Here's your round-up of the latest rugby headlines for Saturday, March 5.
Warburton defends Basham
Sam Warburton has stepped in to defend Wales flanker Taine Basham amid talk that he should carry the can for Wales' breakdown struggles against England.
It was there Wayne Pivac's men conceded the majority of the 13 penalties awarded against them, enabling Marcus Smith to kick the points that ultimately proved decisive. Read more about Wales' breakdown troubles here.
"Wales clearly struggled at the breakdown against England, and I have seen some suggestions that open-side flanker Taine Basham should carry the can for that," former Wales and Lions captain Warburton said in his column for The Times.
"That is nonsense. The breakdown is a 15-man job. Basham can only be at, probably, one in four rucks. There were much deeper issues for Wales at Twickenham that they urgently need to fix for this France match.
"They conceded seven breakdown penalties against England and I went through them all. Some of them were down to very good work from England, but there were some sloppy mistakes by Wales."
He also warns that inaccuracy from Wales will be punished by France on Friday night, so has warned them not to play too much rugby 30 metres from their own line.
"France, like New Zealand, have that x-factor to punish any side in the world from only one phase," he explained.
"I can imagine that Neil Jenkins, who is in charge of Wales’ exit strategies from their own half, will be telling the team not to play more than one phase in that part of the field. Only if there is a glaring opportunity — say a three-man overlap — should they consider anything else."
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Western Force duo suspended for 'drinking two glasses of wine' on flight
Super Rugby side Western Force has suspended two players for reportedly drinking “one to two glasses of wine” on a flight between Melbourne and Perth.
Hooker Andrew Ready and winger Byron Ralston sat out Friday night's defeat to the Queensland Reds following their actions on the four-hour flight last weekend.
Prop Greg Holmes is also expected to be penalised, but wasn't excluded from the squad for their round-three fixture due to an apparent lack of tighthead options.
Discussing the incident, Matt Hodgson, the Force’s general manager of rugby, told The Daily Telegraph : “They weren’t drunk or intoxicated on the plane, they each had one to two glasses of wine with their meals, but this was a player-led decision and it was determined that because we were wearing Force uniforms and with the short turnaround between games they shouldn’t have been drinking.
“This is very much part of setting the standards for the culture we’re trying to build here. And I can’t fault the reaction of the three players, they made the decision to stand themselves down from selection this week.
“They addressed the entire playing group on the first day back to training on Monday, apologised for their choices, and then ripped into training and really helped the guys who are stepping up to replace them.”
Ulster move top of URC after cruising past Cardiff
Ulster hit top spot in the United Rugby Championship after running in seven tries to ease past Cardiff 48-12 at the Kingspan Stadium and register their sixth-straight win in all competitions.
Robert Baloucoune scored twice as he crossed in each half, while James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Nick Timoney, Aaron Sexton and Tom Stewart also scored.
Cardiff's only points came from Kirby Myhill and James Ratti tries - the latter converted by Ben Thomas.
Ulster took seven minutes to get on the scoreboard when Billy Burns' cross-kick was picked up by Baloucoune, who scorched the scrambling Cardiff cover to score with Nathan Doak converting.
Doak then made it 10-0, five minutes later, after Willis Halaholo was sinbinned by referee Holly Davidson.
Ulster then scored their second try when Hume intercepted a Jarrod Evans pass and ran in from his own 22 to score under the posts, with Doak again converting.
After Cardiff blew a great chance to score when Josh Turnbull knocked on, the half ended with Ulster claiming their third try from McCloskey on the stroke of half-time but this time, Doak failed to convert.
The visitors finally got off the mark when Myhill was put clear by Matthew Screech though Evans, who began the move, missed the conversion.
Three minutes later, Ulster celebrated their try bonus when Timoney used his power to drive through with Doak again converting and - after 53 minutes - Baloucoune claimed his second score of the night after a burst from Stewart Moore as John Cooney added the extras.
Try number six was scored by substitute Sexton just after the hour with Cooney failing to convert but he was successful after Stewart claimed number seven.
Ratti then crashed over late on for Cardiff with Thomas converting and the game ended with a length-of-the-field Hume try being ruled out for a forward pass.
Johnson out to prove a point against the Scarlets
Glasgow Warriors coach Danny Wilson has urged centre Sam Johnson to prove he is worthy of a Scotland recall by producing a performance that Gregor Townsend can't ignore against the Scarlets on Saturday night.
Johnson started the Calcutta Cup win over England on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, but was overlooked for the defeats to Wales and France.
His Warriors boss has subsequently urged him to go out and prove a point at Parc y Scarlets this weekend.
“Sam is an outstanding rugby player," Wilson said. "He played against England in the first win, though hasn't played the last two. But I think he still has a huge amount to offer. Along with Sione [Tuipulotu] that is great competition there so we will see how that pans out.
“I think he now has a good chance to go out there against good opposition and really put his hand up. Then I think he genuinely has a chance to be considered for selection."
Fitzpatrick hits out at South Africa's possible Six Nations bid
All Blacks legend Sean Fitzpatrick has hit out at suggestions of South Africa joining the Six Nations Championship.
Reports had previously suggested the Springboks were exploring the opportunity to join the tournament from 2025, a move Fitzpatrick believes would deal a huge blow to rugby in the southern hemisphere.
He said: "The Six Nations is arguably the best competition in world rugby at the moment outside the World Cup.
"We’ve seen that in the first three rounds. It’s compelling viewing. Why look at adding something to it when it’s not broken?
“I don’t personally like having a southern hemisphere team in the Six Nations because the history of the competition is northern hemisphere.
“I like the Six Nations as it is and it would be devastating to the southern hemisphere if we lost South Africa out of the Rugby Championship.”
Ireland to consider contracts
The Irish Rugby Football Union says it will consider introducing contracts for Ireland Women's 15s players, despite claims that players themselves aren't wholly supportive of the move.
The introduction of contracts was one of 30 recommendations - which have all been accepted - made as part of a review into Ireland's failure to qualify for this year’s postponed Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
It comes amid the announcement that funding for the women's game will increase by £830,000 annually to reach £3.3million following the review, while two new roles are to be created - head of women's performance and pathways and a full-time women's XVs national team programme manager.
At present, the IRFU contracts women players for Sevens rugby, and CEO Kevin Potts has claimed that Ireland's players are uncomfortable with the idea of introducing contracts for 15s players.
If implemented, the move would follow historic Wales contracts which were introduced in January for 12 full-time professionals and 11 semi-pros. That came off the back of an independent review following last year's winless Six Nations, but the full recommendations have not been made public.
"Our vision for Irish rugby, as set out in our Strategic Plan 2018 - 2023, is based on 'building success together'," IRFU chief executive Kevin Potts said..
"However, we are committed to putting this right and we regard the recommendations of this independent review as a solid basis from which to reignite the long-term development of women's rugby in Ireland."
He added: “It was quite interesting that one of the comments back to me from the player group was that they were uncomfortable with that recommendation because they didn’t want this review to be about talk on professionalisation.
“In fact, they would have preferred that not to be there at all because they wanted this to be focused on all of the other things. That was an interesting and welcome thought.”
Edinburgh rack up eight tries in Connacht demolition job
Edinburgh ended their three-game losing run in some style against Connacht, scoring eight tries in a 56-8 United Rugby Championship victory at the DAM Health Stadium.
Blair Kinghorn orchestrated proceedings from stand-off, and Argentina international Emiliano Boffelli was on devastating form with the boot, converting all of his team's tries in their biggest URC win of the season so far.
Curiously, given how the game turned out, Connacht dominated the opening half-hour and might easily have scored more than eight points.
Jack Carty opened the scoring with a penalty and then Peter Sullivan did well to scoop a low pass off the deck and touch down in the right corner, but they passed up several chances to add to their lead, especially when Edinburgh number eight Mesu Kunavula was in the sin bin for a high tackle.
After playing second fiddle for so long, Edinburgh burst into life in the 10 minutes before the interval, scoring three tries.
Kinghorn laid on the first for Boffelli after Glen Young had stolen line-out ball.
Henry Immelman then burst through for the second after good work by Chris Dean, and hooker Dave Cherry marked his 50th appearance for the team by getting the third from a line-out drive.
With Boffelli converting all three, that gave Mike Blair's team a 21-8 lead at the break. They still had some work to do in order to secure the win, and went about it with a will straight from the restart.
Within minutes Kinghorn got the bonus-point try after a speedy one-two with number eight Ben Muncaster. The fly-half soon provided the scoring pass for the fifth, finished off by Ramiro Moyano.
When Immelman scored again from a floated pass by Dean, there were still 20 minutes to play. There was little or no life left in Connacht by that time, however, and they conceded again less than 10 minutes later when Young finished off from close range.
Edinburgh academy prospects Rudi Brown and Jamie Campbell came on for their debuts late on, and replacement scrum-half Ben Vellacott rounded off a highly successful night for his team with a solo try minutes from time.
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