Here’s the roundup of the latest rugby news for Sunday 12th February.

Owens: “Wales are bracing for grenades”

Wales captain Ken Owens admitted his team will face criticism after another disappointing Six Nations finish. The visitors were disappointed on Saturday’s trip to Murrayfield as they conceded five tries and put on an unconvincing version of themselves up front.

Speaking after the match, the captain lamented the missed chances, admitting it was a stellar performance by Scottish star Finn Russell that kept them in the game.

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“We weren’t clinical enough,” he said. “Piggy’s constant mistakes kept them on the pitch. Finn Russell controlled the game very well and we chased the game too much.

However, he insisted that the team must “stand together as a group” and explained: “We will have grenades. We will be honest with each other, we will give in and resist.

With the competition entering a bye week, Warren Gatland also said the coaching staff would “be making some tough decisions” after his side suffered back-to-back defeats at the start of a Six Nations campaign for the first time since 2007 when they were also knocked out. . World Championship in the group stage.

“There is a review process,” he said. “We have to be incredibly honest about the changes we need to make. We got off to a much better start this week. Discipline was the focus and it was more clinical when you created opportunities.

“There hasn’t been much improvement in those last two areas. We need to fix this and fix it fast. The World Cup is important for us and we will have more time together. .”

Richie responds to Biggar’s comments

Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie hit back at Dan Biggar after the Wales star issued the challenge ahead of yesterday’s game, saying Gregor Townsend’s side have yet to prove they are “the best team”.

Speaking ahead of the match in Murrayfield, Biggar joked: “Scotland played well against England last week, but you think you’re the better team, don’t you? We’ll have to see how they behave on Saturday and see if they can back it up as the pressure is on them.”

However, after Murrayfield’s resounding victory, Ritchie struck back at Biggar to win the Triple Crown and even the Grand Slam.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, the Scotland captain admitted he was unaware Biggar had made the comments, but continued: “Easy talk isn’t it? We haven’t won anything yet, but we’ve won the first two games. but that’s a thing of the past.

“We put pressure on Wales. We knew if we continued our game we would create chances and their discipline vanished. We knew they wanted to make it a messy affair, which happened last year. Today we do not interfere with this. “

Sexton has his eye on a Grand Slam

Ireland captain Jonathan Sexton has his sights set on Grand Slam and World Cup success after defeating Wales in a thrilling 32-19 victory over reigning Six Nations champions France.

“We knew how big this game was in terms of the championship, but it doesn’t matter if we lose the next game,” he said.

“From the beginning it was clear what we wanted to achieve. We won the Triple Crown last year and we said we wanted to do better this year. Well, improving is winning championships and grand slams. How do you do that while focusing on the next two weeks?

Looking further ahead to the World Cup in the autumn, he said: “If everything goes according to plan and we make it through our group, there’s a chance we’ll play France again. So it was good to get that out of the way, in terms of beating them, because it was the only team we didn’t have.”

Genge ready to roar for England

Ellis Genge urged England to seek inspiration rather than rely on Twickenham’s roar when facing a dominant Italian side.

Genge, the England vice-captain, insists his side must “find their own fire” as they aim for their first win under Eddie Jones successor Steve Borthwick.

“I would be concerned if we weren’t motivated to be honest,” said the Bristol support. “If we’re not trying to win and we’re counting on the fans to give us the energy to do it, we’re probably not in the right place.
“It’s great to have a raucous crowd and a lot of noise, but it’s not something we necessarily rely on, we have to find our own fire.”

England have won 29 of their previous 29 matches against second-round opponents, but for the first time since joining the Six Nations in 2000, Italy are seen as a real threat.

Their 36-match losing streak in the tournament ended against Wales last year and they beat Australia 28-27 in Florence a few months later before beating France 29-24 on Saturday.

“There were articles about whether Italy should be replaced in the Six Nations by Georgia, but they really showed their mettle in recent games,” said Genge.

“They got that big win in Wales and they played brilliantly against France so it’s definitely not the marauders.

“Everyone was amazed at how close it was against France and they had every chance of winning if a few things went right.”

Wales lost to Scotland

Wales were heavily beaten by Scotland this weekend, with Warren Gatland’s team, under-20s and women’s development team falling to the Scots.

Just weeks after beating their rivals in a 10-try thriller in Glasgow, WRU Development XV were dominated by Scots Thistles 21–7 at Cardiff Arms Park in the Celtic Challenge, a competition designed to try to develop team depth and create rhythm. a springboard between bases and test rugby.

Wales looked in danger of coming clean but captain Abbey Fleming scored a late consolation try to regain some pride after a difficult weekend for Welsh rugby.

Source: Wales Online