The Six Nations is back after a week off, with the third round of fixtures seeing the Home Nations meet each other.

At Twickenham, England ended its recent run of losses against Scotland with the sort of hard-fought victory that makes battle-scared forwards go weak at the knees.

Scotland had chances to keep the Calcutta Cup for a fifth-straight year, but genuine English grit saw the hosts once again raise the spirits of the faithful at HQ and keep their faint Championship hopes alive.

Meanwhile, under the roof in Cardiff, Wales still lost because that’s what this Wales team does, but the strangely innovative idea from interim coach Matt Sherratt to play players in their best positions nearly paid off as Ireland had to dig deep into their vault of luck to win the Triple Crown and remain on course for a Grand Slam.

A contentious no-try call late on — and the even-more-contentious 20-minute red card law — saw Wales slip to a 15th-straight defeat, but plenty of players showed that, given some ball in hand, they are still top-quality internationals. 

While Wallaby wannabies pressed their case in Super Rugby, who stood up and who slipped up in the race for a Lions jersey?

England’s forwards best Scotland’s warriors

Another thriller at Twickenham, another one-point win for England that arguably said more about the opposition blowing opportunities than England’s ability to stop them, but yet another feather in the caps of England’s forwards.

At one stage of the match, Maro Itoje, Ben Earl and Ben Curry were all shown on their knees after a furious spell of denying Scots on their own line as part of a phenomenal display from the English pack.

That’s just what this pack does. They’re like a legion of unarmed, white-clad Terminators — the only way to stop them is by cutting them down at the ankles and dropping them into a vat of molten steel.

We’ve not mentioned him nearly enough so far this tournament mostly because front-row forwards are that breed of player that incongruously goes under the radar, but Will Stuart‘s performance against Pierre Schoeman was once again immense.

In what was a monstrous battle, the Bath man showed his class at the scrum, winning penalties by folding the enormous Highveld-bred Scot in half to help earn the English a degree of supremacy at that set piece — with Ellis Genge also showing up his erstwhile Lions rival Zander Fagerson in that regard too.

The real battle was in the loose though, where both teams expended an enormous amount of energy in what was a liberally officiated part of the game.

Itoje is always a monster in that regard — book his flights to Australia now and plan a trip to the tailor for his captain’s blazer while you’re at it — but Jamie Ritchie was also superb for Scotland, tackling his heart out and winning a crucial turnover in the second half.

England’s back-row was just as impressive. Tom Curry‘s hip remains a concern, but when brother Ben is on the bench, it almost doesn’t seem to matter. 

Scotland’s backs

Duhan van der Merwe loves playing England and continued in his impressive vein of form against the Auld Enemy — if that’s a term they use in the Western Cape in relation to England.

Two years ago at Twickenham, van der Merwe ran riot, beating five defenders on the way to the tryline, before the South Africa‑born winger racked up a hat-trick at Murrayfield 12 months ago.

He scored on Saturday too and generally wreaked havoc whenever he was given a yard of space, embarrassing Ollie Lawrence with a brutal fend and then tossing Marcus Smith aside like an 85-kilo rag doll.

He’s so powerful against England that the Wallabies must be thankful they don’t play in white, although given how anonymous he was against Ireland a fortnight ago, perhaps Australia should explore playing in green to see if that makes a difference … 

The ability of the Scottish backline was on full display for the first try, a flowing move involving an incisive run from Blair Kinghorn, a immensely clever line from Kyle Rowe, a beautiful piece of hands to free Tom Jordan and then a pass inside to the omnipresent Ben White.

They made England’s wide defence look very sketchy — which may be admittedly faint praise — with Marcus Smith‘s tackling still far too weak to be a genuine international fullback, although the way he popped in at first receiver in attack and ran with the ball in space showed his value.

But the battle of the out-halves was comprehensively won by Finn Smith, with Finn Russell having a day to forget, while Sam Prendergast was also well below par for Ireland in Cardiff.

Finn Smith only needed to kick once, a clutch 50-metre dart to put England ahead, with Marcus Smith back to his brilliant best off the tee elsewhere. 

Meanwhile, Russell couldn’t convert any of his three kicks at goal, including what would have been the match-winner from the sideline.

All the kicks were tough, but Russell should be a lot better than what he showed against England. His missed kicks aside, the veteran also missed touch with a penalty, fell off Tommy Freeman for England’s opening try and was otherwise just a tad off kilter.  

Wales showed heart against underwhelming Ireland

It cannot be easy to be a Welsh rugby fan at the moment.

But the sleeping dragon of the home nations finally showed it had fire in its belly after two insipid displays to open the championship. 

Sure, Ireland made a handful of changes, but Wales was genuinely superb. Prop WillGriff John made a mockery of Lions certainty Andrew Porter at scrum time, the Plymouth-born, Rhondda Valley-raised Sale Shark made his first Wales start in four years, winning a third cap and looking like he’ll add plenty more in the future if he continues to play like that.

It’s becoming a cliche to say Jac Morgan was good — the 25-year-old is always good and was brilliant again for Wales, picking up and carrying the team on his back once again with another impassioned display.

He was more than ably supported in the back row by Tommy Reffell and the immense Taulupe Faletau, the 34-year-old, four-time capped Lion rolling back the years.

The recalled 10 Gareth Anscombe was good for Wales too, as was Ben Thomas, who incredibly looked better at his usual position of 12 than 10, where he had been playing. Strange, really.

Gloucester centre Max Llewellyn, inexplicably left out of the squad by Gatland, was bought in and showed how effective having a 110kg, 196cm-tall battering ram with hands as sticky as spider silk can be on a team.

Not everything worked for Wales, as you might expect from a team on their run of form. Tomos Williams made some really poor errors of judgement in the closing stages with the game on the line and highlighted the need for a steady pair of hands at the base of the scrum in any team.

Winners: Colour-blind fans

This is unlikely to be an issue Down Under with the Lions, but fans living with colour vision deficiency (CVD), also known as colour blindness, could rejoice this week when Ireland donned their white change strip in their match against Wales in Cardiff.

This happened because new World Rugby regulations require visiting teams to switch to an alternative jersey colour when there is a clash that could impact the estimated 300 million who live with some form of CVD.

The most common colours that affect people living with CVD is red-green — which in a Wales-Ireland clash is problematic.

CVD impacts around one in 12 men and one in 200 women, including former World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont, with World Rugby rules implemented for the first time at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

It seemed to work for Wales too, who took to their white-clad foes as if they were Englishmen, while Ireland looked strangely disjointed, although making seven changes to the starting XV can do that. 

Losers: Fans of the 20-minute red card

Oh what might have been for Wales.

Ireland under Andy Farrell has made a name for itself in managing to avoid getting players sin-binned — obviously a huge bonus when it comes to tight contests in international rugby.

So when Garry Ringrose was deservedly sent off for a high shot, it would have been a solid test of their mettle had the defending champions needed to play the best part of 50 minutes a player down.

And, given how close Wales got to an upset — they led 18-13 when Ireland was restored to a full complement with Bundee Aki coming off the bench — you’d be hard pushed to find many who felt Wales couldn’t have produced a shock for the ages.

But when Aki himself, bloodied and stained by the on-pitch markings, produced a turnover and roared in delight, the chance felt ever more remote.

Credit has to go to stand-in Ireland skipper Dan Sheehan for keeping his cool, and Prendergast for nailing some pressure kicks at goal.

But you had to feel for Wales, who may have still lost, even had Ellis Mee’s effort not been ruled out — correctly so despite what the aghast expression of NFL wide receiver and ex-Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit in the crowd suggested.

If a Lions team were picked today …

1. Ellis Genge (ENG)
2. Dan Sheehan (IRE)
3. Will Steward (ENG)
4. Maro Itoje (ENG) (c)
5. Will Rowlands (WAL)
6. Tom Curry (ENG)
7. Jamie Ritchie (SCO)
8. Jac Morgan (WAL)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (IRE)
10. Finn Smith (ENG)
11. James Lowe (IRE)
12. Tom Jordan (SCO)
13. Robbie Henshaw (IRE)
14. Duhan van der Merwe (SCO)
15. Blair Kinghorn (SCO)

Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie (ENG), WillGriff John (WAL), Ollie Chessum (ENG), Grant Gilchrist (SCO), Tom Rogers (WAL), Ben White (SCO), Bundee Aki (IRE), Marcus Smith (ENG).