Pundit Arena Because Sport Is Everything
The Six Nations is over for another year which saw Wales emerge with a first Grand Slam since 2012 and a first championship title since 2013.
Warren Gatland’s final Six Nations match in charge of Wales will live long in the memory as they produced an emotional and dominant performance which Ireland had no answer for.
For Ireland, the post-mortem into their Six Nations campaign will dominate the column inches in the coming weeks and Irish supporters will hope that it will provide the perfect wake-up call ahead of the bigger prize at the end of the year.
For England, they produced some of the best rugby at times throughout the championship but their loss in Cardiff and their implosion against Scotland at Twickenham leaves plenty of work-ons for Eddie Jones and his team.
Scotland were decimated by injuries throughout the championship but they can take pride in the performance of some of their younger, inexperienced players and of course, their second-half showing at Twickenham.
For France, well, who knows? They seem devoid of any palatable gameplan yet they contain some of the best raw individual talent in the world. Whether Jacques Brunel can conjure a system which allows this to flourish in time for the World Cup is another question.
Finally, Italy. Conor O’Shea’s side performed admirably at times throughout the campaign, especially at home to Ireland and France yet they were let down time and time again by basic individual errors which were found out at this level.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the players who led the performance charts in different categories throughout the championship.
Total Points Scored
Owen Farrell – 59
Gareth Anscombe – 43
Tommaso Allan – 34
Jonny May – 30
Johnny Sexton – 23
Tries Scored
Jonny May – 6
Yoann Huget – 4
Darcy Graham – 3
Keith Earls – 3
Edoardo Padovani – 3
Try Assists
Finn Russell – 4
Conor Murray – 3
Tommaso Allan – 3
Elliot Daly – 3
Gareth Anscombe – 3
Conversions
Owen Farrell – 15
Johnny Sexton – 6
Greig Laidlaw – 6
Gareth Anscombe – 5
George Ford – 4
Penalties Scored
Gareth Anscombe – 11
Owen Farrell – 8
Tommaso Allan – 7
Dan Biggar – 5
Greig Laidlaw – 3
Most Passes
Conor Murray – 443
Ben Youngs – 362
Greig Laidlaw – 310
Tito Tebaldi – 279
Gareth Davies – 222
Most Carries
Billy Vunipola – 71
James Ryan – 63
Braam Steyn – 60
Louis Picamoles – 56
Jayden Hayward – 54
Metres Gained
Jacob Stockdale – 395
Jayden Hayward – 373
Blair Kinghorn – 323
Jonny May – 284
Damian Penaud – 279
Clean Breaks
Henry Slade – 12
Jonny May – 11
Blair Kinghorn – 10
Josh Adams – 9
Antoine Dupont – 8
Defenders Beaten
Jacob Stockdale – 23
Sam Johnson – 18
Yoann Huget – 18
Jack Nowell – 17
Antoine Dupont – 17
Most Tackles
Tom Curry – 86
Josh Navidi – 83
Jamie George – 78
Mark Wilson – 78
Allan Dell – 76
Turnovers Won
Mathieu Bastareaud – 7
Antoine Dupont – 6
Peter O’Mahony – 6
Tom Curry – 5
George North – 5
Most Offloads
Mathieu Bastaread – 9
Louis Picamoles – 7
Antoine Dupont – 7
Jayden Hayward – 6
Billy Vunipola – 5
Kicks From Hand
Ben Youngs – 70
Owen Farrell – 46
Conor Murray – 42
Lineouts Won
Peter O’Mahony – 30
Grant Gilchrist – 19
Federico Ruzza – 17
George Kruis – 17
James Ryan – 14
