France 21 - 16 Wales

Wales' hopes of back-to-back grand slams and equalling and then exceeding the continuous games winning streak record came to a shuddering, but still glorious, halt last night.

Predicting the outcome of games against France is always tricky... and yesterday showed just why. France were in disarray with no recognised goal kicker (which showed), a crash centre trying to play the touch position of first five-eighth (which showed in some respects) and so on.

As with last week with England, there was a plan to try and stop the Welsh three-quarters firing. It was different to last week's plan, but even more effective. Unlike last week, there was also a plan to deal with Wales' defensive alignments and the likes of Heymans were more than capable of exploiting the gaps created by their interior players. Then there was Harinordiqy, who doesn't always play well, but yesterday was immense, unbelievably immense. Powell, who didn't have a bad game in terms of runs, tackles, covering play etc. was completely eclipsed on the night by his opposite number. Given Powell is probably going to get a Lions invitation in the summer, high praise indeed. In fact, after last night when he had a good game even when his opposite number was playing probably the best game of his life, just makes him more likely I'd think.

The slightly worrying thing? Wales failed to have a Plan B available and executable. Plan A, to the TV audience at least, was clearly not working - so where was Plan B? I can't believe it looked like Plan A was working on the field either and failing to adapt to that, particularly when there had been a 13-3 lead, is criminal.

France clearly wanted it more on the night. But, in the process will they make Wales a strong side for the next year or two? Learning how to cope with defeats like this should be part of the building of any great team. It happens to all great teams (think NZ in the RWC) so it's not a disaster as long as they can learn from it and go forward with confidence.

France 22 - 13 Scotland and Wales 23 - 15 England

Two victories as expected for the home sides.

Scotland improved. France still played in patches, but only in patches - but were still good enough.

The commentators are saying "England improved" but I'm not sure they did. England desperately spoiled, spoiled again, and again, and some would say they were lucky there were only 2 yellow cards. Wales were good enough to defend against the pressure that England did exert - in that sense they were better than last week, they did manage to exert some pressure - and England despite trying desperately to prevent Wales' attacks weren't actually good enough to do that throughout the game and so weren't able to stop them scoring. The fact that the game was as close as it was is basically due to Joe Worsley tackling his heart out all day long. But he can't be there to tackle every time, he wasn't there to tackle every time, and Wales scored on that basis.

On today's showing there's still a lot of red shirts going for Lions' shirts. Joe Worsley might get one. But Worsley is a player near the end of career. Good luck to him for extending it another cap, but he's not going to the next RWC. Who will replace him?

There are always hard games in a Grand Slam. England v Wales is always harder than it looks - the fact this is the first time Wales have beaten England three times on the trot for the first time is a good indication of that. But, Wales v France doesn't hold much in the way of terrors after today's performance. Wales v Italy shouldn't either... The question really, will be can England or Scotland lift enough to beat Ireland or will it be a GS decider at the end for both sides?

Scotland 13 - 26 Wales

At several points I thought my prediction (Wales by 20 points) was going to be dramatically wrong in the opposite direction. For the first 50 minutes or so Wales were utterly dominant, and Scotland looked like they'd forgotten how to play the game. If Wales had been ruthless and kept playing to their peak, it could easily have been a 40 point margin.

As it was, Wales took their foot off the accelerator, Martyn Williams got sent to the sin bin in a decision I still think was borderline whether it was even a penalty (but I will admit to bias) and that let Scotland start playing faster and looking more dangerous. They found a bit more space on the park, and exploited it, although only once. However, that foot-lifting really only happened once the match was put away, and although there was one moment when the space was exploited and another when it was close, the defence suddenly clicked back into gear and although Scotland tried to attack they lost the ability to penetrate the red line.

Wales also destroyed the Scottish scrum, routinely and often.

Unlike either match yesterday, this was dominant rugby played by a skillful team. They stopped Scotland playing in a way that none of the teams of yesterday managed against their opponents. it didn't make for a match that engaged the neutrals in the way that Ireland v France did, but it did suggest that Wales to win the 6N is a good bet, and a grand slam repeat isn't that unlikely.

Oh, and for the red Lions shirts in the summer? On today's performance expect a lot of players used to wearing red, some used to wearing green. Blue or white your colours? Oops.

Ireland 30 - 21 France

Well, I predicted this one to be close but the other way - France by 5 was my guess.

Unlike the previous match, this was exciting, entertaining, creative, and good. The lead swapped hands several times, and until the last couple of minutes it wasn't clear who was going to win.

Both sides played, at times, imaginative, fast attacking rugby. Both sides, most of the time, defended well when the other side were attacking well, but there were just enough cracks, particularly of French discipline at key times, for the scores to build up. But, although the defences played well, the tackles were usually made and so on, the attacks generally remained well considered and fast and always looking like they could have been successful.

Chabal had a massive game, in the line outs and in particular running with the ball in-hand. Ireland played, overall, better as a team and with that bit more discipline (they gave away no penalties in the first half for example) to deserve the win, but this was a match that, as a neutral, I'd love to watch again - it was pulsing, fun, entertaining. Well worth watching, and really highlighting the deficiencies of England's performance. If England play like this throughout the 6N there won't be any English Lions, and England will only win one match.

England 36 - 11 Italy

Oh how a scoreline flatters to deceive. England were woeful, and Italy for quite large parts of the second half at least, looked like the only creative team on the pitch.

The problem? England scored 1 try (their last) with a simple passing pattern from a line-out, and only just made that. Their other 4 tries came directly from mistakes, sometimes a string of mistakes, made by Italy where, to be frank, my mum and I could have scored.

Pointing fingers in rugby is often not that easy but, sadly, you would have to say Mauro Bergamasco deserves to be on the end of the finger pointing for two tries all on his own. (He may also have made mistakes in another one by being out of position.) Mauro is a very good flanker, playing at scrum half he had a disaster - passes going awry, getting into rucks and letting the ball pop out to an England player and the like. You've got to admire his courage to step up and give it a go, but he isn't a scrum half, and you would probably have to say that this decision cost Italy a chance at winning.

But, Italy weren't the only team at fault. England were slow, incredibly slow, at getting the ball from the ruck. They had the creativity of a wet paper bag, and so would run in a desultory fashion a couple of phases, each one actually letting the Italian defence organise BETTER, and so be forced to kick the ball away. Not every kicking decision was a good one - they got into the habit of kicking and so kicked earlier and earlier, but many of them were good at that point. England made them good though by being so unimaginative.

Brian Moore, a commentator I usually love to hate came out with two very quotable moments. "Tickets here cost £85 don't they? I want a refund" and "It doesn't matter how much you tweak the rules, if the players don't want to play rugby, you can't force them." And that's really how bad England were.

The final touch - when the commentator asked Moore to name the man of the match, my immediate thought was Parese. Moore named Ellis, and I don't have a problem with that, but when the first thought is for the losing captain, it says something about how bad the winning side were.

Wales next week for England. I'm sure they won't be thinking of it yet, but when they watch this, the Welsh will be rubbing their hands, licking their lips and looking to rack up a big score.