The Six Nations is in its second round, and there have been many narrow victories and a powerful display against Italy.

Wales hosted Scotland at the Cardiff Stadium, France were hosts to Ireland at the Stadt de Paris, and England travelled to Rome to face the Italians.

Wales vs Scotland:

The game ended 20 to 17 in Wales favour, despite “the dragons” having a team laced with injuries and the fact that Scotland was ahead at halftime.

Scotland resorted to showing their old weakness of giving away penalties and having been reduced to 14 men late on when Finn Russell was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on. This led Wales to capitalise and take the victory in Cardiff.

Stuart Hogg Scotland Captain Stuart Hogg said: “We cost ourselves the game. One penalty or knock-on is fine, but when you compound errors that is when you get frustrated. At times we’ll be beaten by better sides, but I think we gave them easy avenues into the game. We gave them field position they didn’t have to work too hard for.”

Gregor Townsend said: “We clearly weren’t good enough today. Lack of execution gave Wales momentum and they did well when they had the ball. When we went in front, that should be a reason to kick on. We weren’t accurate enough in the second half and gave too many penalties away. There were big moments in the second half that we did not execute. We gave penalties to the opposition so we did not control that second half.”

Scotland couldn’t maintain momentum after their opening day win vs England

France vs Ireland:

If there is a definition of end-to-end rugby, this game was it. It started with penalties scoredm by France, but then Ireland came back with a few tries before the end of the first half. It then became an end-to-end game with tries scored by both sides.

As the game ended it finished with France getting the victory but it wasn’t easy for the French. Ireland still has a lot to prove in this competition and the try from a French kick-off by Hanson proves this as he caught the ball from the French defender and pushed through. The game finished 30-24 to the French, leaving them with wins in their opening two games.

Italy vs England:

There were no surprises for anyone going into this game, the question was not whether England will win. It was a question of how much they would win. The question was answered as Italy did not even get on the scoreboard. England dominated this match with a 33-0 win.

There were a lot of holes in the Italian defence as England pushed through, also giving away penalties to the England team didn’t help matters either.

England player Marcus Smith said: “I’ve never played here before, there was a special atmosphere, with loads of England fans having come out. We had to put a show on for them, we were a bit scrappy and credit to Italy but to score 33 points is always nice. To play alongside Harry Randall is special, we have a good connection off the field and I hope we have on it as well.”

England Coach Eddie Jones said: “Italy are a tough team and they keep coming. If we were a bit tidier with some of our work, some running lines, it could have been a big score. We are happy with that, now we move on to Wales.

“Italy have played New Zealand and France and in the first half been in the game. They were not in the game today. Marcus Smith did well, Harry Randall did some good things at the start and Alex Dombrandt had a really solid game.”

Six Nations: Scotland and Ireland Disappoint, as Italy get Steamrolled