It was the second round of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations, and it didn’t disappoint. Ireland were pushed to their limits against a confident and determined Italy side who were chasing their first win in Dublin.
It was the second round of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations, and it didn’t disappoint. Ireland were pushed to their limits against a confident and determined Italy side who were chasing their first win in Dublin.
Then, Scotland shrugged off the torpor of their defeat to the Azzurri by taking England to the cleaners. It means head coach Gregor Townsend has rebalanced his credit and ends Steve Borthwick’s side’s hope of a Grand Slam.
France maintained their rampant for away to Wales. They ran in eight tries at the Principality Stadium to remain the only unbeaten team in this year’s Championship.
Meanwhile, south of the equator Super Rugby Pacific burst back into life when the Highlanders defeated reigning champions the Crusaders, and NSW Waratahs beat longtime rivals Queensland Reds.
Elsewhere, the Top 14 slipped in another round, Georgia are on the lookout for a new coach, Eddie Jones has shared his opinions again, and the Scott Robertson dismissal has reached the crazy theory stage.
Here’s what ATR has heard on the airwaves this week…
“The forwards especially, they fronted up today. That allowed us backs to throw it around a little bit and score some great tries. We felt good going into this game. It's always an easy game to get emotionally right for.”
Finn Russell makes Scotland’s win over England sound so simple:
“It's great to see my parents happy. I didn't expect to find myself in a match like this so early and having them by my side is obviously a bonus and I'm really grateful to them. Will the jersey go in my parents' living room? I don't know, I don't know, it's possible, but I'm going to frame it anyway.”
French debutant Fabien Brau-Boirie is grateful, but maybe not that grateful after beating Wales:
“We were playing against an Italian side who were never going to go away, and recent history shows us that. They were trying to batter the door down at the end there, so the resilience we showed to win the game was fantastic to see.”
Andy Farrell is a happy man after his Ireland side held off a confident Italy:
“We were a lot better than last week. When we did create we were largely inaccurate, but I think we were more positive than last week.”
Dewi Lake explains that for now with Wales, it is all about small steps:
“We didn't start well, we were not as accurate and precise as we wanted to be, in the scrum especially - all those areas need to be better. I think over the last 12 months we have been good at riding the wave and finding a way, but today we were not good at that.”
England Maro Itoje knows lessons need to be learned:
“We leave with a well-deserved bonus point; the equalizer was within our reach: the rebound off the posts and the disallowed try were incidents that didn't help us. The defeat hurts, but I see many more positives than negatives.”
Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada keeps his head up defeat Italy’s defeat:
“The end goal is to be in that All Blacks jersey”
Cody Vai isn’t thinking small after his Blues debut:
“Well, it was totally unexpected, and you’ve got your head down thinking about your own team. For me, that is the Highlanders. That has been really my focus.”
Hurricanes boss Jamie Joseph plays a straight bat when asked about the New Zealand job:
“One thing the Brumbies are pretty good at historically is bringing in new players through their own system and turning them into really good players. I don’t see that being any different this year, and we got some really great young players coming through.”
Brumbies and Wallabies prop James Slipper isn’t worried about his team’s departees:
“In my contract I had two KPIs. One was that I could never lose to a Tier 2 country. If I did, there was three months-notice. The second was, in a calendar year, I had to beat a Tier 1 team. Yet when you sign the contract, you don’t actually know who you’re playing.”
Richard Cockerill reveals his frustration after Georgia gave him the boot:
“I’ve got a theory on South Africa that maybe they’re hitting their peak right now. And is the timing right? Because two years to retain a peak is a long time.”
Japan boss Eddie Jones, always ready to give South Africa a prod:
“That’s the other thing that’s changed for New Zealand Rugby; Super Rugby was the greatest influence of World Rugby for a long period of time; whatever happened in Super Rugby basically set the trend for the game. Unfortunately, Super Rugby has dropped in terms of status. We all know South Africa has left, and now it’s a competition that doesn’t have as much influence around the world.”
Eddie, again, with his thoughts on Super Rugby Pacific:
“Whilst agreement has been reached between the RFU, the Champ Rugby Board and Worcester Warriors regarding the payment of rugby creditors, there remains players outstanding who are still waiting to be contacted by the club to have their payments confirmed. Given the comments made last night by the Worcester Warriors CEO we expect these payments to be fulfilled without any further delay.”
The Rugby Players Association (RPA) reveal some ex-Worcester Warriors continue to await payment from 2022:
“The working theory is that Erasmus is somehow plugged into the New Zealand network and is using the strong links he formed with specific Irish media while he was coach of Munster to work an agenda that destabilises the All Blacks. It would be straight out of Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus’s playbook to hire (Sott) Robertson later this year to try to spook the All Blacks.”
Kiwi journalist Gregor Paul with the craziest theory yet over Robertson’s dismissal, albeit one we love: