The 2024 mens Six Nations campaign began with an astonishing win to last year’s grand slam winners, Ireland. Beating a French side who, without their talismanic captain Antoine Dupont, looked ill-prepared, frantic and unorganised.
The 38-17 win was secured by five well worked tries from the Irish side. Jack Crowley, looking calm and composed took on the infamous Irish number 10 jersey that has been home to Johnny Sexton for the last 14 years. Despite a nervous looking start, opting to kick to the corner rather than getting an early lead by taking a shot at the goal, Crowley seemed to relax into the game, slotting all five conversions and orchestrating a confident Irish side. France suffered ill-discipline with Paul Willemse receiving an upgraded red card after repeat offending shoulder to head contact. Down to 14 players, France showed glimpses of excellence with Damian Penaud scoring his 36th try for France.
Saturday kicked off in Rome with a strong looking Italian side, allowing the hosts to sail ahead at half time 17-14. The underdogs in years gone by, Italy were looking sharper than ever, keen to start of their Six Nations campaign with a win
England, with several fresh faces in the squad looked to settle into the game, coming back after half time intent to put some more points on Italy. England managed to exploit a new Italian defense which aimed to apply huge amounts of pressure on the English attack, resulting in dog legs that England could punch through. New Italy defense coach, former Springbok centre Brenan Venter will be looking to neaten this up before Italy play top of the leaderboard Ireland in the next round.
Cardiff saw an end to end game of rugby where Scotland managed to sneak away with a 27-26 victory. Their first win in Cardiff in 22 years!
Scotland were 20 points ahead at half time. The young but determined Wales side came out on fi re for the second half, nearly stripping the game from Scotland, scoring four electric looking tries. Bringing the game to a narrow win for a Scottish side that looked composed and self-assured in the first half.