SIX NATIONS REVIEW WEEK 4: ENGLAND WIN WITH WEEK TO SPARE

England won the Six Nations 2016 yesterday, without having to play their last match next Saturday against France. Following their close win on Saturday against Wales, which won them the Triple Crown, and Scotland's impressive victory yesterday against the French, nobody can now overhaul England's current points total of 8. They therefore have just the Grand Slam to go for, a feat they last achieved in 2003.

Shouldn't Dylan be holding the trophy Chris?

England's performance in the first half against Wales was so dominant that they should have been further ahead on the scoreboard than 16-0 at halfway, having has two tries disallowed by the ref. As it was, even with a Wales chargedown try against the run of play early in the second half, the scoreline of 25-7 looked definitive until Wales staged a late comeback, scoring two tries whilst Dan Cole was in the bin. Whilst, the first half was all England, who dominated the Welsh in all areas - scrums, line outs, contact area, etc, the second half belonged to Mr Joubert, making his first appearance on UK soil since, well, you know what. He looked nervous all day and understandably overused the TMO, which didn't allow the game to flow at all. He also failed to manage the scrum properly. I have never seen a scrum wheel so often beyond 360 degrees without penalty (to either side), with the ref just saying "ball out". It was a mess, and England benefited from this free for all in the second half, when Wales started to gain dominance up front, and Cole & Marler disrupted illegally 3-4 times in a row without a card being shown. Cole was eventually binned late on, resulting in the late Wales tries when England only had 14 on the pitch, but he should have gone earlier. The Welsh bench surprisingly had more of an impact than their English counterparts, with Tipuric and Charteris especially effective in the last 15 mins. Many thought that North offloaded before hitting touch after Tuilagi's great tackle on the whistle, and that play should have been allowed to continue, but touch judge raised his flag, so Mr Joubert had no option. There were two class moments, worth the £90 ticket price alone, the first being Itoje's break and pass for Watson's try (he looks a great prospect), and the second, Jonathan Davies' try scoring pass for George North (although his miss pass at the end of the game to put North away again was almost as good).

England deserved the victory and the Championship, with their forwards dominating every other team, and Farrell kicking everything (reminds you of Jonny). They also managed to gain quick ball (unlike in the RWC) and allowed the likes of Watson, Brown and Joseph to show what they are capable of given the ball in space. However, having only beaten Scotland by 6 points, Ireland by 11 points and Wales by 4 points, they still remain work in progress and messrs. Hansen and Cheika will not be quaking in their boots. Only a convincing win in Paris will start to gain the attention of the Southern Hemisphere.