE!
Steve Borthwick: We have gone from accusing the England head coach of being asleep at the wheel in Scotland to describing him as comatose following the hammering by Ireland, but now he is just gaslighting England fans by stressing in the aftermath of his team’s miserable implosion against Italy that he is still the right man for the job when he patently isn’t. As much as he waffles on about performing for his team’s supporters, the blunt reality is that he is completely out of step with the mood of the seething nation.
The honourable thing to do was to fall on his sword there and there post-game at Stadio Olimpico – not stress that he is still ‘The Man’. Losing to Italy was the end of Declan Kidney as Ireland boss in 2013, and it was similarly the last rites for Warren Gatland in February last year when Wales were downed by the Azzurri. England fans have never warmed to his lack of personality, even at Rugby World Cup 2023 when Borthwick’s dull side somehow managed to defy the odds and pull off a third-place finish. They are now worse than dull, with even as creative a thinker as attack Lee Blackett drowning in the sickly soup of what is robotic, character-less rugby at its worst.
Fabien Galthié: Borthwick isn’t the only Test coach in the dock after the weekend with his job in peril. French boss Galthié is also in the mud even though his team is still top of the table and still tipped to clinch a second successive Six Nations title next Saturday night in Paris and their third in five seasons. Essentially, the French are the All Blacks of the north when it comes to assessing the credentials of their success. It’s not about winning, it’s about winning better – and another title that isn’t a Grand Slam won’t sit well with the head coach’s many detractors.
There was a reasonable excuse for last year’s Grand Slam mishap – England only beat them in London by a single point with a last-gasp converted try, so it wasn’t as if they had played terribly. However, there was now such straw for Galthié to clutch coming away from Edinburgh. Forget the flattering 10-point difference at the final whistle, the truth was the French were guillotined in the second half and deservedly trailed 47-14 before mustering their consolatory response. Galthié has returned to Paris amid accusations that his team hasn’t been training enough across the tournament. After a week that started with him disrespectfully claiming that Scotland had the smallest away changing room in the world, the lack of training is another incriminating narrative that doesn’t reflect well on his management.
England and Ben Earl: All the hype heading to Edinburgh just a few weeks ago was about this being a very different England and that winning a dozen Test matches on the bounce was concrete evidence that the rugby world should be quaking in its boots. What nonsense. Like a house built on sand, the so-called foundations of this ‘New England’ have been swept away in just 240 minutes of painfully brutal rugby.
Aside from somehow conspiring to blow an 18-10 lead with a man advantage by quickly copping two yellow cards – including one for the leadership-bereft Maro Itoje – and ultimately going on to lose by five points, the most damning moment in Rome was the lack of feel they had on the field for what was unfolding and spontaneously taking action. It was criminal that they didn’t send up a jumper in the last Italian lineout with only seconds remaining to try and win the ball and a final play on the ball. As for Ben Earl’s suggestion that he thought the team played well, it was just another mad illustration that England are the Tottenham of rugby, Spursy in everything they are doing and oblivious to how they are actually perceived.
Brian Moore: The England issues that are ‘getting monotonous’ and would ‘vex an under-14s team’
Antoine Dupont: Talking about not good looks, the French talisman showed a rarely seen side to his demeanour in Scotland with the way he played in his team’s disastrous second half and then his post-game lack of sportsmanship example. Throwing the intercept that had Kyle Steyn galloping away from the halfway line to score his second try was prime evidence that all was not well in Dupont’s world last Saturday, and his subsequent forward pass behind his own try line was comical from such a talented player.
We will give him his due and reference his pluck in rebounding with a try before he was replaced, but there was no need for his show of petulance when refusing post-game to shake the outstretched hand of Ben White. The pair of scrum-halves had a running battle through the match, with Scotland’s French-based No.9 at one stage firing off in Dupont’s face. But when the final whistle has gone and your team has been stuffed, it’s best to go quietly in the afternoon and not make a scene with the French getting clapped down the tunnel.
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Waratahs and Crusaders: Has anyone checked on Dan McKellar’s side to see if they managed to make it home the other night following their no-show second half at home to the Hurricanes? As with Scotland at the break against France, the Kiwi franchise were up by five at the interval before returning to thrash the opposition with a smashing demonstration of force that pushed out the scoreboard to 59-19. Billy Proctor’s try hat-trick wasn’t the only thing that left the Australian side wincing – it was later confirmed that the hamstring injury suffered by Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the warm-up would sideline him for the next six to eight weeks. Ouch!
Meanwhile, the Crusaders reminded everyone that it’s going to be a soap opera-type defence of their Super Rugby title. We had commended them last week for putting their opening two losses behind them by going to the Chiefs and winning. However, they fell back to earth with a sore bump in Auckland, losing to the Blues 29-13. They were on the kicking tee, set to convert the try that had them 8-7 ahead, only for foul play to get detected by the TMO. That resulted in a yellow card, the try getting cancelled and the Blues soon jumping 19-3 up.
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