Thrilling Six Nations leaves questions for England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales

It is being touted as the most entertaining Six Nations ever, and looking at the pre-tournament script compared to the end credits, you can see just why.

‘Unpredictability’ was the defining characteristic of a Six Nations showing that left the audience gripped at every twist and turn.

It was a non-stop action blockbuster with a finale that lived up to the hype as a total of 29 tries were scored across ‘Super Saturday’, the most ever for a single day in the championship’s history and two more than the previous highest in 2015.

Six teams, six potential protagonists gave their all, and while they now lick their wounds and prepare in anticipation of another battle in the near future, the dissection gets under way of just how and why France were the heroes of the tale once again.

It is a series that begs the questions of why England could not live up to their hype, why Scotland can be in the race but never win it, if Italy have the potential for ‘leading man’ status, if Wales can be restored to their former glory, and if Ireland’s time in the spotlight is coming to a close.

A walking contradiction: France’s attacking nous the key

Talk about delivering drama! France did that with the flair and freedom we have come to expect on a Saturday night in Paris.

Indeed, their attacking ability truly has to be commended; it is what got them over the line and has helped them to successive titles for the first time since 2006 and 2007.

They can create a try from nowhere, they are littered with stars that can do the unthinkable, they say: ‘you score 30 points, we will score 31’.

Les Blues started with a rout of Ireland in the French capital and ended by breaking Irish hearts with a thriller against England in the same spot. They started with composure, it ended with chaos but that will not matter- what will matter is that they have secured their eighth title.

That being said, while no one has scored more tries than France in this Six Nations, no one has conceded more tries than them either. They scored 30 but they conceded 19.

In the last two matches alone, they conceded 96 points and 14 tries. Yet, they still took the win.

In this current moment, I imagine sipping champagne is more the course of action than analysis of their defensive fragility but once the Parisian party stops and the work starts once again, they will have to work out whether their defensive limits are a by-product of modern rugby union or something that can be majorly fixed.

Their own defensive masterminds do not seem too worried.

“Rugby at the moment, particularly the Six Nations, is just phenomenal,” said France defence coach Shaun Edwards.

“I remember coaching a team in Wales who went five games without conceding one try and that’s impossible now. It is for the better of the game.”

Signs of life: England exit on optimistic defeat

England come away from the Six Nations with their worst campaign ever, picking up just one win and four losses. Despite that worrying statistic, their performance against France in an epic contest showed not just signs of life, but that they could be regalvanised.

After the buoyancy of a convincing opening-round win over Wales, England fans watched their side’s ill discipline and costly errors lead to losses against Scotland, Ireland, and for the first time ever, Italy.

The pressure was high and the eyeballs were ever-present as Steve Borthwick’s side tried to convince onlookers that there were no rifts, that they could win, that green shoots of hope were on the horizon.

To be fair to them, they delivered on that despite making it four losses in a row. Throughout the contest with France, England were overall the more efficient and stronger side, dominating the France pack and creating opportunities off the back of it.

Ultimately, France were able to, as is commonplace with them, create something out of nothing and did that over and over before Thomas Ramos sent over the clutch penalty that wrapped up the enthralling 48-46 win.

The positivity for England is not to say they did not make errors – they want to ask questions about Ellis Genge’s yellow card, Ollie Chessum may have ran in for his try under the sticks if he had his time again, Jack van Poortvliet may not have opted for the box kick with two minutes remaining, Henry Pollock may have kept hold of the ball rather than throwing a speculative pass with 30 seconds left on the clock.

That being said, they have remained steadfast in their belief during this tournament that they know how to score; they just need to start turning opportunities into points. That conversion occurred as they ended with the stunning showing they provided with France.

Steve Borthwick believes he is the “right man” to keep leading England and with 46 points on ‘Super Saturday’, he looks to have bought himself some time to turn stunning matches into stunning wins.

Ireland take Triple Crown but left ruing opening debacle

We have been used to the Six Nations as of late being somewhat of a two-horse race between France and Ireland – the last five have gone to one of the two. That did not seem like it was going to occur once again on opening night when France came away with a 36-14 win over Ireland at the Stade de France.

You only needed to look at Andy Farrell’s steely post-match demeanour to know that Ireland had been abject and he said that the loss “had to stand for something”.

Five weeks later, they have a Triple Crown. They were a Thomas Ramos conversion away from being crowned champions. It very nearly did stand for everything.

Some will argue that if you need another side to do you a favour to win you a tournament, then it was not yours to win anyway. Some will argue that Ireland were nowhere near as convincing as they have been over the last few years. Some will argue Ireland grew into the tournament and that was evidenced by the fact the clinical nature of their showings got more intense as the competition went on.

“I think we probably showed good resolve in bouncing back,” said Ireland skipper Caelan Doris.

“The Italy performance (a 20-13 win in round two) wasn’t great, but we still got the win here at home and it’s been fairly linear in terms of trajectory since then.

“It’s a great group, there’s depth building there, there’s competition building within the squad.

“We’re moving things in the right way and it’s been enjoyable chasing down the potential and seeing some of the growth over the last number of weeks.”

For Ireland, it is now time to dissect whether they were a victim of the volatile nature of the Six Nations in 2026 or if they need to prepare, in what seems to be a period of transition, for more horses to enter the race for the title in the future.

Scotland chained to ‘nearly men’ tag

The eternal Scottish tale unfolds once again. There was history for the taking, but they just could not do the history-making.

Instead of the aforementioned two-horse race between France and Ireland, Scotland made sure to be the third as they headed to Dublin hunting a Triple Crown.

So much history was on the line: They could have had a first Triple Crown since 1990. They could have exorcised their Dublin demons and got a first victory there since 2010. They could have stopped Ireland’s double-figure run of victories against them that spans nine years.

Instead, they left Dublin with a 43-21 loss and as the competition’s eternal nearly men despite their electrifying 50-40 win over France that blew the tournament wide open.

They were the outsiders in the race, of course, but what could have been a generation‑defining triumph for Scottish rugby and for Gregor Townsend’s tenure is another ‘what if’ and moment of torment as questions will once again swirl about the long-standing head coach leading his side into the 2027 World Cup.

Wooden spooners no more: Italy the contenders

In the modern Six Nations, four different countries have walked away with the wooden spoon after finishing bottom of the table.

France have suffered that fate just once, Wales three times, and Scotland four times.

For Italy? That has happened 18 times. 18 times they have had to walk away knowing they performed the worst out of everyone, justifying their position in the prestigious tournament.

But no more do the Italian outfit perennially prop up the table. No, they are now contenders, they can now beat the big boys.

That is not to say they don’t still have work to do. There is no point pulling off a history-making 23-18 win over England to then get thumped by Wales just a week later and lose the chance for your best-ever Six Nations finish.

What they need to fix up is going from a monumental win like that over England and backing it up the following match.

If they do that, there is a near future in which Italy are battling it out on ‘Super Saturday’.

Three years of pain at the Principality fades away

1,099 days. 15 consecutive defeats. Finally, the Principality got to celebrate once again.

Yes, Wales leave the 2026 Six Nations rooted to the foot of the table, finishing last due to clinching fewer bonus points than England.

However, Cardiff got a big ‘cwtch’ in the form of a 31-17 win over Italy to end their tournament and finally turn that talk of progress into points.

The Welsh fans have gone through all five stages of grief since 2023. They denied the situation was as bad as it seemed, got angry that it was as bad as it seemed, bargained and brought back Warren Gatland in the hopes that would somehow rectify things, entered the ‘depression’ stage as things got worse than they ever thought they possibly could, before finally accepting that their side were on a journey.

Following the acceptance, they have worked hard and after the constant talk that they were focused on improving the way they played, they started to talk about winning again.

That relief arrived on March 14 2026 with Wales rightfully emotional that an enduring period of poor rugby might be coming to a close and that the fruits of their labour might be ripe once again.

“We hope we have restored some faith in the jersey and into what this group can do,” said captain Dewi Lake.

“I am overjoyed for the boys because of how hard they have worked. That performance sums up how we have grown in the last two to three weeks.

“That was a performance we have built towards and this group deserves it massively.

“We have gone through a lot of emotionally tough things recently, whether that is on the field or off it.”

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