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Six Nations Team of the Week – Round 2

The Six Nations served up a stunning upset for the second week in a row, while high-flying France soared to the top of the table, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

After being on the wrong side of a shock result in Rome in Round One, Scotland brought surging England’s 12-match winning streak to an emphatic end with a 31-20 triumph at Murrayfield on Saturday to regain the Calcutta Cup.

Earlier in the day, Ireland survived a scare to claim a 20-13 win over a spirited Italian side in Dublin to rebound from their first-round loss to France. Speaking of Les Bleus, they showed they’ll be tough to beat by crushing Wales 54-12 in Cardiff on Sunday.

Four nations are represented in our Team of the Week. France lead the way with six selections, Scotland have four, Italy three and Ireland two.

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15: Thomas Ramos (France)

Ramos welcomed Wales’ baffling strategy to put boot to ball and made them pay time and time again. Aside from his counter-attacking excellence, he was a handful when he popped up at first receiver as well, and added 14 points off the tee. 

14: Kyle Steyn (Scotland)

A slippery customer supreme, the South African-born Scottish speedster beat no less than 10 defenders, seven in the first half alone. He was just as good on defence and in the air, even after being taken out by Henry Arundell, and came away with the Man of the Match award.

13: Huw Jones (Scotland)

One of the best centres in the world, the former Stormer powered Scotland’s attack, beating four defenders, making three clean breaks, rushing for 126 metres and scoring two tries from eight carries.

12: Stuart McCloskey (Ireland)

McCloskey played a central role in Ireland’s win as he delivered two of their three tries, first pirouetting and offloading spectacularly for Jamie Osborne, and then channelling his inner Tom Brady to put Robert Baloucoune away.

11: Theo Attissogbe (France)

Like last week, we’re switching one wing to the other end in order to reward the two standout speedsters. The 21-year-old popped up everywhere, bagged a brace, assisted Matthieu Jalibert for his five-pointer and made a try-saving intervention in the 69th minute.

10: Matthieu Jalibert (France) – Player of the Week

Finn Russell was fantastic, but Jalibert was undeniable. The man who infamously bets on himself showed exactly why with a masterful Man of the Match performance. The Dragons will have nightmares about the French flyhalf who condemned them to death by a thousand cuts. 

9: Antoine Dupont (France)

Dupont was like an uncaged staffy, running this way and that. He caused Wales all sorts of problems and finished with 16 carries for 98 metres. He made some audacious offloads and held up Olly Cracknell over the line.

8: Jack Conan (Ireland)

Conan’s commitment to the cause stood out. Undeterred by the blue wall in front of him that held firm, the Irish No. 8 relentlessly ran into it with full force and was rewarded with a vital try. Topping the stats with a match-high 12 carries, the 31 metres he made were the definition of hard yards.

7: Rory Darge (Scotland)

He must’ve watched Braveheart the night before the Test because he played like a man possessed. The warrior-like loose forward outworked everyone with 21 tackles and four turnovers.

6: Jamie Ritchie (Scotland)

A red-hot Ritchie was outstanding on both sides of the ball, scoring a try and taking names on defence before being cooled off by injury.

5: Michael Guillard (France)

It was a second stellar showing by the French second-rower, who started the Championship with a Man of the Match performance in Paris. With France having a lot of lateral runners, Guillard was strong and direct. He added some good offloads and won two textbook turnovers.

4: Charles Ollivon (France)

His work rate and versatility came to the fore again in a tireless performance that saw him shift seamlessly to the back row in the final quarter. He both set up a try (for Emilien Gailleton) and scored one himself.

3: Simone Ferrari (Italy)

The big unit was the Man of the Match in Italy’s opening round upset of Scotland and continued his rich vein of form in Dublin, where he dominated Jeremy Loughman at scrum time and put in big hits on defence, most notably ringing Garry Ringrose’s bell.

2: Giacomo Nicotera (Italy)

A world-class paver, he helped lay the foundation that allowed the Azzurri to push Ireland close, both in the scrums and with his lineout throwing. He was a pit bull in the tight loose as well and scored his team’s only try.  

1: Danilo Fischetti (Italy)

Fischetti was like a mad cow that saw Tom Clarkson and Tadhg Furlong as bales of hay as he feasted on the overwhelmed Irish tightheads, one after the other. He also crashed up the ball effectively on the carry.

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Quintin Van Jaarsveld is a former MDDA-Sanlam SA Local Sports Journalist of the Year and a former three-time Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal Sports Journalist of the Year. Formerly the sports editor and Outstanding Journalist of the Year award winner at The Fever Media Group, deputy editor at eHowzit, editor at SARugby.com and senior staff writer at Rugby365.com, he boasts over 15 years’ experience and is currently a freelance sports writer.

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