We almost could have done GS last year, if we'd stolen a win against a tiring Ireland in the last 10 minutes. If Twelvetrees hadn't tried to force the issue by literally pulling a player over the line, we might have stolen an unlikely win. That would have made 'Super Saturday' irrelevant, which I think on reflection would have been a bad thing.

Anyhoo what happened happened (to quote Lost), Eddie Jones has done what I think lots of pundits accused previous England coaches of failing to do, marshal the considerable resources we have to win 6 Nations championship.

Even allow for the fact there are more talented players IMO in the Welsh squad, England should be capable of winning more championships than they have. I hope Saturday isn't a letdown, as it would a bit disappointing to miss out on a Grand Slam.

Having said that I stand by my previous thought that this year's winner have won the most underwhelming championship in years. Next year's 'Lions focussed' championship should be more entertaining, as the players will want to put their names in the frame for Gatland's squad *

*Come on everyone knows he's gonna get the job again

It just looked like Wales turned up with the hope of playing their usual "Gatland Ball" style of rugby, give it to Roberts and let him make the yards. But England caught them off guard, they rucked and turned ball over, far quicker than Wales were expecting, and they avoided the centre channel, I reckon Wales thought that they'd play Manu in the centre, so knew what to expect. England then allowed Guthbert to feel at ease with the game, then just started attacking him, either running at him or kicking to him, and shattered what little confidence the guy had left.

Wales just didn't have a "B Game" and the players just looked totally confused as to what to do. It's only when they just played rugby did they improve.

And living in Wales I always get the same answers when England beat them, either "well it's their first game, they never play well at the start" or "well it's their last game and we've got injuries". England never beat Wales, it's always "Wales let them" etc etc. Well it's 3 times now on the bounce in the 6N's, people are running out of excuses.

I think most top sides have figured out Wales' Plan A, England should have seen them off in the RWC if we hadn't lost shape and composure after all the replacements. Which is the same thing that happened on Saturday (plus the added hindrance of Cole's yellow).

Granted it was against 14, but the last 15-20 minutes shows what Wales are capable of if the spread the play. I'm still confused/shocked/whatever that Wales couldn't make 2 extra men count against Australia. At least they didn't make the same mistake on Saturday, thankfully (as an England) it was too little too late.

I'm guessing that Wales Online have a new hate figure in Joe Marler? He's been cited now for elbow, after citing commissioner changed his mind (is that normal?).

He deserves whatever ban he has coming to him for gypsy comments, but I think some of the stuff from Welsh journos on Twitter was a bit OTT.

^^ Agree, I didn't mind the score, just not the way it happened. It was silly to ship so many points in the last 10 minutes, I had flash backs to Scotland - Wales!!

Team news....

Wales: Liam Williams; Hallam Amos, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, George North; Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb; Rob Evans, Scott Baldwin, Samson Lee, Bradley Davies, Luke Charteris, Dan Lydiate (capt), Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Ken Owens, Gethin Jenkins, Tomas Francis, Jake Ball, Ross Moriarty, Gareth Davies, Rhys Priestland, Gareth Anscombe.

8 week ban for Francis

Will be interesting to see what Marler gets for his two offences, assuming that he's found guilty of both.

I thought eye gouging carries a sanction between 12 and 208 weeks so that's "slap on the wrist" for being reckless territory rather than malice then

Gatland saying in the press conference that Alun Wyn Jones has been carrying an injury all tournament and Warburton was concussed against England. AWJ looks like he needs a long rest to me but has important Ospreys games approaching as well as a daunting summer tour to New Zealand.Much was made of us having a scratch side at the World Cup but we really do need more strength in depth in key postions. I'm worried the summer tour will break the likes of Jaimie Robinson, Same and Alun Wyn before next season and they'll also look fatigued then. I would stop N Hemisphere tours down south in the season following a World Cup. I'm not sure how much Gatland will care about losing them for Wales next season as he's likely to be Lions coach again.

Agreed, he has got off lightly there.

I would have thought 3 weeks for the elbow...

I have hear d they are waiting until that is done to decide whether to cite on the racial thing, which makes no sense to me. The two aren't related, I hope they don't drop the racial one if he gets a high end (4 week) ban, and similarly I hope they don't use the racial one to just top up if they go lenient for the elbow.

I think the elbow offence is a minimum of 2 weeks,. while the gypsy banter/slur has a 4 week entry point (not sure what the maximum is).

Got off somehow
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35827133
Surely he will get a ban for the verbals on Lee?

No ban for 'gypsy boy' comment. I'm sure the Welsh fans will love that.

I see that link has been updated since I posted. Dont see how he got off; not a good message to send out.

Que Sera Sera to Mike Teevee's comment. There'll be some Welsh supporters backlash but I'm with tealady in that it's setting an uneasy precedent, rather than being about getting an England player banned. If a player makes a homophobic or racist comment in the future and rightly gets a 'rest' from the game, have the disciplinary panel now decided that a person from a travelling community doesn't count in terms of being insulted?

I think this stems from the fact it wasn't said as a racist comment and wasn't taken as one. Apparently his nickname in the Welsh Squad is "Gypsy Boy", so yeah, are we banning the welsh squad as well now?

I feel for Samson as he obviously doesn't care, wants to just move on and now the internet is full of people being offended on his behalf.

Even though Joe didn't mean as a racist dig, I think that he probably should have received a ban.

I know that probably sounds a bit PC, but this sets a slippery precedent as any future racist/homophobic language can be brushed off as a 'heat of the moment' thing.

As for the team news....

England: M Brown, A Watson, J Joseph, O Farrell, J Nowell, G Ford, D Care, M Vunipola, D Hartley, D Cole, M Itoje, G Kruis, C Robshaw, J Haskell, B Vunipola.

Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie, J Marler, K Brookes, J Launchbury, J Clifford, B Youngs, M Tuilagi, E Daly.

Joe drops to the bench

Scotland: Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Taylor (Saracens), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Tim Visser (Harlequins), Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw captain (Gloucester), Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), (Edinburgh), Richie Gray (Castres), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), John Barclay (Scarlets), John Hardie (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors)

Replacements: Stuart McInally (Edinburgh), Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh), Moray Low (Exeter Chiefs), Rob Harley (Glasgow Warriors), Josh Strauss (Glasgow Warriors), Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors).

Maybe England should have dropped him for the match just to show that he wasn't banned by World Rugby/6 Nations committee but England dealing with it internally.
Instead he is on the bench and that will be because they think Mako can do the better job against the French.

I was hoping Mullan would get a game.

As a Wasps fan I'm 50/50. On the one hand I want our players to get international recognition, while on the other I selfishly want him to play at weekend (so we can keep up our good form).

France: S Spedding; W Fofana, G Fickou, M Mermoz, V Vakatawa; F Trinh-Duc, M Machenaud; J Poirot, G Guirado, R Slimani, A Flanquart, Y Maestri, D Chouly, B Le Roux, L Goujon.

Replacements: C Chat, U Atonio, X Chiocci, P Jedresiak, W Lauret, S Bezy, J Plisson, M Medard.

Mullan seems to be going very well. On the face of it he doesn't look that massive for a prop I assume he's very mobile around the park? It's great to see all props aren't oversized lummocks anymore

Last bit of team news

Ireland: S Zebo, A Trimble, J Payne, R Henshaw, K Earls, J Sexton, C Murray; J McGrath, R Best (capt), M Ross; D Ryan, D Toner; CJ Stander, T O'Donnell, J Heaslip.

Replacements: R Strauss, C Healy, N White, U Dillane, R Ruddock, E Reddan, I Madigan, F McFadden.

Italy: Odiete; L Sarto, Pratichetti, Garcia, Bellini; Allan, Palazzani; Lovotti, Giazzon, Castrogiovanni; Geldenhuys, Bernabo; Minto, Zanni, Parisse.

Replacements: Fabiani, Zanusso, Chistolini, J Sarto, Steyn, Lucchese, Haimona, McLean.

Yeah he's very good, he's improved lots over the last two seasons. Glad he's getting the England recognition, though he is firmly behind Marler and Vunipola.....for now at least.