Tuilagi poised for return after England midfield struggles
Manu Tuilagi played 30 minutes for Sale this weekend as he stepped up his return from an injury suffered in England's November victory over South Africa.
The Sale Sharks centre had been absent for club and country following the injury which he suffered while stretching to score England's opening try that day at Twickenham.
Due to Owen Farrell's injury, that game was an opportunity for Tuilagi to start alongside Henry Slade in a natural 12-13 combination, and with the England captain's absence in this Six Nations we could see more of the promising duo.
On Saturday, Slade played out of position at inside-centre with Elliot Daly outside but were out-fought by Scotland's more experienced combination or Sam Johnson and British and Irish Lion Chris Harris.
Marcus Smith was deployed as Farrell's replacement for the match and played well before being surprisingly replaced by George Ford after 65 minutes, after which Scotland seized the initiative.
There has been no confirmation as to whether a call-up is imminent for the 30-year-old but with England faltering in their Six Nations opener vs Scotland, Eddie Jones may well be picking up the phone to a player who helped him to a World Cup final.
Cowan-Dickie 'blameless' for yellow-card
Luke Cowan-Dickie was yellow carded in the closing stages of England's Calcutta Cup defeat following what was perceived to have been a deliberate knock-on while competing for the ball in the air.
Scotland were awarded a penalty try as a result and then seized the initiative with an extra player on the field for 10 crucial minutes in the course of the match
The Exeter Chiefs hooker could have been perceived by many as the cause of the defeat, however, his head coach has said that the hooker is 'blameless' for the incident.
Jones said: “That happens in the moment, he played exceptionally well for us and he is very disappointed but all the boys are supporting him. We don’t apportion any blame to Luke – the referee adjudged it was a yellow card and we have to get on with it.
“We had opportunities to kick on, but we just weren’t clinical enough. We are massively disappointed we lost and Scotland deserved to win. I thought we dominated lots of the game but didn’t get points out of the domination.
"Rugby is a simple game: when you dominate, you have to get the points.”
France unconvincing as Italy battle hard
Sunday saw a continental clash between France and Italy at Paris' Stade de France with a Gabin Villière for France seeing them towards a 37-10 bonus-point victory.
Italy had put France on the back foot in the opening exchanges, holding the lead for periods of the first-half and even scoring the opening try through 19-year-old Tommaso Menoncello, the youngest scorer in the Championship 55 years.
However, France's class shone through as they forced Italy into errors like the one that gifted Anthony Jelonch France's opener that helped them to a half-time lead of 18-10 after Villière's first try.
Having been so impressive in recent years, France failed to fire, partly due to a COVID outbreak in their camp which saw coach Fabien Galthie having to isolate for the game.
Villière completed his hat-trick with two second-half tries which saw France seal the bonus-point but Italy's strong showing will be positive news for the competition as a whole as they conceded less points than the All-Blacks did (40) at the same venue in November.
