Who’s hot and who’s not: Marcus Smith, Wales’ centurions, Scotland, Toulouse and Italy

David Skippers

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!

Marcus Smith: There’s been plenty said and written about the England fly-half in recent weeks and despite plenty of pressure on his shoulders, Smith has done well after two rounds of action in the Six Nations. The playmaker, who turns 23 today, impressed in England’s tournament opener against Scotland before inexplicably being replaced in the latter stages of that game. And without him on the field the Red Rose lost their way before suffering a 20-17 defeat. There was no chance of England head coach Eddie Jones repeating that mistake in their next match against Italy and Smith delivered an excellent all-round display during an 80-minute spell on the field. Smith shone on attack, gaining 148 metres from 12 runs which included seven offloads, a try assist and a 13-point contribution courtesy of a try and four conversions.

Celebratory milestones for Welsh duo: Saturday saw two Welsh rugby icons – Dan Biggar and Jonathan Davies – reach triple figure international caps at the Principality Stadium in their win over Scotland. They’ve joined Alun Wyn Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Stephen Jones, George North, Martyn Williams, Gareth Thomas, Adam Jones and Leigh Halfpenny in their country’s centurion club. Biggar, 32, led the Welsh superbly against Scotland as he hobbled under the duress of injury to get the job done as Wales showed real tenacity to bounce back from their Round One loss to Ireland and beat a Scotland side full of confidence coming into the game. Hats off to Wayne Pivac’s charges.

France being a cut above Ireland: Although Ireland deserve plenty of credit for putting in a brave performance at the Stade de France on Saturday, they could not leave Paris as victors and that was largely down to the excellence of the home side. Les Bleus showed their intentions from the kick off and were rewarded with a well-taken try from Antoine Dupont after just two minutes. They delivered a fine all-round performance during the rest of the half and were holding a 19-7 lead at half-time. Ireland launched a fightback and were trailing by just one point 10 minutes into the second half and eventually outscored their hosts by three tires to two. Les Bleus never panicked, however, with Melvyn Jaminet’s accurate goalkicking proving to be the difference between the sides in the end as he contributed 20 points in a deserved 30-24 triumph.

Tries for Tonga: “For the first 10 rounds, don’t touch me, let me score for my people!” Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou told rugby.com.au. This comes following the announcement of Super Rugby Pacific‘s “Tries for Tonga” scheme where $500 will be donated to the Red Cross Pacific Tsunami Appeal for each try in the opening 10 rounds of the competition. The money raised by the scheme will help relieve some of the devastation caused by the Hunga Tonga eruption and tsunami – let’s hope for a high scoring opening to the Super Rugby Pacific campaign!

Italy U20s’ landmark win over England: It was another disappointing result for the senior team on Sunday but the performance of their age-grade side will give them and their supporters hope for the future. They had never beaten the English at U20 level but that changed on Friday as they overcame the visitors 6-0. It sounds like a scrappy, battling and stereotypically underdog win, yet this was anything but. The Italians controlled the majority of the game and probably should have scored more points as they dominated up front. Their scrum was excellent, the maul regularly made ground and they won numerous turnovers at the breakdown. England did butcher a couple of chances but it would have been a travesty had they snatched it at the end as Italy were excellent.

Lukhanyo Am and Mack Hansen tries: It’s not often that two tries are scored directly from kick offs on the same day but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday when Am and Hansen did just that for the Sharks and Ireland respectively. Springbok centre Am enhanced his growing reputation when he gathered Sharks team-mate Tito Bonilla’s kick from under the noses of the Bulls forwards in their United Rugby Championship clash in Pretoria, before setting off towards the try-line. He still had work to do but stabbed through a grubber kick which he regathered before dotting down. Later on, Ireland flyer Hansen’s effort was more straightforward as he had a straight run-in over the whitewash. This, after surprising his French opponents by catching Joey Carbery’s restart and making a beeline for the try-line. Both outstanding efforts!

COLD AS ICE!

Scotland not backing it up: After getting their Six Nations campaign off to a fantastic start with a memorable triumph against England at Murrayfield, the stage was set for Gregor Townsend’s troops to kick on against a Wales outfit, who made a forgetful start to the Championship in their opener against Ireland in Dublin. It wasn’t to be, however, as Scotland failed to back up their English performance performance against the rejuvenated Welsh, who produced a much improved performance in front of their home crowd in Cardiff. The Scots were fastest out of the blocks and raced into an early lead, courtesy of a well-taken Darcy Graham try, but they were their own worse enemies as they made a plethora of errors as the match progressed and, in the end, the home side deserved their victory.

Super Rugby Pacific blow: The Super Rugby Pacific competition seemingly can’t catch a break after all the efforts that have been made to attempt to ensure its success. Seven members of the Moana Pasifika squad have tested positive for Covid in Queenstown, where the “bubble” is located, forcing the postponement of their clash with the Blues. Moana Pasifika are isolated in their Queenstown and are in close (virtual) contact with New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and health authorities to deal with the situation. All members of the other five New Zealand-based Super Rugby Pacific squads have tested negative for Covid-19, however, and will continue preparing for the upcoming season.

Sad end for Mario Ledesma: Argentina‘s head coach announced last week that he will be resigning from his position due to personal reasons just over 18 months out from the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Ledesma took charge of 33 Test matches, winning only eight of those, since taking the job in 2018. After a poor run of games, especially versus Ireland in the autumn, the Pumas were already struggling, now they are without a head coach with the next World Cup looming. However, most of all, we wish Ledesma well. Of all the rugby playing nations, Argentina have arguably been hit hardest by the Covid pandemic and it must have taken a significant toll on the players and coaches.

Not a good look for player welfare: One concerning incident that came out of that Italy v England U20 match was when the England medical team seemingly tried to dictate to the referee what she should do. Wing Deago Bailey went up for a high ball but landed heavily afterwards, leading to the doctor signalling to the officials that there had been a head injury. As a result, play is stopped, which helps the Red Rose as their player can receive treatment without the match continuing. However, once assessed, England’s team doctor says Bailey is fine to continue, only for the independent match doctor to say he needs a HIA. There is then a bit of back and forth between the English medical team and the referee, Aurelie Groizeleau, who stands her ground and handles it extremely well. This thread below explains it all in detail and it doesn’t make for great reading, particularly when rugby has done so much to improve player welfare.

Toulouse’s concerning form: The current Champions Cup and Top 14 winners have found the going tough in France’s domestic competition this season and after a solid start to that competition, they are sliding down the table at an alarming rate. Ugo Mola’s side’s last Top 14 win was wracked up at the end of November – against Brive – and since then they have lost successive matches in that tournament against Bordeaux-Begles, Clermont, Racing 92, Perpignan and Stade Francais. Friday’s defeat against Stade means Les Rouge et Noir have dropped to sixth position in the standings and they will be desperate to end their losing run at Pau this weekend.

Italy: After impressing in patches in defeat against France in their Six Nations opener in Paris, Kieran Crowley‘s charges were expected to deliver a competitive performance in their home clash against England in Rome. It wasn’t to be, however, as they were not at the races and hardly tested their opponents’ defence, failing to trouble the scorers. Apart from their captain, Michele Lamaro, who gave his all throughout, Italy’s players struggled to keep up with their counterparts and they are already rooted to the bottom of the standings after just two rounds. Their latest defeat means the Azzurri’s wretched Six Nations form continued as they have now lost 34 successive matches, with their last victory registered way back in 2015.

READ MORE: Five takeaways from Italy v England as Marcus Smith continues to shine

 

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Wales get big win vs Scotland in 6 Nations

Scotland lose to Wales in the 6 Nations as tournament hope take a major blow