Six Nations 2022: France's Wigan defence, New England and under-rated Wales

"Anyone is able to beat anyone".

That is former England wing Ugo Monye's main takeaway from round two of the 2022 Six Nations, but no one has managed it against France yet.

Ireland came close but ultimately lost at the Stade de France, while England are up and running with victory in Rome and Wales bounced back to beat Scotland.

Here are some of the key talking points from the second round provided by the experts on BBC Radio 5 Live's Rugby Union Daily.

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New England's attack

England head coach Eddie Jones has been talking about 'new England' since younger players like fly-half Marcus Smith and full-back Freddie Steward were included in the autumn Tests.

After an opening defeat by Scotland, the attacking project seemed to come together in a fast-paced win against Italy.

Scrum-half Harry Randall delivered quick ball and forwards and backs alike created a plethora of options for playmaker Smith to choose from.

"The England team that I played with was very much out-power and out-muscle [the opposition]," former England captain Dylan Hartley said.

"England have quite blatantly moved to an attacking game, trying to manipulate defences with options in the front and out the back.

"[Prop] Ellis Genge was running like an inside centre. People were taking the ball flat to the line and then there were options out the back. I saw a really good balance in their attack."

Under-rated Wales bounce back

There are two things that seem to get the best out of Wales: being the underdogs and playing at the Principality Stadium.

Both factors combined perfectly to help deliver a 20-17 win against Scotland on Saturday.

Wayne Pivac's injury-hit side suffered a heavy defeat in Dublin on the opening weekend but now travel to Twickenham in round three buoyed by victory.

"Everyone writes us off and everyone wrote us off last year [when Wales won the title]," said Wales fly-half Callum Sheedy.

"Welsh teams tend to bounce back from that sort of adversity. To be able to turn England over at Twickenham is going to be a statement.

"We'll be absolutely buzzing for it and hopefully we can get the win."

Scotland's game management failure

Scotland closed out their Murrayfield win against England superbly, but captain Stuart Hogg said they "chucked it away" against Wales.

Wales captain Dan Biggar was able to seal the win with a drop-goal after Finn Russell was given a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on.

"The game management against England, we couldn't applaud it any more," Monye said.

"The game management in the second half against Wales was just poor. That 10-minute window when Finn Russell was off the pitch was so badly managed.

"They needed to be slightly more conservative, a bit more of a kicking game. It was almost like they didn't recognise they were down on numbers.

"You have got to play what's on the pitch and what's on the scoreboard. That was a game that slipped away from them."

Should Ireland have kicked to the corner?

Ireland pushed France all the way in Paris, but ultimately their Grand Slam bid came to an early end.

One moment of contention was the decision not to kick a penalty to the corner when Andy Farrell's side trailed by six points late on.

Instead Joey Carbery took three points from the tee and, defying those who think Ireland should have taken a risk and kicked to the corner in a bid for more points, Hartley agreed it was the right decision.

Hartley continued: "Anyone that says put it in the corner… If it goes right you go on to win the game.

"But if you go wrong there, that is your one shot gone. With nine or 10 minutes to go, kick the points when they're on offer.

"Because they didn't win the game, everyone is going to say it's the wrong decision."

French defence straight out of Wigan

As well as their usual flair in attack, France's work at the ruck neutralised Irish forwards used to dominating that area.

It was another impressive performance from the only unbeaten side after two rounds, with France facing trips to Edinburgh and Cardiff before hosting England on the final weekend.

Much of the credit for Les Bleus' defensive improvement goes to Wigan rugby league great and former Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards, who joined the French coaching staff in 2020.

"Shaun Edwards has instilled a hard, northern defence," Hartley said.

"They fight for everything. They have got better consistency in what they do.

"When we played against France we would try and get players with good feet to expose their front five.

"Now, they can't be exposed. There are no weak links in their defence because they have been drilled so well."

Six Nations Rugby Special will be on BBC Two from 18:00 GMT on Sunday, 27 February

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