These are your morning headlines on Friday, March 25.
Owens picks Adams in team of tournament
Former international referee Nigel Owens has picked Josh Adams as the sole Welshman in his Six Nations team of the tournament. Adams finished the competition strongly despite the defeat to the Italians, picking up the man-of-the-match award for scoring a try and making a try-saving tackle in the second half. Owens' XV is dominated by France with no fewer than eight picks. Adams, though, got the nod on the wing.
"I'm going to go for Josh Adams on the wing," Owens said. "I think he's played very well in a season in which Wales haven't played well. Josh Adams has, for me, defended well on the weekend, try-saving tackles, scored a try, gave his man of the match award to the young Italian full-back (you can read what they said to each other here ), to me that sums up a lot about him as a player. He has been one of the Welsh players who has performed well in this tournament."
There is no doubt who Owens was most impressed by, though. "[Antoine] Du Pont at nine, without a shadow of a doubt," he said. "The best player in the world at the moment. If he carries on playing on like this for the next six or seven years, he will go down as the best player ever, I think."
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Nigel's team of the tournament: Hugo Keenan (Ireland), Damian Penaud (France), Gael Fickou (France), Jonathan Danty (France), Josh Adams (Wales), Romain Ntmack (France), Antoine Dupont (France), Ellis Genge (England), Maxime Machenaud (France), Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), Maro Itoje (England), Cameron Woki (France), Michele Lamaro), Gregory Alldritt (France), Josh van der Flier (Ireland).
Hogg victim of Scotland ambiguity - Baxter
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter has come to the defence of Stuart Hogg, saying the Scotland captain was a victim of "a little bit of ambiguity" and not national team rules.
Hogg and five of his national team-mates were disciplined after they were deemed to have broken team protocol by going out drinking following their win over Italy. Hogg has since apologised for the embarrassing turn of events, and you can read more about the incident here.
Baxter, though, believes, the incident was "very minor". He told the BBC : "I think people are trying to make out there has been a clear breach of team rules - there's not been. I think there was a little bit of ambiguity over what was supposed to happen when he got back to the hotel. That ambiguity was cleared up with a phone call asking the guys to come back."
"It was one of those things, sometimes it can happen, but it all got cleared up very quickly, almost within minutes of the incident," the Exeter coach added. "It's not like anyone's gone out and got drunk and got into a fight, or come back at six o'clock in the morning or missed training. So I can probably understand why the Scottish people involved are a little frustrated that this has been a big issue, because it clearly hasn't been."
England boss admits Eddie Jones not 'bullet-proof'
Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney denies Eddie Jones is immune from the sack but remains convinced he is still the best man to oversee England's challenge for the World Cup next year. Sweeney insists Jones is not "bullet-proof" despite emerging from another failed Six Nations campaign with the support of the RFU.
For a second consecutive year England lost three of their five matches, finishing 15 points adrift of winners France, and they engineered only three tries outside of their rout of Italy. The RFU's initial reaction was to state "we are encouraged by the solid progress the team has made", provoking an outcry before Twickenham belatedly accepted on Thursday that the performance had fallen well below expectations.
Jones has urged supporters to keep believing in his ability to deliver at France 2023 and while he has the support of Sweeney, he has been told it is not without its limits.
"No-one is bullet-proof. No-one is indispensable. I'm not indispensable. Anyone can go at any particular time, but that happens when there's a loss of confidence," Sweeney said. "People stay in their role because there is a belief that you are still heading in the right direction, even when sometimes the results might not back that up. You make a call, you make a judgement - are we heading in the right direction? If we felt we weren't heading in the right direction, then of course he's not bullet-proof. He knows that himself.
"We review and evaluate things as we go along. It's not a case of saying 'let's wait six months and then review it and see how we're going'. We'll continue to review all the way through, from before the summer tour to Australia and all the way through the tour. We will have those conversations and as long as we're moving in the right direction, we're happy."
Jones is the highest paid coach in international rugby and was recruited in the aftermath of a dismal 2015 World Cup to deliver silverware for England.
Italy praise Adams and refocus on World Cup
Italy's shock victory over Wales marked the beginning of a new chapter and proved that the Azzurri can hold their own at the top table of European rugby, according to captain Michele Lamaro. Question marks had been raised about Italy's future in the Guinness Six Nations following a run of 36 successive defeats stretching back to 2015.
However, they stunned defending champions Wales last weekend, winning 22-21 in Cardiff to collect their first ever victory on Welsh soil. Italy clinched the win a minute from time when full-back Ange Capuozzo attacked from inside his own half and Edoardo Padovani claimed a try that Paolo Garbisi converted to spark wild scenes of celebration.
One memorable moment from their victory in Cardiff came when Wales wing Josh Adams handed over his Player of the Match medal to Capuozzo, who has caught the eye with his two-try debut against Scotland and his key late intervention in the Welsh capital.
"I think that was a brilliant moment from him [Adams] and it shows how much respect there is between each other," said Lamaro. "Ange is a really good guy. Even after two matches like that he's been so calm and that's something you have to be happy about because a guy like that with such a talent, it's difficult to stay calm and stay humble."
Lamaro, who plays his club rugby with Benetton in the United Rugby Championship, could hardly have anticipated captaining Italy to their next Six Nations win when he watched their previous victory - a 22-19 triumph over Scotland - at a friend's house as a 16-year-old. However, he is now determined that the dark days are behind Italy and that he and head coach Kieran Crowley can help guide the national team to new heights.
"What we are trying to do is to create a positive process that allows us to be competitive in the game and obviously to be prepared before and after," the 23-year-old flanker told the PA news agency. "We don't want to get to the point again where we're not competing and not having those results. From now on we really want to start to be competitive day by day, just by trusting our process. [The Wales result] is something that gives you confidence that you can be there, you can compete at this level, you can win a game in the last minute. We knew it, but for us as a team the result gives us a lot of confidence moving on."
The next 18 months will be all about building towards the 2023 Rugby World Cup for Italy. "Everything is planned to get to the World Cup in the best place we can," added Lamaro. "This Six Nations was meant to be our foundation so that we can build on that and I think the great work has been done. Moving on it will get easier to refocus and to think about our foundations and our basics. That's our standard and we don't want to drop it. I'm so excited to work with this group because we are all young and we want to achieve the highest thing we can."
Rees-Zammit on the bench
Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit has been named on the bench for Gloucester's derby against Worcester this weekend. Rees-Zammit endured a frustrating Six Nations, in and out of the side and released back to the Cherry and Whites instead of facing England to get minutes under his belt.
Head coach George Skivington will welcome back a host of internationals for the game, conceding a few of them will be frustrated with their tournaments. "Chris Harris was the only one who got a smooth Six Nations,” he said. “It has been frustrating for the others as they haven’t been playing for either us or their countries a lot of the time, but everyone is back now.”
The 21-year-old was named in the matchday 23 which suffered the embarrassment of losing to Italy on the final day of the competition. In the build-up to that match, his team-mate Josh Adams spoke with warmth about the Gloucester man and how he responded from being omitted against England.
“I think his reaction to not being selected for the England game has been terrific,” said Adams. “He went back to his club at Gloucester and came off the bench to score a wonderful try. I think he did everything asked of him. He came on against France and made a great impact, and that is what you want. He had a couple of really nice touches and looked dangerous. I said at the beginning of the campaign that he is a massive weapon for us. He’s only 21, which is crazy.”
The youngster will now look to finish the season strongly in the West Country, with a summer tour to South Africa the carrot for him.
