Michael Aylwin

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Michael Aylwin

France’s prowess in claiming the Six Nations in such commanding fashion was undercut by what Gregor Townsend claims is a failing in rugby’s current judicial system. Peato Mauvaka was shown a yellow card midway through the first half for making head-to-head contact with Ben White, following his deliberate lunge at the Scotland scrum-half after play had stopped. The incident was referred for a bunker review, which came back with the finding the contact had not been dangerous.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Michael Aylwin

In the end, no arguments. England may have done all they could to put France under some pressure – and Scotland went on to exert a bit more, testing France as few others can – but Les Bleus can play rugby any which way. They ran through the full gamut in the third quarter, blasting and slashing Scotland with equal facility to take the game away from the visitors and the championship from everyone else. They are worth it and then some.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Michael Aylwin

After dominating yet another match without maximising the return on the scoreboard, Scotland now face the daunting prospect of a trip to Paris to take on high-flying France, the one team scoring even more freely than Scotland. They will probably thrive on it. Gregor Townsend acknowledged that Scotland face the toughest assignment of all on Saturday night. “France scored 70 points against a very good Italian team,” he said. “They got 40 points against Wales, 40 points against Ireland.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Michael Aylwin

All of Scotland’s brilliance, and a lot of those familiar failings. Scotland, it cannot be denied, have underscored once again their status as second only to France in attack. But even with a 27-point cushion midway through the second half, they contrived to make life uncomfortable for themselves against a clearly inferior side. Wales managed to rouse themselves from a hopeless position to claim two bonus points, when Max Llewellyn crashed over to score their fourth try at the death.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Michael Aylwin

Neither of these two are where they want to be after three rounds. In the case of Wales, rock bottom of the table cannot be worse than where they feared they might be; in the case of Scotland, fourth must be so much worse than they had hoped. And some might say deserve. Eyebrows may rise, then, at the news that both coaches will more or less send out the same teams that featured in their respective defeats in round three.