It was another bumper weekend of RBS 6 Nations action with Ireland in flying form in Italy, England striking late in Wales and France seeing off Scotland in Paris.

Ireland were so impressive against Italy that it's almost been forgotten that they lost skipper Rory Best at the last minute. Niall Scannell came in for the hooker on debut and impressed former Ireland flanker Alan Quinlan in the Irish Independent.

Fly-half Ian Madigan was similarly impressed by Scannell, and the way Ireland's line-out functioned in his RTE column.

Brendan Fanning for The Observer hailed the performances of Craig Gilroy and CJ Stander as the key behind Ireland's dominant victory on Saturday.

Meanwhile from an Italian perspective, Gazzetta Dello Sport reported on Sergio Parisse's admission that Italy have work to do to challenge the best teams in the Championship.

Wales 16-21 England

After England finished strongly for the second week running, Stuart Barnes in The Times compared James Haskell's performance on Saturday to another former Wasp Lawrence Dallagio, saying: "Yesterday, with 20 minutes left on the clock, it was as if Dallaglio was back on the field."

Meanwhile Nik Simon for the Daily Mail referred to Ross Moriarty as a "one-man wrecking ball" and gave him an 8.5 rating as joint man-of-the-match with Joe Launchbury, who was referred to as "unglamorous, but work-rate is relentless and led the defensive effort."

In the South Wales Evening Post former Wales winger Shane Williams believes that Steff Evans deserves a chance if George North has not recovered for the clash with Scotland in a fortnight.

France 22-16 Scotland

France's win over Scotland clearly captured the imagination with L'Equipe reporting that the France Sunday afternoon's clash brought in a peak audience of 6.4 million viewers from across France.

Le Monde reports on the fact that France may not have had their best game when they beat Scotland, but at the end of the day what matters is the numbers on the scoreboard.

Former Scotland scrum-half Gary Armstrong wrote that the Scots were unlucky on Sunday in his Herald column.

Meanwhile the Edinburgh Evening News, Duncan Smith quoted Hamish Watson, who thought France were there for the taking.%MCEPASTEBIN%