Six Nations

It will be a pub quiz question for years to come. Who was Scotland’s best player in the opening four rounds of the 2019 Six Nations only to miss out on that crazy day at Twickenham? The answer is obvious, Jamie Ritchie, the stand-out player for Scotland until he was poleaxed playing against Wales and missed the England game with a head/neck injury.

The former Scotland winger Kenny Logan started his first Six Nations match in 1993 and didn’t score a try in the Championship until seven years later, against Ireland, at Dublin’s Lansdowne Road in 2000. After two Six Nations starts and another appearance off the bench Darcy Graham has scored three times, which gives you a clue just how far Scotland have come in a relatively short time.

There have been a good many Welsh teams more exhilarating to watch than Warren Gatland’s Grand Slam winning side, but very few that might lay a claim to being as effective. Wales reminded us that there is more than one way to win a match. Their game was built on the leadership of Alun Wyn Jones, a hard-working and efficient front five, a voracious and skilful back-row, a pair of centres who offered rock-solid defence in midfield, a full-back who swallowed up opposition kicks and reliable goal-kicking. Then they had a try-scoring wing in Josh Adams and what every winner of a Grand Slam needs: a generous slice of luck, with regard to injuries and opposition 
blunders.

Alun Wyn Jones has been named 2019 Guinness Six Nations player of the Championship after leading Wales to the third Grand Slam of the Warren Gatland era.

Ben Te’o and Billy Vunipola have apologised to team-mates after they returned late from a drinking session following England’s 38-38 Guinness Six Nations draw with Scotland.

No Scot who witnessed the extraordinary events at Twickenham on Saturday, in the stadium, at home, or in the pubs and clubs, will ever forget it but for one it was particularly special.

Scotland will open their Six Nations 2020 campaign with a trip to Dublin to face Ireland on Saturday February 1.

Calcutta Cup hero Finn Russell has revealed that he played in Saturday’s epic 38-38 draw at Twickenham - in which he was man of the match - with a fractured cheek.

E very Scottish rugby supporter is spoiled for choice this Monday morning when seeking something from the astonishing events at Twickenham to smile about and escape the start of another weekly grind.

Gregor Townsend may, come the World Cup in Japan, benefit from the consequences of the blows fortune has inflicted on him in this Six Nations campaign, writes Allan Massie

Edinburgh have strengthened their squad ahead of next season with the signing of Scotland international prop Jamie Bhatti on a two-year deal.

Among the sights and sounds of a Welsh Grand Slam, the indigenous songs in the Principality Stadium lingered in the ears for hours: the national anthem and Hymns and Arias and Have a Nice Day and What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? No, it was Alun Wyn Jones, and the Irish needed to do much more than wrench his knee in a horrible first-half hyperextension to stop the mighty captain of Wales tackling and hitting rucks and running off line-outs and being the standout personality of this Six Nations, by a street.

This Calcutta Cup match swung one way then the other only to finish in the highest-scoring draw between two first class rugby nations in the history of the sport.

Sean Maitland and Simon Berghan, two of the heroes from Scotland’s sensational 38-38 draw with England, say they were desperate to put on an extra-special performance at Twickenham to honour the victims
of Friday’s terror attack in their native New Zealand.

Stuart McInally accentuated the positives after Scotland were denied a famous Twickenham victory on Saturday.

Scotland’s man of the match at Twickenham, Finn Russell, revealed he had disagreed with coach Gregor Townsend’s tactical plan at 
half-time in London, and urged his team instead to ignore the coach’s demands.

Eddie Jones rued mental flaws in an England side which “got out of jail” in a 38-38 draw with Scotland.