These are the rugby stories making headlines in Wales and across the world on Wednesday, March 15.
King: Dupont like Dan Carter
Wales attach coach Alex King has compared France star Antoine Dupont to All Blacks great Dan Carter.
Warren Gatland's men end their Six Nations campaign in Paris on Saturday, facing off against one of the best players on the planet.
Dupont was at his mercurial best against England at Twickenham last weekend and attack coach King waxed lyrical about the scrum-half this week, paying him the ultimate compliment by comparing him to Carter.
READ MORE: The players outside Warren Gatland's Six Nations squad he'll likely call on for World Cup
"He is deceptively strong, and he has this ability to get out of situations in which you think you have cornered him," he said. "Suddenly there is an offload and the French get into their flow. He is quite remarkable and his skillset is phenomenal. His ability to see things unfold before other people, like the phenomenal 50-22 he did at the weekend, is a case in point.
"I suppose Dan Carter in his prime with the All Blacks had a similar influence on games. Dupont is certainly a player who is right at the top of his game. I spoke to a few friends who were at Twickenham last weekend, and they all said it was a pleasure to watch him play."
He added on the threat France pose: "Since the last World Cup they've basically given time to the young generation of players. The under-20s have been very successful at junior World Cups over the last four or five years. Those players have come through now, and they are reaping the benefits. A lot of that team is in the mid-20s, they have got 30-40 caps. They have got a good coaching set-up.
"Obviously, Shaun [Edwards] is their defence coach, Raphael Ibanez I played with at Wasps, and Fabian Galthie is one of the great thinkers in French rugby. It is all sort of coming to the pot [boil] at the right time, with a home World Cup just around the corner and probably the greatest French performance ever at Twickenham on Saturday. We go to Paris full of optimism and we will put everything into this performance."
Webb a 'real leader'
King, meanwhile, reserved special praise for Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb after his man-of-the-match display in Rome last weekend.
Webb made his first Six Nations start for Wales in six years to help his side see off the Azzurri on their own patch to seal their first win of the tournament. The Webb of old was on show as his kicking and quick thinking helped Wales score two tries, and King believes the No. 9 is entering a new phase of his career.
"He was absolutely great, a real leader who gave very clear direction to his forwards about what he wanted," King said of Webb's performance in Italy. "His kicking game was spot on, as was his game management and passing. Rhys has come in with a real spring in his step. He's really enjoying this next part of his career because he hadn't started for six years. He's relishing the opportunity of playing in Paris. I'm really pleased for him because he's a top man and he really helped us to get the victory on Saturday."
Wales targeting sell-out for England's Women's Six Nations visit
Wales will be targeting a sold-out Cardiff Arms for the visit of England in the TikTok Women's Six Nations, according to head coach Ioan Cunningham.
This year, Wales Women host Ireland on Saturday, March 25, and England on Saturday, April 15 (both 2.15pm kick-offs), while also travelling away to Scotland, France and Italy. Cunningham's Welsh side, a professional outfit for the second consecutive year, will realistically be bidding to match last year's third-place finish, which was their best in 13 years. But they will do so this year with added competition, with Ireland, Scotland and Italy all having moved towards professionalism in the last year.
England and France remain a cut above the rest, and Wales are in all likelihood some way off downing reigning Six Nations champions England, closing the performance gap and scoreline would be a positive. Last year's Six Nations result was a 58-5 win to the Red Roses.
It will be the Red Roses' final campaign under head coach Simon Middleton, who is stepping down at the close of the tournament. He took over in 2015, and oversaw a record-breaking 30-match unbeaten run, and two runs to World Cup finals in 2017 and 2022, losing to New Zealand's Black Ferns on both occasions.
Asked if Wales were targeting a sell-out v England, Wales boss Cunningham said: "Yeah, I’d definitely say that’s the target. To create an atmosphere when England come into town would be awesome. Last year, we had a great atmosphere for the Scotland game and it gives the players such a lift. So it’d be awesome to get as big of a crowd as possible for that game.”
England suffer injury blow
England will be without Ollie Chessum for the clash against Ireland this weekend. The lock has suffered an ankle injury in training and has been replaced by Leicester team-mate George Martin.
Chessum had started the previous four matches under Steve Borthwick but now faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
"Really disappointed, he's been outstanding for us throughout this campaign," assistant coach Kevin Sinfield told BBC Sport. "He's a big loss for us. So our thoughts and wishes are with him and we hope for a speedy recovery."
Sinfield added that England were still reeling from the humiliation dished out by the French in west London last weekend.
"It's still raw and there's still some grief around," Sinfield added. "There is a lot of grief, because it's not nice, because there's a lot of negative emotions and disappointment and embarrassment all wrapped up.
"When anyone puts 50 on you it hurts and it should, so we've worked incredibly hard at trying to understand why and then try and help take us forward. We came up against a team that were red hot, and I think it shows the gulf that is in play at this moment in time, a gulf we are trying to close as quickly as we can.
"The challenge for us now is we play the best team in the world currently, but I don't think there is a better opposition to come up against for us, another real challenge to see what character we have about us and to see if we can respond. We will learn a lot about ourselves on the weekend, it is certainly a tight group and I've been really impressed with how the players have responded."
Ireland not taking England for granted
Cian Healy insists Grand Slam-chasing Ireland would be "silly" to underestimate a "bloody dangerous" England side reeling from a record-breaking hammering at the hands of France.
Andy Farrell's men are heavy favourites to complete a Guinness Six Nations clean sweep when Steve Borthwick's wounded team visit Dublin on Saturday. England travel across the Irish Sea on the back of their biggest Twickenham loss to Les Bleus - a 53-10 humiliation - which emphatically wiped them out of title contention and sparked a fresh inquest into the team's ongoing struggles.
Veteran prop Healy believes it would be foolish to judge the visitors on a single result and is wary of the power of the opposition's forwards as Ireland look to make it a memorable St Patrick's Day weekend.
"You expect a bounce-back," he said. "England rugby is very strong historically, in our area they've a very strong pack, we're not going to look at that (France) game and go, 'oh yeah, that's going to happen for us'. That would be silly of us. We'll treat them with the historical respect we treat that pack with, because they're bloody dangerous and have very good players and have top-end weight in the pack.
"We'll review this properly and you don't just look at a team's last game, you look at their season, their players and their club games. You go through everything. There's a lot to pick apart and we'll do that, but at the same time there's going to be a lot of focus on ourselves."
READ MORE:
The players outside Warren Gatland's Six Nations squad he'll likely call on for World Cup
Dan Biggar set to return as Wales coach looks at new full-back options
Why Christ Tshiunza is missing from the Wales squad despite not being injured
Liam Williams one of two players out of France match as new man called up
