Five talking points from round three of Six Nations

BBC News

24-02-2025

Ireland overcame a resurgent Wales in Cardiff, England squeezed past Scotland after Finn Russell's late missed kick, and France scored 11 tries to hammer Italy.Here's our round-up of the big talking points from the third round of fixtures in the 2025 Men's Six Nations.
Borthwick defends winning tactics
Steve Borthwick called for his players to continue playing fast and with aggression after outscoring France four tries to three.Despite squeezing past Scotland 16-15 to win back the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 2020, England were outscored three tries to one, with a heavy reliance on their kicking game.England kicked away 69% possession and had a 2.7 pass-to-kick ratio, which means after less than three passes they reverted to the boot, compared to Scotland's 9.7."It is not a team that looks like they want to play," former Wales captain Sam Warburton told BBC's Six Nations Rugby Special. "England are playing off nine rugby much of the time ."England conceded nine line breaks against Scotland, seven of which came in the wider channels, where in particular Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe had plenty of joy in the first half. "I see England being narrow in defence quite regularly but I do feel like it could be fixed," Warburton said."Maybe England are giving teams that space deliberately as Ireland and Scotland found it [in the wider channels] ."Their one-on-one tackling has to get better and has hurt them."However, despite errors in defence and a lack of free-flowing attacking rugby, Borthwick is not concerned about his game plan always being pleasing on the eye."It's not necessarily how we wish to play, but there are two teams out there and we found a way to win," said Borthwick.
Russell's missed kicks cost Scotland but could Van der Merwe have done better?
Despite Scotland outscoring England in tries, Russell failed to make any of his three conversion attempts count.Meanwhile, England full-back Marcus Smith was successful with all three of his kicks and his namesake Fin Smith nailed an important penalty from halfway with 10 minutes remaining.Van der Merwe's late try in the corner gave Russell the opportunity to extend Scotland's winning run over England to five games."It was a difficult kick from the touchline and he will be ruing the two earlier in the game which were much easier kicks," former Scotland hooker Fraser Brown told BBC'S Rugby Union Weekly."To go nil from three is not why Scotland lost but as an international 10, Finn will be really disappointed."Russell only missed one kick in the Six Nations last year, but this campaign - and in a British and Irish Lions year - is kicking at 38%.Former England wing Ugo Monye told BBC's Six Nations Rugby Special that Van der Merwe had to do more to get closer to the posts when crossing for Scotland's third try."Van der Merwe is running away from the sticks on an outside angle," Monye said."You can see by his reaction that he does not look like he is celebrating scoring the winning try."When you look at the margins of how far he has run out against how much it has been missed by, he has to do more."As winger you have to do everything to try and help out."
Ireland & France to meet in showdown
When the 2025 Six Nations fixtures were first released one fixture stood out - Ireland v France in round four."Right when the fixtures came out, you thought that game is going to decide who wins the title," Warburton said.Both sides have finished in the top two spots over the past three championships and played out one of the great Six Nations fixtures in 2023.Billed as a possible Grand Slam decider, Ireland have done their part with three straight wins as they seek an unprecedented third title in a row.France's last-gasp defeat by England prevented a potential Slam decider, but their 11-try thrashing of Italy gives Les Bleus momentum heading to Dublin on 8 March.France, with a superior points difference, are three points behind Ireland, making the fixture a potential Six Nations decider.Warburton when asked for his prediction went for an Ireland win, Barclay went the other way with France.Fabien Galthie's side host Scotland in the final round, while Ireland travel to Italy, while England are also still in the title hunt.
Wales get new manager bounce
When Warren Gatland left his role as Wales boss, interim head coach Matt Sherratt only had three training sessions to try to produce one of the greatest shocks in Six Nations history.Facing Grand Slam-chasing Ireland in Cardiff, Wales were inches away from potentially taking the lead in the 73rd minute when Ellis Mee nearly pulled off a miracle finish.The boot of 22-year-old fly-half Sam Prendergast helped Ireland close out the game 27-18.While Wales ended up falling to a 15th successive Test defeat, the performance of Sherratt's side succeeded expectations.Following a disappointing loss to Italy in round two, Sherratt made eight changes to his squad, which included bringing in Gloucester pair Gareth Anscombe and Max Llewellyn.Warburton believes Sherratt's changes in personnel and style brought big improvements."The nine-10-12-13 combination have all worked and played together under Sherratt, and are the best players for their position," Warburton added."He freshened the boys up, so they were full of beans for the game and he imprinted, so quickly and impressively, his attacking game plan, which was night and day from what we've seen the last 12 months."I can't believe he made so many positive changes within one week."
20-minute red card needs 'firmer punishment'
In January, it was announced that this year's Six Nations will use 20-minute red cards for the first time.Lawmakers say the 20-minute red card trial is designed to "punish the player and not the team", with sides able to replace a dismissed player after 20 minutes instead of playing the rest of the game with 14.Ireland centre Garry Ringrose got his timing wrong on a big first-half hit on Wales' Ben Thomas and his high tackle was later upgraded to red.With Ireland down to 14, Wales had their best period of the match and scored a superb try in the corner through Tom Rogers.Once the 20 minutes passed, Bundee Aki replaced Ringrose and played a key role in seeing the game home for Ireland."Ringrose is an exceptional player and defends so physically but in my opinion those collisions need to be out of the game," Barclay said."That is a player who has made a decision to fly in. In my view, and a lot of other people, that should be a straight red card."Warburton says players' behaviours have not changed enough since he retired in 2018."There needs to be a much firmer punishment on individuals off the field," he said. "If Ringrose gets a one or two-week ban then he is going to do that again."A four-week ban and he probably doesn't do that tackle again. We need to punish the player individually much more harshly off the field."