England's ongoing Six Nations Championship campaign has taken a further blow with Nathan Hughes and Courtney Lawes ruled out of the final round against Ireland due to knee injuries.
As the fourth round of Six Nations Championship 2018 came to a conclusion with Ireland claiming the title, we take a look at few of the key points from last weekend's encounters.
England have brought an end to France's unbeaten run to keep up their hopes of winning the U20 Six Nations Championship while Italy and Ireland won their respective Round 4 encounters against Wales and Scotland respectively.
George North scored a brace against Italy as the powerhouse Wales wing helped his side to a 38-14 victory to go 2nd in the Six Nations Championship table.
The Six Nations trophy is firmly secure in the Irish hands after they dispatched Scotland to secure 28-8 bonus-point at Lansdowne Road on Saturday and followed by England's 22-16 defeat against France at Stade de France.
The masses of rugby union fans are avidly watching the current Six Nations with an intense eye as they would in any other edition of the tournament, but plenty could still change as we move towards crowning this year’s winner.
England coach Eddie Jones is hoping to surprise France with the pace of their back three in the upcoming Six Nations clash to be played at Stade de France on Saturday.
Eddie Jones has announced his squad to battle France in the Six Nations this Saturday as Dylan Hartley has been ruled out after failing to recover from a tight calf, meaning Owen Farrell will assume the captaincy.
Jonny May has revealed that the recent Calcutta Cup fallout has brought a positive edge to England training and has forced the intervention of coaches as England look to relaunch their NatWest 6 Nations title defence.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has made one change to his team as Edinburgh back Blair Kinghorn will make his first Scotland start in place of injured Lions winger Tommy Seymour for this Saturday’s Six Nations Test against an unbeaten Ireland side.
Wales boss Warren Gatland has made 10 changes to the side that lost to Ireland most recently in Six Nations play as Taulupe Faletau is set to make his return to action on Sunday against Italy.
Wales have recalled Ospreys prop Rhodri Jones in the Six Nations Championship squad ahead of the encounter against Italy scheduled to be played at Principality Stadium on Sunday.
England have been plagued with injury concerns ahead of their upcoming Six Nations clash against France with skipper Dylan Hartley joining the injury list.