There were wins for Ireland, England, and Scotland on the opening weekend of the Six Nations.
As the dust has settles from a dramatic first weekend of the Six Nations attention now turns to the second round of matches. England have alreasdy named their squad to face Wales on Saturday, with the Twickenham clash following Scotland’s home game with France. On Sunday, Ireland will be about on their fantastic start when they face Italy in Dublin
After an intense first round of matches in the Six Nations, coaches are now weighing up their injury lists ahead of the second round this weekend. For Ireland, England, and Scotland, the Grand Slam dream remains alive after all three sides won their openers, while France, Italy and Wales are now left playing catch-up.
The start of the tournament has been tainted by sadness though, with news of the death of Welsh rugby legend Barry John. The outside half was part of his country’s 1971 Slam winning squad and also toured with the British Lions for their famous win in New Zealand that year.
No nation has ever won back-to-back Grand Slam titles, but with three home matches to come Ireland are in a strong position to smash that stat after their win over France in Paris.
Captain Peter O’Mahony though, has downplayed expectations: “We’re not going to get carried away here,” he said. “We’ve certainly got a bit of momentum.
“It was a good performance which is what you want to start off with in a campaign like this. We’ll go and analyse it and we want to get better. That’s what we want to do and kick on.
England have vowed to support Immanuel Feyi-Waboso before a potential first match against his native Wales on Saturday.
The 21-year-old wing chose to represent England over Wales and made his debut against Italy on Saturday. When asked about Feyi-Waboso, Borthwick said: “We will give all the players all the support they need.
“Regarding Manny, three things: he trains really hard, he enjoys being with the players and in the remaining time he is studying for his medicine degree. He is pretty busy. My experience right now is that he has his head focused on where it needs to be.”
There have been a flood of tributes for ex-Wales No.10 Barry John after he died on Sunday, aged 78.
‘The King’ was part of the Welsh side that won the Grand Slam in 1971, and that year he also toured with the British Lions as they famously won in New Zealand.
Head coach Steve Borthwick has named his 36-player squad for Saturday’s clash with Wales at Twickenham.
And there is still no place for Marcus Smith, the outside half failing to recover from a calf injury.
