Round 3 of the Guinness Six Nations provided plenty of excitement and spectacular scores with France, England and Ireland emerging victorious.
Those three teams now look like the title contenders, with Les Bleus leading the way after their bonus-point success in Scotland.
England edged out Wales in the second game before Ireland ran in nine tries against 13-man Italy on Sunday.
There were a host of standout performances with four men making the cut for the Guinness Six Nations Player of the Round shortlist. Now it is your chance to vote:
Cyril Baille (France)
Loosehead props have come a long way in the modern game from being on the park just to scrummage and occasionally lift in the lineout. Even by modern standards though, Cyril Baille is raising the bar. Against Scotland he managed to get up in support after Antoine Dupont’s searing break to carry the ball in the lead-up to Paul Willemse’s first try, before he shifted from a rolling maul to collect Damian Penaud’s offload on the opposite flank before taking out four defenders with a brilliant offload of his own for Yoram Moefana to score.
Add in some typically powerful scrummaging and nine tackles from nine and it was another standout performance from Baille.
Alex Dombrandt (England)
Over the last two games, Alex Dombrandt seems to have established himself as one of the biggest breakdown threats in the game, wreaking havoc on Wales every time they carried into contact near him.
Officially Dombrandt finished with two turnovers, but he effectively had another when Will Rowlands sealed off at the threat of Dombrandt getting over the ball, while the No.8 also showed his power with England’s only try from an overthrown lineout.
Antoine Dupont (France)
Finn Russell’s deep kick early on at BT Murrayfield looked like a good option when it forced the French backfield cover all the way to their own 22. The problem was that the man collecting the ball was Antoine Dupont. He sized up the kick-chase, skipped past Darcy Graham and Rory Darge before running over Ali Price to set up a stunning score.
That was not the only time that Price was on the receiving end from his opposite number, with one thumping tackle smashing the Scotland scrum-half backwards. Stuart McInally suffered a similar fate though, with Dupont happy to defend forwards and backs in equal measure as he notched 13 tackles in a scintillating display from the French skipper.
Mike Lowry (Ireland)
There was a lot of excitement around Mike Lowry’s debut after his sizzling performances for Ulster this season. The quick-stepping full-back showed exactly why, getting his first Test try half an hour into his debut.
Faced with Juan Ignacio Brex and space on the outside, there was only going to be one winner, and Lowry made it two after the break when he was on hand to collect Johnny Sexton’s offload.
Lowry even had time to add a try assist, choosing against going for a hat-trick to put James Lowe over in the corner.
PLAY GUINNESS SIX NATIONS FANTASY RUGBY
