they beat Wales 48-7<\/a> on the opening Saturday of the championship, to register their 12th win in succession, it was seen almost as a fait accompli that this Saturday\u2019s final game would be a Grand Slam shootout, never mind a title decider. <\/p>\n![\"Shocked](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ZXS6DWDKPKTCDQO4MKTSOTSA6M.jpg\")
Shocked England players after last Saturday’s Six Nations defeat to Italy in Rome. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
Of course, in all of this, England are being hoisted by their own petard, for even when announcing his Six Nations squad in January, their head coach Steve Borthwick was eyeing up the finale in such a manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn March 14th in Paris, we want to be in a position entering that game where we can achieve what we\u2019re all aiming to achieve. We want England fans flooding across the Channel to watch the team in a massive encounter in the final round with the opportunity to achieve what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the idea was for his England players to embrace the expectations on their shoulders, but it was a very un-Borthwick thing to say and looks all the more ill-advised after three successive defeats that leave them on the brink of their worst championship in half a century.<\/p>\n
If England lose to France it will be the first time they\u2019ll have lost four games in the same championship since they were whitewashed in 1976 in the old Five Nations. Despite the qualified backing for Borthwick from the RFU, it would be hard to envisage him surviving until the World Cup, especially after rolling the dice when making nine changes to the starting XV against Italy.<\/p>\n
The Six Nations is rarely linear, but even so, this year\u2019s edition has been an extraordinary rollercoaster. Almost nothing is as it seemed after that first round.<\/p>\n
For starters, England are evidently nowhere near as good as they were perceived to be after beating Wales, who themselves are nowhere near as bad as they looked then. Wales have improved significantly, especially with their physicality, aggression and accuracy in defence, while Rhys Carre\u2019s try against Ireland has underlined his status as one of the stars of the tournament. <\/p>\n
Italy, it transpires, are perhaps even better than they looked after their opening win whereas Scotland are not the side they were being portrayed as after that initial loss in Rome. <\/p>\n
France are still a fine side and will most likely win the championship, but last Saturday exposed a soft underbelly, or brittleness, which even affected the great Antoine Dupont and certainly proved they are beatable.<\/p>\n
As for Ireland, the end is not nigh after all. But not only are they a much better side than thought after Paris, perhaps the record win at Twickenham was not quite as good as it looked at the time either. Against that, beating Italy and a rejuvenated Wales may have been better achievements than first thought.<\/p>\n
The net effect is that never before has an Ireland-Scotland game been set up more intriguingly. And if we\u2019ve learned one thing from this Six Nations that keeps on giving, it\u2019s that every round has had at least one surprise. <\/p>\n
gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When will we ever learn? As in learn not to rush to judgment after just one round. Recall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[70904,141356,18,80725,34134,116343,19,17,34132,156729,97580,96426,132,113564],"class_list":{"0":"post-377590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-antoine-dupont","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-england-rugby","12":"tag-france-rugby","13":"tag-gregor-townsend","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-ireland-rugby","17":"tag-italy-rugby","18":"tag-scotland-rugby","19":"tag-six-nations","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-wales-rugby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116204718463876731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LA6NWO5DAFDOTGECFY444TC2WM.jpg\")
Ireland’s Jack Crowley looks on as both teams slog it out in the scrum during last year’s Six Nations match between Scotland and Ireland at Murrayfield. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767177708414-69197743-5ee2-4403-b94c-9a36cd6b79cd.jpeg\"\/)
Are Scotland primed to finally beat Ireland?<\/p>\n