{"id":312807,"date":"2026-02-23T10:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/312807\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:03:07","slug":"six-nations-talking-points-finn-russell-george-ford-antoine-dupont-and-robert-baloucoune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/312807\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations talking points: Finn Russell, George Ford, Antoine Dupont and Robert Baloucoune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opportunity and ability for teams to rewrite their own narratives in the space of just a few weeks is part of what makes the Six Nations so compelling.<\/p>\n

Lacklustre and outgunned in Rome in week one, Scotland are now France’s biggest challengers after following up the Calcutta Cup demolition of England with a nailbiting, nerve-wrenching win in Wales.<\/p>\n

The hosts were 23-12 up with just over 20 minutes to go but Scotland roared back to win 26-23<\/a> after some brilliant quick thinking from fly-half Finn Russell.<\/p>\n

He switched the momentum of the match with a kick that caught Wales out and allowed Darcy Graham to score in the corner. Yet again, the Bath number 10 was the difference-maker.<\/p>\n

“Big-game players turn up when it matters and Russell had moments when he bailed Scotland out,” former Wales captain Sam Warburton told BBC Rugby Special.<\/a><\/p>\n

“He was exceptional at managing the team when they were down in the game. He waits for the perfect moment to get involved.<\/p>\n

“He plays what he sees, he has that licence and his clutch kicking was immense. The big-game player rocked up in the last 30 minutes, he was immaculate and a big part of the comeback.”<\/p>\n

“Scotland found a way to win ugly,” added their former flanker John Barclay.<\/p>\n

“They found solutions and ground their way in. In some ways that was the most important win they have had in a while. It has given them a strong position in the table.”<\/p>\n

Up next? France at Murrayfield on Saturday, 7 March, and the chance to end Les Bleus’ Grand Slam dreams after three successive wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The opportunity and ability for teams to rewrite their own narratives in the space of just a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-312807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}