What a Super Saturday we were treated to, culminating in one of the most dramatic finishes to any Guinness Six Nations game in history.
Brice Dulin’s last-gasp try against Wales (spoiler alert: you might see more of it below) to seal a 32-30 victory ensured France kept their title hopes alive ahead of their rearranged Round 3 game against Scotland next Friday evening.
That was the thrilling conclusion to Round 5 but earlier in the day, Scotland were rampant in a brilliant 52-10 win over Italy and Ireland put England to the sword in a 32-18 triumph.
Now it’s your chance to have your say and vote for which of the many tries scored is worthy of being the Try of Round 5.
ANTOINE DUPONT – FRANCE 32-30 WALES
A scintillating first 20 minutes at the Stade de France saw both teams grab two tries and the pick of the bunch was reigning Guinness Six Nations Player of the Championship Antoine Dupont’s effort.
We know the French No.9 is a magician but this time the magic was supplied by his teammates as full-back Dulin precisely chipped over the onrushing Welsh defence.
The ball bounced perfectly for Matthieu Jalibert to collect and he drew the final defender before feeding Dupont to run in for a simply superb score.
KEITH EARLS – IRELAND 32-18 ENGLAND
Fijian great Nemani Nadolo called Keith Earls the most underrated winger in world rugby but he’s getting his due here for an incredible try against England.
It was a move straight off the training ground, as Rob Herring deliberately overthrew a lineout on halfway, where Jack Conan outjumped Tom Curry and patted the ball back inside to the onrushing Earls.
The Ireland speedster ran a brilliant inside line past a despairing attempted tackle from Billy Vunipola then showed off his fancy footwork to jink past Jonny May and hare his way to the corner all in a matter of seconds.
HUW JONES – SCOTLAND 52-10 ITALY
Scotland ran in eight tries during their victory over Italy but Huw Jones’s score from a move that started in their own 22 was the highlight.
From almost the shadow of their own posts, Scotland shipped the ball wide to the left where Duhan van der Merwe had an overlap and made a powerful burst up the flank into Italian territory.
There he cut inside a defender before offloading from the grasp of another tackler to the supporting Stuart Hogg. The Scotland skipper was slightly stationary so flicked the ball to Jones running at full tilt and he blazed his way to the line for a dot down under the posts.
BRICE DULIN – FRANCE 32-30 WALES
And so we come to Brice Dulin and the moment that will be seared into every Welsh rugby fan’s minds.
We hardly need to tell you what happened but there were 81 minutes on the clock, Wales were leading 30-27 and had a Grand Slam within their grasp, only for Les Bleus to conjure up one last moment of magic to take the title race to the final game next Friday.
France safely secured a lineout and took the ball into contact. From there, Baptiste Serin fired the ball to Charles Ollivon, who popped a short pass to Romain Ntamack.
The overlap was now on and Ntamack shifted the ball further left to Gael Fickou, who sucked in one defender and passed to Arthur Vincent to do exactly the same before shipping the ball to Dulin in space on the wing for the simple run-in.
Fundamental rugby skills, perfectly executed under incredible pressure. That, combined with the importance of the try, make it one of our four nominations for Try of the Round.
