
Triumphant France put on a show wherever they found themselves and broke England’s all-time Six Nations record of 29 tries in a single campaign, set in 2001, with 30 touchdowns.
It was not just Les Bleus who balled out, though. The other five sides also scored some terrific tries. Without further ado, here are my 15 finest five-pointers of the championship:
15: Underdogs Show Their Bite
The significance of this try is what lands it on the list as England snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against the much-vaunted French through Elliot Daly.
14: Back With A Bang
After missing last year’s championship, Antoine Dupont made a sensational return in the tournament opener by producing a hat-trick of assists, this one seeing the French phenom beat two Welsh defenders and float a scoring pass to Theo Attissogbe.
13: Records Are Made To Be Broken
Slick handling and Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s injection of pace, intent and distribution put Yoram Moefana on the runway and he proceeded to power over as France broke England’s aforementioned all-time try-scoring record.
12: Swing Lowe
A brilliant long ball by Garry Ringrose and break by James Lowe led to Jamison Gibson-Park speeding and stepping his way over for this thrilling try against England.
11: Calcutta Cracker
South African-born Duane van der Merwe was instrumental as he stepped one defender and drew another before offloading, with the ball finding its way back inside to Ben White, who drew first blood for Scotland against England.
10: Counterpunch
Turning the ball over with spirited counter-rucking, France went wide to Man of the Match Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who put boot to ball and showed incredible gas to beat Sam Prendergast and teammate Maxime Lucu in the race to dot down.
9: Speed Freaks
Ange Capuozzo and Ross Vintcent put on the afterburners to fry the English defence, the fullback cutting through and linking up with the South African-born No. 8 who showcased his speed to dive over.
8: Doing Dupont Dirty
The hot-stepping Ange Capuozzo got the better of Antoine Dupont and a couple of other French defenders to give Italy go forward, which they maximised with magnificent interplay resulting in a try for Juan Ignacio Brex.
7: An Absolute Scorcher
The footwork and offloading from Tommaso Menoncello and the vision from Paolo Garbisi teed up Monty Ioane to run onto the grubber and score this scorcher for Italy in their final fixture against Ireland.
6: Roger That
For the first time in the championship, Wales showed life against Ireland. A much-changed side playing their first game under caretaker coach Matt Sherratt conjured up this cracker finished in style by Tom Rogers.
5: Safair
Duane van der Merwe extended his all-time Scotland try-scoring record when he produced a phenomenal finish to put the hosts on the board against Ireland.
4: Hot Potato
Maro Itoje started a stunning offload fest that resulted in this try for Ollie Sleightholme against the Azzurri.
3: Green Machine
The famous efficiency and fluidity of the Irish were on show when they capped off their opening-round win over England with this bonus point try by Dan Sheehan.
2: Simply Irresistible
France were at their finest and most ferocious when they put 70 points past Italy. This extraordinary team try finished off by Leo Barre was the best of their 11 five-pointers on the day.
1: Having A Ball
France were in full swing as they put Wales to the sword and turned on the flash for this tremendous team try, with outrageous offloads and a Roman Ntamack crosskick seeing Emilien Gailleton score out wide.
