Weekend Round-Up: No one puts Scotland in the corner

After an intriguing Six Nations weekend and the explosive start of the Super Rugby season, here are the highlights you don’t want to miss.

Super Rugby: Blues vs Rebels
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Super Rugby kicked off for 2017 with last year’s 11th and 12th-placed teams meeting on a Thursday night in the rugby stronghold of Melbourne. Whatever the logic behind the scheduling, those who showed up or tuned in were rewarded with a surprisingly enjoyable game of early-season code. The first try of the season was a ripper, eventually finished off by Rebels halfback Nic Stirzaker, but the star of the show was Blues 19-year-old wunderkind Rieko Ioane. Have a look at the highlights if you want to see the future of rugby.

Super Rugby: Sunwolves vs Hurricanes
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The Savea brothers aren’t going to give up their title as rugby’s most dangerous brotherly duo to the Ioanes without a fight. Julian and Ardie were in another class as the Hurricanes swept aside the Sunwolves in Tokyo on Saturday. Watch the highlights if you like tries and Lomu-esque barnstorming runs, but this is one to avoid for the purists who think teams being humiliated does nothing for Super Rugby’s reputation.

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Six Nations: Scotland vs Wales
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These days the Scottish international side is a different animal from the one that other nations – Italy apart – have fed on for several Six Nations tournaments. Just ask Wales, who have become accustomed to beating their Celtic rivals, after winning nine of the previous 10 encounters. At first, it looked as if Rob Howley’s visitors would notch another victory as they ruled the early roost – but they were to discover that, these days, there’s bite in them thar Bravehearts. Odds against a Triple Crown in a fortnight?

Six Nations: Ireland vs France
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It was a grand, soft day in Dublin when Ireland entertained France at the Aviva. It was a day for discipline. It was a day for territory and tactical nous. It was, in short, a day for the fit-again Johnny Sexton. For all that the pre-match talk in Ireland was about whether Ulster’s Paddy Jackson should keep his place at 10 ahead of the gametime-shy Leinsterman, Sexton set about showing the Irish – and the French, and every other rugby-playing nation watching, for that matter – just what they had been missing. After a frenetic opening quarter, in which Les Bleus were denied what looked a nailed-on try, he set about restoring Irish order. Truth is, he was masterful. Conor Murray may have won the man-of-the-match award, but Sexton was the rock on which his honour was built.

Six Nations: England vs Italy
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That the England bandwagon marches on – 17 straight wins now – should come as the square root of no surprise to anybody. But this was not the walk in the park that almost everyone predicted. For an hour, Italy did more than just hang in there. Using the anti-ruck tactic shamelessly borrowed from Super Rugby’s Chiefs, they nullified England’s attack and infuriated the Twickenham crowd. The Azzurri deserved to be in front at halftime. And they deserved to still be within two points of England with just 18 minutes to go – before Eddie Jones’s men belatedly worked out what to do. This game is worth rewatching for referee Romain Poite’s response to James Haskell’s question about how England should deal with Italy’s greatest rugby trick.