Here's your round-up of all the latest rugby news for Sunday February 12.
Owens: 'Wales braced for grenades'
Wales captain Ken Owens has admitted his side will come under fire after another disappointing result in the Six Nations. The visitors were blown away on their trip to Murrayfield on Saturday as they conceded five tries and gave a less than convincing account of themselves going forward.
Speaking after the match, the skipper was left rueing missed opportunities as he admitted the stellar work of Scotland star Finn Russell had left them chasing the game.
"We weren’t clinical enough," he said. "Back-to-back errors piggy backed them up the field. Finn Russell controlled the game very well and we chased the game too much."
However, he insisted the squad had to "stay tight as a group," explaining: "There’s going to be some grenades thrown in at us. We will be honest with each other, put the graft in and keep tight."
As the competition enters a rest week, Warren Gatland also said that the coaching team would "make some tough calls" after his side endured successive defeats at the start of a Six Nations campaign for the first time since 2007, when they were also knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage.
"There’s a review process," he said. "We’ve got to be incredibly honest about the changes we need to make. We made a much better start this week. Discipline was a focus and being more clinical when you create opportunities.
"There wasn’t much improvement in those final two areas. We need to fix it up and fix it up quickly. The World Cup is important to us and we’ll have more time together. We need to make some tough calls moving forward."
Ritchie fires back after Biggar comments
Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie has fired back at Dan Biggar after the Wales star threw down the gauntlet ahead of yesterday's clash by saying that Gregor Townsend's side were yet to prove that they are "the best team around".
Speaking before the game at Murrayfield, Biggar said sarcastically: "Scotland played well last week against England but according to you guys they are the best team around aren’t they? We’ll have to see how they go on Saturday, and let's see if they can back it up because the pressure is on them."
However, after the emphatic Murrayfield win, Ritchie took a swipe back at Biggar with the Triple Crown and even the Grand Slam in his side's sights.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, the Scotland skipper admitted he didn't know Biggar had made those comments, but went on: "Talk is cheap isn’t it? We haven’t won anything yet but we’ve won the first two games. They’ve won medals but that’s in the past.
"We put Wales under pressure. We knew if we stuck to our game we’d create opportunities and their discipline slipped. We knew they wanted to turn it into a messy affair which is what happened last year. We stayed out of that today."
Sexton sights on Grand Slam
Ireland skipper Jonathan Sexton has set his sights on the Grand Slam - and World Cup success - after they followed beating Wales with a thrilling 32-19 win over reigning Six Nations champions France.
“We knew how big this game was in terms of the championship, but it’s not worth anything if we let it slip in the next game,” he said.
“It’s been clear from the start what we want to achieve. We won a Triple Crown last year and we said we want to get better this year. Well, to get better is to win the championship and a Grand Slam. How you do that is by concentrating on the next two weeks.”
Looking even further ahead to the World Cup in the autumn, he said: “If everything goes to plan, and we get through our group there is a chance we will play France again. So it was good to get that off our back, in terms of beating them, as they were the only team we hadn't."
Genge ready to roar for England
Ellis Genge has demanded England look inwards for inspiration rather than relying on the roar of Twickenham when they face an Italy side in the ascendancy.
Genge, England's vice-captain, insists his team must "find our own fire" in their pursuit of their first win under Eddie Jones' successor Steve Borthwick.
"I'd be worried if we don't motivate ourselves to be honest," the Bristol prop said. "If we're not trying to win and are relying on the fans to give us the energy to do so, we are probably not in the right spot.
"It's brilliant to have a loud crowd and loads of noise but it's not something we're necessarily relying on - we have got to find our own fire."
England have won 29 out of 29 previous encounters against their round two opponents, but for the first time since entering the Six Nations in 2000 Italy are viewed as a genuine threat.
Their 36-Test losing run in the tournament ended against Wales last year and they built on that by toppling Australia 28-27 in Florence a few months later, before taking France to the wire in a 29-24 loss last Saturday.
"There were those articles about whether Italy should be replaced in the Six Nations by Georgia, but they have really showed their worth over the last few fixtures," Genge said.
"They had that big win in Wales away from home and played brilliantly against France, so they are definitely no mugs.
"Everyone was reasonably shocked about how close it was against France and they had every opportunity to win if a few things went their way."
Wales clean sweep of Scotland defeats
Wales had a clean sweep of defeats to Scotland this weekend, with Warren Gatland's team, the U20s and a development women's side falling to the Scots.
Just weeks after edging their opponents in a 10-try thriller in Glasgow, the WRU Development XV were dominated by Scotland's Thistles 21-7 at Cardiff Arms Park in the Celtic Challenge, a competition set up to try to develop squad depth and create a stepping stone between grassroots and Test rugby.
Wales looked in danger of being nilled, but captain Abbie Fleming scored a consolation try near the end to restore some pride on a tough weekend for Welsh rugby.
READ NEXT:
The reasons Wales were just hammered by Scotland as myths busted and basics go missing
The 11 stars fronting up Wales' new era as Gatland's young guns out to put down World Cup markers
Antoine Dupont defies physics with insane try-saving tackle in Ireland v France
Dan Biggar takes swipe at 'best team around' Scotland and insists Wales deserve more respect
