Another highly entertaining Guinness Six Nations weekend has been and gone and as ever the Championship delivered excitement by the bucketload.
France and Ireland have now emerged as the early front runners after they both moved to nine points thanks to wins over Italy and Wales respectively.
On Saturday, England joined the party by notching their first win of the Championship to claim the Calcutta Cup against Scotland.
We’ve had a look at the finer points from the Round 2 action and dug out 10 stats powered by AWS you might have missed.
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CJ Stander continued his impressive personal Championship as he claimed the Guinness Six Nations Player of the Match for the second week on the spin.
The Munster man picked up three turnovers as he set the tone in defence for Ireland.
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Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric did more than most to stop Ireland from taking all the points as they made 41 tackles between them.
The pair missed one tackle apiece as Jones completed 21 and Tipuric finished the day with 20.
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Wales were off the pace in Dublin as Ireland eased to a 24-14 bonus-point win to end the visiting side’s hopes of claiming back-to-back Grand Slams.
The Welsh were sloppy in possession and 18 handling errors ensured they would struggle to gain a real foothold in the match.
Given the difficult conditions Scotland and England faced at BT Murrayfield, it is telling that neither of those sides made as many mistakes with their handling over the course of the weekend.
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Ireland’s display against Wales was in stark contrast to the win they ground out against Scotland a week earlier and they were the better side throughout the encounter at the Aviva Stadium.
The home side enjoyed 66 per cent of the territory in the first half which allowed them to take a 12-7 lead into the interval.
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They may have left BT Murrayfield with their first win of this year’s Championship under their belt, but England were certainly made to work for victory by Scotland.
Eddie Jones’ men attempted 177 tackles throughout the 13-6 win – substantially more than Scotland’s 95.
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Tom Curry carried the game to Scotland throughout a testing afternoon in Edinburgh and was ahead of the rest in terms of metres made as he finished with 70 to his name.
Jonny Gray was the next best ball carrier as he made 62 metres.
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Much was made of England’s failure to keep the ball on the pitch and they kicked directly into touch on more than one occasion in Scotland.
The 2019 World Cup finalists kicked possession 25 per cent of the time during the win.
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France No.8 Gregory Alldritt was the driving force behind his side’s second win on the trot as he produced 20 carries for a total of 149 metres gained.
Alldritt also made the second most tackles of any of the French side with 18 and added a try to a standout performance which helped France move to the top of the standings.
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After a slow start to their campaign, Italy were in need of an improved defensive display at the Stade de France and played their part despite suffering defeat once again.
Jake Polledri was Italy’s main defensive linchpin as he finished the day with 25 tackles to his name at a success rate of 96 per cent.
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Charles Ollivon certainly made his presence felt in France as he went over to score for the second week running.
Having added to his pair of tries against England last week, the flanker has now scored three times in this year’s Championship.
Furthermore, he has assisted three tries after he once again laid on a score in the win over Italy.
