WHAT THEY SAID: All Six Nations sides react to opening round results

Sun, Feb 2, 2025, 9:09 PM
AW
by AFP and Staff Writer
Ireland reacts to their win over England. Photo: Getty Images
Ireland reacts to their win over England. Photo: Getty Images

The Six Nations opening round saw France make a real statement of intent with a drubbing of Wales.

Meanwhile, Ireland took care of England despite their late flourish as Scotland showed enough class to take down Italy.

Watch every game of the Six Nations live and on-demand via Stan Sport.

With the first allotment of games in the books, each team has reacted to their respective results (via AFP)

France 43-0 Wales
France

Captain Antoine Dupont - "We have experience in this competition. A very good first match gives you no guarantees for the rest of the Six Nations. 

"We're satisfied with this win but next week, against England, a team in a different place to Wales, will be something else."

Player of the Match Gregory Alldritt - "A big team performance today, incredible to play in this stadium, our fans are outstanding," Alldritt told ITV.

"The key was to play as a team, we've got a lot of individual really good players, and we wanted to play as a team.

"I think we did well, we got forwards and backs tries. We are happy with the win tonight, but we only did 20% of the job, we've got four more games to go."

Wales

Coach Warren Gatland: "I think we can't hide away from that fact and we need to get that monkey off our back at the moment.

"We need to make sure we're smart in terms of the way that we play to hopefully get that win next week in Rome."

Captain Jac Morgan - "We worked very hard as a team but if you make mistakes against a team like France, they're going to punish you.

"We have to stay tight as a group to keep improving and try to make fewer mistakes. We're gutted with the result."

Scotland 31-19 Italy
Scotland

Hat-trick hero Huw Jones - "I think the fact that the game wasn't perfect and there were swings of momentum is probably quite good preparation for us.

"The way we wrestled back control and didn't panic when things went wrong, that was a big focus for us coming into the Six Nations.

"No game's ever going to be perfect...But it's about staying in the fight, not letting the game get away from us, and being there right at the end."

Coach Gregor Townsend - "The most important element today was the mental challenge," Townsend told the BBC.

"To come together as a team on the field,  find solutions and find a way to win, which will be important in the next games."

Italy

Coach Gonzalo Quesada - "Not everything worked in attack and that means something is missing in our work.

"The difference was at 19-19. We have to work to not lose those balls and get caught on the break. It's a shame because it was a good fightback."

Captain Michele Lamaro - "It was a very tough game. We stayed in it. At half-time we were 10 points down and we had not played.

"We wanted to show something in the second-half and we did for a few moments go to 19-19 but we weren't able to perform in atack and that cost us a lot.

"They put us under a lot of pressure in the breakdown and we were unable to solve the problem. But honestly we did not perform."

Ireland 27-22 England
Ireland

Captain Caelan Doris - "It is definitely satisfying (getting the win).

"It's huge in this competition, you can't win it in the first round, but you can lose it or dampen it essentially."

Interim coach Simon Easterby - "We had to find a way.

"We felt if we did a few things better in the way we were doing things, then we would get the rewards. England defended well and made it tough for us."

England

Coach Steve Borthwick - "Ireland are such an experienced team and have been world-class for so long.

"It was a tough Test match and that experience showed in the third quarter. We gave them field position and scoreboard pressure in a critical period."

"We started the second half with a lot of energy and effort but against one of the best attacking teams in the world, the team improved defensively. But ultimately we came up short and that is disappointing."

Captain Maro Itoje - "I thought the first half was fantastic.

"We did pretty much everything we wanted to. We lost territory though in the second half and struggled to exit."

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