Bath had their moments in a 32-14 defeat, but Montpellier deployed old-fashioned grit and guile to play them off their own park

Nobody really knows what to make of the orgy of tries that is English rugby these days. The dazzling hands, the scarcely believable comebacks, the, er, bewildered defences. Evidence of a new dimension of attacking rugby, uncontainable and breathless? Or not to be trusted?

Bath have found themselves of late at the heart of the debate – here they were reminded what rugby feels like when served up in more old-fashioned style, hard and brutal. Montpellier turned up to a sold-out Rec on the opening weekend of the Champions Cup and won 32-14. Bath fell away alarmingly, losing the second half 22-0.

• South Africa 42-28 Scotland

• Scots run in four tries to earn bonus point

A breathless match, all the more so given the thin air of Pretoria, but the upshot is, for all Scotland’s wit and energy, South Africa march on with another full house of points. The visitors were brilliant in scoring their four tries, their pace and skill regularly making mugs of their hosts, but power remains the thing the Springboks do better than anyone. At this altitude, it is very hard to stop.

They were unanswerable in the middle of each half, scoring five of their six tries around then, but Scotland scored two apiece in the second and fourth quarters. They were within sight of a losing bonus point with 10 minutes to go. They even looked as if they might score again. But Jesse Kriel’s late score meant they had to settle for one.

• Fiji 24-39 Wales

• Wales score six tries to secure second straight Test win

A rare away win for Wales. In Cardiff maybe, but the “visitors” claimed a classic smash-and-grab victory against hosts who, at times, played as if they came from a different hemisphere indeed, possibly even planet. How Fiji found themselves level at the break, let alone 15 down come the end, defies analysis, but Jac Morgan is one answer or at least the aptest representative of it.

Back on Wales’s flank, having missed most of the season through injury, Morgan scored two tries in the first half, but his defensive work was heroic throughout. Boy, it had to be.

Six matches from Cardiff to Córdoba are bound to be intriguing – but player welfare is taking a back seat

Welcome to rugby’s latest controversial ruse. The next time World Rugby spouts that thing about player welfare being their No 1 priority, just say “Nations Championship” back at them. The next time the governing body goes on about the sanctity of the World Cup, do the same.

The Nations Championship begins this weekend, a coming together of six teams from the north against six from the “south” – well, five plus Japan (it’s just not working, is it).

• Prem Rugby: Saracens 26-12 Harlequins

• Bonus point gained in final minute

Not exactly a blaze of glory to send off Mark McCall on his last home match, but to win a good old-fashioned London scrap in such a way will no doubt be its own source of satisfaction. All the more so in that it means Saracens attain the top four for the first time since October with one round to play. All the more so given the bonus point that looked for 75 minutes as if it were a distant luxury.

Two tries in a crazy last few minutes meant one of those accrued too, to make the sweltering afternoon perfect, if not quite glorious. Theo Dan steered an attacking lineout over the line with the clock in the red to set off the faithful of a sold-out crowd with the final delirium of knowing they have two points’ grace over Exeter, who play at Leicester tomorrow.

Leinster could not contain a team backed by tens of thousands of French supporters chanting with exuberance

They are in danger of running away with rugby, these French. The Springboks may have something to say about that, but South Africa do not have the Top 14. And they definitely do not have Union Bordeaux-Bègles.

Leinster tried to contain them. Leinster, packed with experienced internationals, dripping with silverware, were desperate to avoid yet another agonising defeat in this final. Leinster were rudely introduced to the concept of absolutely crushing defeat. They were destroyed, made to look one-paced by a team of exuberant artistes who play rugby as if they simply love it, as if playing brilliant rugby were the most obvious and natural course of action. Like breathing.

• Semi-final: Leinster 29-25 Toulon

• Leinster will face Bordeaux or Bath in Bilbao final

They made a bit of a meal of it, but Leinster will march on Bilbao in a few weeks for their ninth Champions Cup final. Given that was where they last won this thing, in 2018, for the fourth time, they might consider the omen positive, but this semi-final, their 17th, was not a classic.

Which is not to say it was boring. Leinster are not convincing this season, and one telltale sign of a team with a confidence issue is the offering up of hope to a seemingly defeated opponent. The hosts, enjoying a knockout tie at the Aviva for the umpteenth time, went 18 points clear when Caelan Doris scored their fourth with a little more than 10 minutes to play. And then all hell broke loose.

• Northampton 41-38 Bath

• Fin Smith clinches win with last kick

If only these two could play each other every week. Having wowed the rugby world a fortnight ago with their Champions Cup quarter-final at the Rec, scoring 11 tries between them, here they went one better and scored 12. Six each, obviously. The scores were level as the clock ticked red. The crowd were as breathless as the players.

And then, alas, the winning moment came not from a moment of brilliance, although Fin Smith tried for one with his dummy and drop-goal attempt. He missed that, but the television match official had spotted one of those agonising high tackles by a tall man on a dipping, slightly shorter one. Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi it was who clipped the bustling Henry Pollock on the chin. Smith did not miss the subsequent penalty, the first penalty taken at goal, the last kick of the match.

• Leinster 43-13 Sale

• Leinster host Toulon at Aviva Stadium on 2/3 May

Semi-final number 17 beckons for Leinster. The one-time serial champions of this competition will take another, against Toulon, back at the Aviva in a couple of weeks’ time. Sounds epic. Probably will be. But Leinster are still not quite convincing.

This was a Sale team missing a host of their best players. No one gave them a chance, but they made a real nuisance of themselves for a good 50 minutes before yielding to the inevitable. Four Leinster tries in the last half-hour put them away, but after the home team’s struggle to do the same here against Edinburgh last week Toulon, who are hardly a study in eloquence themselves at the moment, will fancy their chances.

The Prem playoff contenders appear settled after Northampton’s 21-17 victory over Saracens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Strange words to write for anyone who has covered this competition for any length of time, but we kind of know who the Prem semi-finalists are going to be. And there’s still six rounds to go.

Saracens had to win here at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against the league leaders to maintain any realistic chance of taking their customary place in the playoffs. This is the last season at the helm for Mark McCall, the man who has guided them through their glory years, before he “moves upstairs”, but it is looking increasingly likely that his era will draw to a close without further silverware. Saracens are mathematically still in it, of course, but, 12 points adrift of fourth spot with those six rounds to play, they will need to call on more than their own prowess to make it. Someone else is going to have to implode.

• Northampton 28-27 Newcastle

• Bottom side secure losing and try bonus points

On the face of it, not a lot to see here. The league leaders return to the top of the table with a bonus-point win against the team placed bottom. But don’t you believe it. Newcastle may have shipped 60 the last time they played a Prem game here, but they pushed the Saints all the way.

Northampton, it must be said, were about as far from full strength as can be. George Furbank was given his latest run-out at full-back, but otherwise none of their myriad England internationals were present. They will consider this a smart collection of the full five points without them. And they may have to get used to some of the absences, Alex Coles and Alex Mitchell both rated by Phil Dowson as likely to be out for “a decent amount of time”, which he clarified meant more than a month.

• Wales 31-17 Italy

• Steve Tandy’s side end 15-game losing run in competition

So that’s what it was like. Wales win a Six Nations match in Cardiff for the first time in more than four years. A crowd of 70,000 fairly ripped the roof off. And they did it with virtually every play of the game. Most of those gave some cause or other for a cheer – and, boy, did the locals respond.

How familiar an experience, and yet how not, a ghostly echo of times past. Wales’s mission now is to put flesh on the spirit, to do it again as a matter of course. And then there were the guys in blue. Darlings of the Six Nations Italy may be (there are quite a few of those these days), but they could not make anything work. This was a throwback to times past for them as well, forlorn and blown away by a country imbued with the culture of rugby. How retro.

Two sides on different recent trajectories meet with Steve Tandy finding cause for optimism despite another wooden spoon looming

Which is the sharper motivator, the avoidance of fresh humiliation or the attainment of new heights? Cardiff could be the place this weekend for any students of psychology more interested in such nuances than anything so obvious as an actual attempt to win the title.

Suffice to say, neither Wales nor Italy can win the Six Nations this weekend, nor exert any influence on its outcome. It is mathematically possible for Wales to knock England into last place for the first time in the extended championship’s history, but students of mathematics needn’t bother. For the record, Wales would need to win with a bonus point and, in concert with France, who play England, cover their current deficit of 100 in points difference.

Gregor Townsend knows how quickly hope can turn to despair but their performance against France could spur them on to greater heights

The feeling that Scotland might just have the hang of this winning thing continues to build. Playing dazzling rugby every now and then has never been a problem. Meaningful wins? Harder to come by.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the extraordinary win against France – and there were, how to put this, quite a few of those – was watching the resolutely unmoved disposition of Gregor Townsend. As if it was no big deal. Seven tries and 50 points against the red‑hot favourites for the title. All in a day’s work.

• Townsend: ‘This is very significant but it’s round four’

• Kyle Steyn expected to be fit for final match in Dublin

Gregor Townsend remained ice cool after Scotland’s exhilarating seven-try victory against France, which keeps them in the hunt for the title with one round to play, a position Scotland have never known in the Six Nations. The win was no big deal, he seemed to be saying.

“There have been other games where it’s probably meant a lot to the group,” he said, “whether it was a response or to break a record – away from home in Paris or Wales, or beating England for the first time in a number of years. So they maybe are the ones that have more significance. This [win] is very significant, but just now it’s round four. And it gives us a chance to win in round five.”

• Scotland 50-40 France

• Teams share 13 tries and go into final weekend level at top

So maybe France are not as good as we thought. Maybe England not as bad. Italy definitely better. But Scotland. Bloody hell.

This was a rout of the Six Nations favourites, an absolute rout. The scoreline, outlandish though it may seem from the championship’s serial underachievers, in no way flatters Scotland. Indeed, it might be said to underestimate how comprehensive this win was. Scotland’s regret will be to have conceded four tries in the last 15 minutes. That denies Scotland top-of-the-table status going into the final round. France remain on course, just about. Their bonus point, ending up with six tries out of the game’s 13, keeps them ahead of Scotland on points difference. Such is that margin, the title remains France’s to lose.

Murrayfield as underdogs is a scenario Scotland like, and a third successive win would set up perfect Six Nations finale

The mischievous will have eyes on Rome on Saturday in case of a historic win but the game of the weekend is in Edinburgh. Second versus first, Scotland versus France, entertainers versus entertainers. The title on the line. We could even have a champion by the end of it.

If France win with a bonus point, that is it. The 2026 Six Nations will be theirs with a round to spare. One feels there will be tries in this game, so the prospect is real. Which would reduce the championship’s beloved set piece of Super Saturday to an exercise in ordering the also-rans and seeing if France can move ahead of Wales as the Six Nations’ most prolific purveyor of grand slams, with a fifth.

Italy matched France physically and, while England have never lost to the Azzurri, Saturday is a Six Nations chance as good as any for the hosts

Italy and England. On level points in the Six Nations table. Two rounds to go. And England have already played their Wales joker.

All in all, there is quite a lot riding on the fixture in Rome on Saturday, especially if you are interested in the lower reaches of the Six Nations table, a purgatory with which even England are quite familiar. They started this championship ranked third in the world, a whisker behind the All Blacks in second, and feeling (not unreasonably) rather good about themselves after 11 Test wins in succession. Then it was 12 (Wales), and then … oh dear.

A whole haberdasher’s worth of experience, led by the peerless Gibson-Park, fairly tormented their younger and more hopeful hosts

So it looks as if it might have been a bubble. England’s 12-match winning run came to a shuddering halt last week, but it was possible to believe that flop might prove a one-off – a chastened Scotland at home, after all, has been the downfall of many an England team.

Well, there are scattered strips of latex all over Twickenham now, England’s balloon more than spectacularly popped by an Ireland side who are hardly afraid of inspirational rugby against this lot themselves.

• Wales 12-54 France

• Wales slump to 13th consecutive Six Nations defeat

We are running out of ways to describe this. Another match in what used to be rugby’s most passionate cauldron, another dismantling, another humiliation.

France are good, really good, but we might as well have been in Paris, so loud was the travelling support, so gaping the rows of empty seats. The official attendance was just shy of 60,000. Maybe, but it looked and felt a good deal less than that.