Here are your rugby headlines for Sunday March 12.
Wales target rampant French
Wales have set their sights on a seismic Six Nations shock in Paris after avoiding the dreaded Wooden Spoon with victory over Italy.
Warren Gatland's side, fresh from their 29-17 Rome win, will spend time training in the South of France before heading to the French capital for Saturday's tournament finale.
READ MORE: The unseen Italy v Wales moments as players find their voices to heal talk of split
They meet a French team bubbling with confidence and determined to retain their trophy after thrashing England 53-10 at Twickenham.
But Wales skipper Ken Owens is up for the fight and believes his own team are boosted by overcoming a banana skin of a game to beat the Azzurri.
"People have said there hasn’t been any effort and that we haven’t been trying but we certainly have been trying over the last seven weeks. We work very hard as a squad, as do the coaching group, and we’ve been building," said Owens.
“It’s been hard over the last seven weeks for many different reasons, with stuff on the field and stuff off the field. A new coach has come in, but we’ve stuck at it and kept working hard.
“We’ve got an opportunity to go to Nice and just concentrate on the game against France. We need to build and improve, we know that, but it’s easier to do that after a victory given the momentum and the confidence we’ve created.
“Nobody gave us a chance here but I’m just very happy – not with proving people wrong, because I don’t care what people say, but with the effort we’ve put in. We’ve had a good performance and a good win, but we know we’ve got to improve.”
French eye title
France boss Fabien Galthie was delighted by a Twickenham victory that gives his side hope of retaining their title heading into the final round next weekend.
The French can still win the Six Nations if Ireland slip up against either Scotland or England and they beat Wales.
"I've been coming to Twickenham for a long while - 20 years. It's emotional," Galthie said after his side's resounding triumph.
"We played well, how we wanted to. We wanted to do that, we didn't know how, but we wanted to do that.
"We've not been satisfied by our Six Nations. We wanted to do something here. The players wanted to put in a big game against England."
Gatland talks up veteran Webb
Wales boss Warren Gatland talked up the excellence of veteran scrum-half Rhys Webb after his player of the match performance in the Stadio Olimpico victory.
Webb's first Test start since October 2020 saw him create two tries as Gatland's team ended a run of three successive defeats in this season's tournament.
"I thought he was excellent in that game in the way his decision-making controlled the game," Gatland said. "He has not played at this level for a while, so we were always thinking when did we need to make a change in terms of his legs and stuff.
"I thought his contribution was excellent and his decision-making in not trying to force things, not trying too hard. I thought it was a great contribution by him."
Gatland will weigh up injuries to Liam Williams and Josh Adams before naming his team for Saturday's clash with France.
His side will train in the South of France before heading up to Paris for the game at the end of the week.
What were your Wales player ratings? Have your say right here:
England shellshocked
Steve Borthwick admitted England were brutally exposed by a record 53-10 defeat by France that revealed the gulf between the rivals.
England collapsed to their heaviest loss at Twickenham after leaking seven tries, enabling Les Bleus to record a first Six Nations win at the venue since 2005.
France, positioned second in the global rankings and the current Grand Slam champions, were responsible for one of the darkest days in English rugby history and Borthwick admitted the performance was not good enough.
"We're incredibly disappointed. Immense credit to France - their power, pace and class showed. It shows where the gap is," Borthwick said.
"No one is under any doubt about what we need to do. We've been pretty up front about that throughout. We wanted to understand exactly how the development of this team has gone and where we're at compared to the best teams in the world. We fell considerably short, that's the reality.
"The key element is that we know where we are. It shows just how much work we have to do. France showed just how much better they are than us."
Read more:
Wales player ratings as Rhys Webb rolls back the years but winger frustrated after Gatland call
Warren Gatland Q&A: The players that pleased me and what we still have to work on
Wales finally win a Six Nations match as old face returns to make difference
