6 nations 22

kuang1

No problem missing out on a championship to that French side.

Welcome back France!

Felicitations!

Best team by a distance took the slam.

The only team that showed some real running rugby.

Had a blip vs Wales but that's the 6 Nations - to get a slam there is always at least one game usually where it's about getting over the line.

Don't do everything right for 80 but well deserved.

PTH2009

Congrats France

Definitely deserved and they really have made a statement for the world cup

StevenToast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807150#Comment_118807150

Job done....great to see a strong France doing what they do best and put the English to the sword....

Grand Slam👏🏻

thebaz

Well done France - but the big winner today was Italy, makes the tournament so much more relevant , still wouldnt mind a play-off for bottom team.

Peregrine

I'm not really disappointed with that. France deserved it.

Really good championship this year too.

Dubinusa

Great stuff France! Deserved winners

dublinman1990

Well that's that. France are the Grand Slam Champions. Congratulations to them all. They are deserved champions. It was inevitable once they had their eye on it that they were going to beat England hard on a night like this on their own home turf.

A real pity for England though. They did not have a great tournament this year but they did show some great potential on the night that's in it to actually try and upset France on the night. Alas it wasn't to be. The ramifications for England's management style has to come into a lot of scrutiny now that England have now finished in 3rd place in the table. That outcome is one of their disappointing performances in years within the context of this year's championship.

Rustyman101

Highlights were Italian try, their reaction and josh Adam handing over him MOTM to Cappozzo, great sportsmanship

Hermy

What’s up with Dallaglio? Does he not like Sirclive?

swiwi_

Motm should have gone to one of the French back row imo. Defensively top rate.

cuttingtimber22

Well done France. Ireland came up just short but can be proud - particularly of the way we played.

dublinman1990

Wow. Look at the fireworks coming out from Paris. What a brilliant sight.

Dave_The_Sheep

Hard to argue with that, France the best side in the tournament and it's a well deserved Grand Slam. Building toward something special next year, really looking forward to not meeting them in the quarter final next year.

fitz

France deserving winners.

Pretty happy with where we are, tbh... Looks like we're developing at the right schedule for the world cup.

almostover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807710#Comment_118807710

Aldritt is operating on another level, incredible player

JRant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807639#Comment_118807639

Indeed they were. Jaco just wanted to completely stay out of it. Forward pass - you're grand, knock on - sure it went backwards in reverse, interfere with the scrum half - scrum half made a meal of it.

Much more enjoyable second half all the same. England came out to play and that French pack are bloody huge so the intensity of the first half paid its price.

England’s problem is their coaching set up, not their players (other than Ben Youngs)….Eddie Jones is past it. Sean Edwards has repeatedly stated his desire to coach England and because of politics they let him go. And you’ve Steve Borthwick. I’d say they could steal Mike Catt. There’s a good English coaching team out there but the RFU management just have no ambition or risk appetite

CMcsporty

Marcus Smith looks the real deal. mentally tough and has great ability to bring the ball to the line and then pick the right pass.

very impressive first championship.

with that pack and smith-farrell at 10/12 they will be hard to beat.

they have strength in depth that Ireland can only dream of.

tommybrees

Fantastic tournament, went pretty much as expected I think.

Hopefully Italy can build on that, I think Wales are in serious trouble. Look at the age of that team today playing Italy.

clsmooth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807777#Comment_118807777

I wasn’t that impressed with him aside from his goal kicking which was excellent. He takes the ball too deep, crabs across the pitch and the shovels the ball out to his centres who tend to get man and ball. He didn’t create much space for them at all over the tournament.

Defensively they have to hide him in their defensive line. Lovely evasive runner and nice passer. Would probably have made a quality 9. Very talented player but not sure if I would want to be building my whole gameplan around him at this level.

corny

Deserved win for France but they were unconvincing on the road. We'll find out a bit more about them next year with bigger tests away from home in Dublin and London.

CMcsporty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807742#Comment_118807742

Aldritt, Marchand, Baille, Dupont, Fickou, and Penaud all genuine world class players.

Fickou is unbelievable still only 27!!

this team has talent in spades and are only going to get better.

this is as good as we will get to see from Ireland over the next few years.

Sexton and strength in depth at prop are major concerns for this team who have improved remarkably in 12 months.

France Looking like iron-clad world champions. England despite a poor 6N still have buckets of strength in depth.

can’t wait until next year.

in the meantime Doak, Baloucoune, Carbery and more of Lowry in NZ please.

And operation prop. Something I don’t see getting sorted by RWC. It’s a proper concern considering the amount of handling errors Ireland make because they are playing incredibly complex in attack and at break neck speed.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807666#Comment_118807666

A play off is fine but not with SA.

tommybrees

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807896#Comment_118807896

Could do with another option at 4 or 5 aswell, definitely need to build some strength in depth in a lot of areas

Sexton gets the summer off

lawred2

Rather underwhelming final day.. just underlined that Ireland and France have been a long way ahead of the rest this year. Without being sensational.

Another five minutes in Paris and Ireland would be grand slam winners.

nomdeboardie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807722#Comment_118807722

Hosts winning the last match of the torrnament at home for a grand slam – great setting for a bit of arena-circling fireworks all right

[now if only I was French...😌]

sydthebeat

I can't wait for the next few years when Italy Wales and Scotland play off for 4th place while Ireland and France play off for first and second

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807777#Comment_118807777

Did we watch the same Championship? Smith was bog ordinary in pretty much all of his games. An occasional moment in open field looked decent.

He's a young man with a great international career ahead of him, potentially. But that's it, international potential. He's proven his mettle at domestic level, but so has Ross Byrne. Smith's gotten lots of exposure to top level rugby which will stand to him in years to come. But this year, he wasn't all that.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118807777#Comment_118807777

Marcus Smith is the real deal but no idea how you could see that from playing with England. He looked a shadow of the player that he is with Quins. England game plan, or lack of game plan, is killing him. He is a running 10 and he is been asked to kick the ball at every chance. It's a poor version of the Ireland game plan pre 2015 WC.

Unless England get Manu fit for the 6 nations and keep him fit for the WC they are totally f**ked.

The best 10 England have for the game plan Jones is playing is Farrell, if he wants to continue that game plan he would be better off sticking Smith onto the bench and starting Farrell at 10