Eddie under pressure, Wales a mess and hope for jubilant Italy - Six Nations talking points

France have won the Grand Slam and been crowned Six Nations 2022 champions for the first time in 12 years after beating England.

Tries from Gael Fickou, Francois Cros and captain Antoine Dupont sealed a 25-13 victory despite a spirited performance from Eddie Jones’ men in front of an electric Stade de France crowd.

The final weekend of the 2022 Six Nations got off to a stunning start as Italy beat defending champions Wales to claim a first win in this championship in seven years.

Ireland then heaped the pressure on France with a convincing victory over Scotland in Dublin that sealed the Triple Crown and sent them to the top of the Six Nations table… albeit temporarily.

As the 2022 championship comes to a close, here are the big talking points, plus scroll down for Super Saturday results and the final table:

England look nothing like world beaters

By Hugh Godwin, i rugby union correspondent

England, for the third time in five seasons, are the wrong side of the results ledger with two wins and three losses in this competition.

Head coach Eddie Jones could point with some justification to half a first-choice team’s worth of players led by captain Owen Farrell being absent injured – a facet in which the French and second-placed Ireland were much less afflicted.

Jones is now left reprising his familiar refrain of building for the 2023 World Cup – when England would have to return to the Stade de France in the semi-final and final if they want to go all the way, very possibly with France as one of the opponents.

Right now, though, the red rose is wilting, England look nothing like world beaters, and Jones must convince his employers at Twickenham to keep the faith with his promise of a brighter horizon.

Read Hugh’s full report from the Stade de France here

Six Nations 2022 table and results

Results:

Table:

• 1. France – 22 points (played 5, won 5, lost 0, +68)
• 2. Ireland – 21 (played 5, won 4, lost 1, +105)
• 3. England – 10 (played 5, won 2, lost 3, +5)
• 4. Scotland – 10 (played 5, won 2, lost 3, -29)
• 5. Wales – 7 (played 5, won 1, lost 4, -28)
• 6. Italy – 4 (played 5, won 1, lost 4, -121)

Seven years of hurt over for Italy

With the weight of a nation and an unenviable record of 36 straight defeats on his shoulders, Paolo Garbisi made no mistake with his conversion to nudge Italy ahead by a single point of Wales and spark wild scenes of Azzurri celebration.

Full-back Ange Capuozzo had made a superb break from inside his own half just one minute from the end to feed Edoardo Padovani for an easy finish under the posts to set up a first-ever win in Cardiff.

Italy captain Michele Lamaro described the win as “unreal”, while head coach Kieran Crowley was “really proud” of his side.

Lamaro told BBC Sport: “We deserved that, we worked so hard to get here but this is the first step of a process we just started. It’s unreal. That last try was amazing.

“Being in the moment until the end is what has taken us to the win. The important thing was to concentrate on our process, that was the key thing for us.”

Crowley said: “I’m just really proud. They were out on their feet in the last 30 minutes but they just dug in and kept believing.

“They stuck at it and now they won’t be saying we’ve lost 36 Six Nations games in a row, or whatever it is. But one game doesn’t make a team. We’ll come back in the summer and build on this.”

With a number of exciting young players coming through, Italy will hope this win acts as a huge momentum-booster and finally puts to bed rumours over their continued participation in the Six Nations.

Class touch from Josh Adams Pivac under pressure after ‘unacceptable’ defeat

Wales came into this championship as defending champions but were condemned to a fifth-placed finish after being outclassed by opponents who simply are not used to winning games of rugby.

“We came with a goal of giving ourselves an opportunity to finish third, which would have been a superb effort by the boys,” head coach Wayne Pivac said.

“After round one [when Wales were beaten 29-7 by Ireland in Dublin] we were building each week. But this was an unacceptable performance, which we must not let happen again.

“We had three good performances in this competition and two we weren’t proud of. So it wasn’t the complete competition. We’ll get criticism from it – and rightly so.”

He wasn’t wrong. Wales only victory in this championship came against Scotland but Pivac believes all could be forgotten in 18 months if they perform well at the World Cup.

But after such a disappointing championship in which they scored an average of just 13 points per game, Welsh fans and media are beginning to question whether he will still be in charge by then.

“I like Wayne Pivac. I have always found him a good man to deal with and there have been some really memorable moments covering his teams,” said Simon Thomas, the rugby correspondent at Wales Online. “But that was the worst display I have seen from Wales in a long while. Not sure where they go from here.”

Robert Rees, the editor of Last Word on Rugby, added: “Wayne Pivac stating Wales will be happy with a quarter-final is such a sad statement of how far we’ve dropped away. Stephen Jones’ attack and Pivac in trouble.”

Owain Jones, editor of the XV, feels the problems are even bigger than just the head coach. “[I] know it’s going to be easy to just blame Wayne Pivac and tell him to sling his hook but this is a collective failure,” he tweeted. “From players to assistant coaches, stuttering regions to age-grade pathway and dwindling numbers at community level. These are the WRU’s problems to solve.”

How did it all go so wrong for Scotland?

The Scots came into this championship with genuine hopes of a first title in over two decades but after the high of that early victory over England things have gone from bad to worse.

They came into the final weekend under a cloud after it emerged on the eve of the game that six of their players – including talisman Finn Russell, who was dropped to the bench – faced disciplinary action for breaching team protocols upon returning from Italy last weekend.

The scoreline in Dublin was a huge 21 points and several big chances went begging for a side who clearly missed the electric playmaking of their maverick No 10, who only came on with 20 minutes to play.

Captain Stuart Hogg, who was among those involved and who made a major error to ruin a try-scoring chance, said he had apologised to his team-mates before kick-off.

“I did [apologise] and it’s something that will hurt me for a long, long time. We held our hands up, we knew we had made a mistake,” Hogg said.

“As leader of the side, I’m bitterly disappointed by what had happened. I can’t go back and change anything.”

It is not the first time that off-field issues have plagued this Scotland team under Gregor Townsend, who admitted after the game that his side “weren’t good enough this year” and have plenty to reflect on before they are next in action.

Missing out on title could be blessing in disguise for Ireland

Ireland clinched the Triple Crown with a convincing 26-5 bonus-point victory over Scotland in Dublin to end an 18-year wait to secure silverware on home soil.

Andy Farrell’s men threw down the gauntlet for Grand Slam-chasing France by moving three points clear at the top of the standings courtesy of tries from Dan Sheehan, Cian Healy, Josh Van Der Flier and Conor Murray.

Murray’s late score meant France had to beat England in the late kick-off in Paris to complete a tournament clean sweep and deny the Irish the championship title.

“It wasn’t perfect by any means,” said Ireland captain Johnny Sexton, who converted three of his side’s four tries.

“We did some things very well, we didn’t play as well as we would’ve hoped. I think in a final you need to try and play your best and we were searching for that X-factor performance.

“We did just enough but we did what we wanted to do [by claiming the five points].”

Ireland finish the championship with four wins from a possible five, with defeat in Paris the only blotch on their record.

They have been scintillating at times and look to be building nicely under Farrell. As disappointing as it will be in the moment, missing out on the championship could be a blessing in disguise for Ireland, with less media hype focused on them as World Cup preparations continue.

Additional reporting by agencies