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!
Jamison Gibson-Park and Ireland: This review can only start at Allianz Stadium, such was the level of Irish Six Nations devastation wreaked on hapless England. You’d have been carted off to the loony bin if you predicted in the build-up that the outcome would be a record-shattering victory for Andy Farrell’s struggling side. Not since Durban 2024 had they produced the type of sumptuous performance that jolts the world to sit up and take notice, but their Twickenham showing was all bells and whistles and a whole load more. Their seismic display was best encapsulated in how their usually composed and reserved head coach was often seen on his feet, jubilantly roaring and fist-pumping over his team’s excellence.
The on-pitch quality had a soaraway hero in Jamison Gibson-Park, who produced like an unstoppable video gaming cheat code. His multiple highlights included his 20th-minute quick-tap score, which broke the game open, and he was also the player tackled for the Freddie Steward and Henry Pollock yellow cards. It was certainly no one-man show, though, as he had several willing collaborators, notably Stuart McCloskey and Robert Baloucoune. A deserved shout-out also goes to Jack Crowley for the level of consistency he demonstrated at fly-half after all the February fuss over Sam Prendergast.
Finn Russell and Scotland: Just when they seemed set to feature in our Cold As Ice section, the Scots snatched Six Nations victory from the jaws of defeat against Wales. Our kudos is reserved for what Finn Russell and co. achieved in the field in the closing 22 minutes, not the game plan that Gregor Townsend concocted. The head coach has been enduring an uncomfortable time in the role lately, with numerous pundits and fans believing he should be replaced. So much of what unfolded at the Principality was further evidence that Townsend is now just a one-trick pony, capable of getting his team up annually to devour England in the Calcutta Cup but otherwise bereft in providing a consistent level of management and stewardship that gets the best out of the team on every occasion.
To be 17-5 down at the interval and then 23-12 on 58 minutes against an opposition that had won just twice in 25 matches was unforgivable and but for the ingenuity of Russell and co. to play what was in front of them, rather than inspiring tactics provided from on high, the Scots wouldn’t be travelling to Dublin on March 14 with the chance of winning a first Triple Crown since 1990. They, of course, must host France first, though, and given their ongoing inconsistencies under Townsend, no one can say with certainty which Scotland will turn up.
French joie de vivre: What a difference a couple of years can make to a mood. Round Three in 2024 versus Italy in Lille resulted in an abomination of a French display. So disconnected were their players, they needed a last-gasp Paolo Garbisi penalty to cannon off an upright for them to cling onto an undeserved 13-all draw amid speculation that the last rites could soon be read on the Fabien Galthié era traumatised by Rugby World Cup 2023 quarter-final failure. Fast forward 24 months, and the joie de vivre that now entertainingly courses through French play is an unbridled joy to watch.
The defending Six Nations champions’ ability to improvise and play off the cuff is supreme and the latest examples emerged in their Italian rematch in Lille, an encounter comfortably won 33-8. Look at the fast-twitch reaction that had Antoine Dupont feasting on a loose ball from an aerial scrap and deliciously kicking ahead for Louis Bielle-Biarrey to score in the third minute, and then the Usain Bolt-like sprint Émilien Gailleton produced 26 minutes when fastening onto a wayward kick from Bielle-Biarrey off a stray lineout. Despite being knackered nearing the line, he found the guile to play a pass that sat up for Thomas Ramos to finish. While this adventurous style can still have its vulnerabilities, going by the try-conceding scoop Ramos did some minutes later, the easy-on-the-eye approach means the title is very much theirs to lose with just two matches remaining.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey: Records tumble around France star as Damian Penaud’s heels come into focus
Steve Hansen: Last Saturday witnessed what has been described as Steve Hansen’s finest moment in his seven seasons coaching in Japan. His Toyota Verblitz had been having a horrible run, winning just once in eight matches this term and just four in 21 outings since the start of last year. If this were anywhere else but Japan, the former All Blacks World Cup-winning coach would surely have been ushered out the door and told his services were no longer wanted ages ago, but they are a patient bunch in Aichi and that perseverance was royally rewarded at the weekend.
Defending champions Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo were the visitors, but they suffered their fourth defeat of their wobbling title defence as Verblitz struck for three tries in each half for a 52-21 victory. The bonus-point hammering included scores from ex-All Blacks Aaron Smith and Mark Telea, and the win enabled them to pull two points clear of the relegation series positions.
Lions’ revival: Is a genuine resurgence unfolding in Johannesburg? It’s quite some time now since the Ellis Park-based franchise were cock of the walk in South Africa, finishing runners-up to New Zealand opposition in a hat-trick of Super Rugby finals between 2026-2018. The club’s adjustment to life in the United Rugby Championship has been unconvincing, with 12th, ninth and 11th-place finishes so far, campaigns where the only South African rival they finished above was the 14th-place Sharks in 2023/24.
They now find themselves in nose-bleed territory, though, with last Saturday’s deserved 34-22 win over their Sharks lifting them to seventh place on the table ahead of the Bulls and the Sharks. Despite a 52-17 home hammering by the Bulls at the end of January, they have still managed five wins and a draw in their 11 outings to be very much in the play-off picture. Canny operators such as back-rower Ruan Venter and half-backs Morne van den Berg and Chris Smith have provided an encouraging backbone, and they will look ahead with confidence to the next examination of their credentials, next Saturday’s home clash with the Stormers.
Brumbies: It’s very early days yet in the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific, but you can’t turn your nose up at the bright and breezy start that the Canberra-based franchise have produced away from home. Dismantling the Force 56-24 in Perth in Round One was nothing to be shouting from the rooftops, but inflicting a hammering of similar proportions on defending champions Crusaders in Christchurch was an exquisite display.
The delicious 50-24 Sunday roasting of the hosts was the first time the Brumbies had won away at the Crusaders in 26 years and while three tries in the closing eight minutes generously pushed the result out to its 26-point end margin, there were several standouts in the play before that, including two-try No.8 Charlie Cale, scrum-half Ryan Lonergan and free-running full-back Andy Muirhead. There was also a poignant try for veteran prop James Slipper in his 200th appearance.
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COLD AS ICE!
Steve Borthwick’s England: It was just last week in this very column when we accused the English head coach of being asleep at the wheel following his team’s latest horrible crash at the hands of Scotland. Complacency has crept into his thinking after 12 wins on the bounce, and he left his side brutally exposed. Fast forward a week, and the accusation is now that Borthwick is comatose. You’d imagine that a coach of his experience would know how best to react to the Murrayfield mauling. Instead, his poorly coached England produced an even worse performance. While it won’t yet reignite boiling-point criticism that he should be soon flung out on his ear and removed from his post, this latest feeble surrender has discredited all the supposed progress of 2025.
There are acceptable ways to lose to Test matches, but getting suckered at such an early stage by Ireland was unforgivable. You do have to wonder if the careers of some players have been ended by this latest humiliation, if not irrevocably damaged. The ironic cheers from the Twickenham fans that greeted veteran George Ford managing to find touch with a penalty near the interval highlighted the level of embarrassment. It was last spring’s greenshoots that ended the negative conversation about England’s wretched defence under Joe El-Abd, yet here we are 11 months down the line revisiting the subject with Richard Wigglesworth now in the dock having taken on the defensive brief. It’s a mind-numbing throwback.
WRU: It says so much about the haphazard way this bunch of cowboys go about their business that even on a weekend when the chat about Welsh rugby should be upbeat due to the combative display produced by Steve Tandy’s charges in their agonisingly Six Nations loss to Scotland, we’re instead gossiping about their statement that has acknowledged the community clubs have demanded the staging of an emergency general meeting.
The WRU are in cloud cuckoo land if they thought their Future of the Elite Games in Wales plan, published at the end of October, was going to be universally popular and that they are deserving of pats on the back. Instead, the reputational damaging criticism has been unrelenting, with plans to axe the Ospreys and poor Six Nations ticket sales top of the list of brickbats undermining everything they are trying to do. The notice of EGM was served by the Central Glamorgan Union, one of the nine districts that make up the WRU, and one of the motions included a vote of no confidence in chair Richard Collier-Keywood. It’s a powerful reminder that despite the 24 Test losses in 26 outings, the game in Wales very much remains the people’s game.
Crusaders: How curious. There we are in our They’re On Fire! section, referencing rugby from two years ago and highlighting how France are very much revived and entertaining us all 24 months later. Crowned Six Nations champions in 2025, they are very much hellbent on retaining their title unlike Rob Penney’s Super Rugby Pacific franchise. When he first arrived home from coaching in Japan, he suffered a calamitous 2024. However, while the Crusaders enjoyed a title-winning redemption, similar to Galthié’s France, in 2025, they haven’t kicked on with the start of their title defence.
As painful as it was getting pipped at the Dunedin home of their South Island rivals, the Highlanders, on opening night, it was nothing compared to their Sunday afternoon surrender to the visiting Brumbies in Christchurch. They took too liberally their lazy day in the sun, such was the ineffectual level of their performance, and their ugly concession of three tries in the closing eight minutes of the 50-24 loss was criminal for a team playing at home in front of their fans. Penney’s charges didn’t look like they were playing for the badge, something that needs to be quickly rectified, or a third successive defeat will be theirs next Saturday at the Chiefs.
Ex-ref boss: World Rugby have not fixed the scrum but instead put it on ‘death row’
Fijian Drua, Western Force: The earnest hope for this cellar-dwelling duo was that they would return to the battle in 2026 and fare much better than how they limply did last year. The Drua finished bottom of the 11-team Super Rugby Pacific table with just four wins in 14 matches, and the ninth-place Force were only marginally better with four wins and a draw.
Instead of optimistically trending upwards in the new campaign, both team have lost their opening two games. Back-to-back home matches offered the Force the incentive to get off to a flying start, but they were picked off by the Brumbies and the Blues and now face a trip to Auckland to face Moana Pasifika. At least the Drua are at home next against the Hurricanes in Lautoka, but their efforts in defeat to Moana and at the Waratahs don’t bode well after a disappointing start where they should have done better.