Owen Doyle: Scotland will feel aggrieved at Poite’s breakdown penalties

The huge sense of relief could be felt all the way from Murrayfield.

Thanks to a mighty maximum-pressure penalty from Johnny Sexton, Ireland snatched a win at the death. They had earlier contrived to blow a 14-point lead, and they'll need to look closely at why.

James Lowe may not have to do much defending playing for Leinster (played 15, won 14), but international rugby is a different kettle of fish. He was negligent in being caught out of position for Finn Russell's try, and then made a paltry tackle attempt before Huw Jones scored.

But there were other forces at play too. Where on earth was the Mike Catt attack plan? Ireland offered a round zero in this respect, and not even a training ground move or two that might have opened Scotland's defence. The Irish break of the match came from Tadhg Furlong as he waltzed past two opponents on the Ireland 22. He, as you know, is a prop.

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Contrast that with Garry Ringrose’s blocked kick for the Russell try. Why was his first instinct to put boot to ball?

Ireland will be grateful that, taking his life into his hands, referee Romain Poite jack-knifed (don't try this at home) into the mass of bodies to identify that Tadhg Beirne had scored. And then nobody thought to check if the ball had been nudged forward in the build-up. Maybe, maybe not, but no check.

Poite must be nearing the end of an excellent career, but he is not as sharp now as he was. Scotland will likely be very displeased with some of his breakdown work, particularly two penalties to Ireland which very much looked like they should have gone the other way. They were kicked, six points. That's a different scoreline.

We will know much more about Ireland when England come knocking on the door next Saturday.

Plenty of La Danse in Le Crunch.

England v France was absolutely terrific, spectacular. There's little wrong with the game when it's played this way, both teams prepared to run and put width on the ball with exhilarating pace and control.

Since coach Dave McHugh was unwisely cut loose by the IRFU, there has been a deterioration in their referees' positional play, and that heightens the error risk

With France really not deserving to lose, England came out on top by barely more than a blade of grass, when Maro Itoje drove over for the victory, with just four minutes left on the clock.

Referee Andrew Brace will have left Twickenham with a smile on his face, he deserved to, and can be pleased with his performance, well done. While there were some breakdown inaccuracies which will need to be reviewed, these pretty much balanced out.

At the same time, he'll be sending Joy Neville a bottle of the best bubbly, and every year too, on the anniversary of this match. Her decisive and accurate call to overturn Brace's on-field decision of "no-try" for Itoje's touch down, was a game changer.

A lesser TMO may well not have had the ability or courage to do so, and the furore would have been unbearable.

Since coach Dave McHugh was unwisely cut loose by the IRFU, there has been a deterioration in their referees’ positional play, and that heightens the error risk. Brace was in-field, and pretty much static, as Itoje crashed over the line, whereas anticipation and earlier movement would have had him in the perfect spot.

On the subject of foul play, England’s Luke Cowan-Dickie has made a hobby out of low ‘no-arms tackling’ while he makes these appear to look okay, there were several which needed attention.

But there were no head-high tackles, and no mindless charging into rucks. See, it can be done.

By hook or by crook, Wales have not had a card of either colour in the Six Nations since 2018.

Against Italy they should have had one, perhaps of the red variety. Wayne Barnes and TMO Tom Foley had spent an age deciding that a Dan Biggar challenge was not even sanctionable. It was clearly a 'nothing' and Foley should not have referred it. Barnes's game understanding came in handy here.

What they did need to check was Biggar’s charge in to the subsequent ruck, seemingly making reckless head contact with an opponent. Astonishingly, none of the match officials picked up on this piece of the action.

Italy are a very busted flush, it's impossible to see what value they bring to the championship – they imploded from the kick-off

Given that the English officials are very accurate when it comes to this sort of thing, it was a systems failure. Wales would surely have won with 14 men, but it might have been less terribly lop-sided.

Italy could well also have seen red for a leading elbow from Marco Riccioni, but there are reasonable arguments as to why it stayed at yellow.

Early in the second half, Barnes mysteriously penalised Welsh scrumhalf Kieran Hardy for playing the ball on the ground. He did not, the ball was thrown inside by an Italian, and it hit the prone Hardy before rolling into touch.

On the day, maybe an irrelevancy, but it recalled another recent mystery, the incorrect penalty he gave against Tadhg Beirne in Cardiff. If that had not been awarded and kicked, Billy Burns would have been kicking for the posts to win, rather than miscuing his touch finder.

It’s difficult to understand why these glitches have cropped up in a ref of such vast experience.

Italy are a very busted flush, it's impossible to see what value they bring to the championship – they imploded from the kick-off. Thirty-one Six Nations losses on the bounce since 2015. Their clubs Benetton (no wins in the Pro14 this season) and Zèbre (four wins only, including two against Benetton) are also performing so poorly that there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

With their players hardly knowing what a win feels like, maybe there isn’t even a tunnel.