Wales

Gavin Henson has been sacked by Cardiff Blues. Henson’s dismissal by the Blues comes after he behaved inappropriately on a flight back from Glasgow following his side’s 31-3 loss at Firhill.

On the back of a very impressive World Cup in New Zealand last year, Wales' coach Warren Gatland has several selection issues ahead of this year's Six Nations campaign

A scrappy affair in Rome saw Italy avoid the Wooden Spoon for a sixth year in a row beating Scotland 13-6.

The Rugby Union Fans Six Nations team of the tournament, this is based on player performance throughout the competition and not on the talent levels of the individual player;

Azzurri coach Jacques Brunel has made six changes to his Italy side that will face Scotland in the wooden spoon decider on Saturday afternoon.

With ever week comes another rumour, story or announcement that a Welsh player is leaving their region for pastures new.

Wales captain Sam Warburton has been ruled out of Saturday's clash with Italy after he failed to recover from a knee injury.

"They don't care about rugby in North Wales." If there's one comment that really annoys me, that's the one.

Hooker Ken Owens will play in Wales’ Triple Crown encounter with the English, while his sister Vicky will face her English counterparts immediately after on the same turf.

A lot has been said about Wales' performances at the World Cup in New Zealand last year, but after securing successive wins against Ireland and Scotland in the Six Nations, the Welsh have shown that they are a force to be reckoned with and genuine contenders for the Six Nations title.

It sounds like a strange Christmas cracker joke, yet this is the situation that has caused the Welsh and Scottish Unions to become embroiled in a power struggle over 20 year old Steven Shingler.

A gutsy win for England at the Stadio Olimpico saw them go top of the table running out 19-15 winners against Italy. England came from 15-6 down to scrape their second win of the championship.

How's it going my rugby buddies! As the Six Nations swings by it's a great couple of months for all rugby fans in the Northern Hemisphere.

'Four year cycles' is a term that fell into the laps of rugby fans last weekend as the Six Nations kicked off.

Six Nations: Week 2 Preview

Back in their heyday of the 1980's, Romania could list France, Wales and the 1984 Grand Slam winning Scotland side amongst their list of major scalps, while in 1981, they fell to the All Blacks by a mere 14 points to 6 in a game that also saw the 'Oaks' have two tries disallowed.

The stage was set for Ireland to get their revenge over a Welsh side that had won their previous two encounters, at the World Cup and a controversial Six Nations fixture in Cardiff last season.

Philippe Saint-Andre's first game in charge saw France win comfortably against Italy 30-12 in front of the Paris crowd. The home side avenged last year's defeat to the Azzurri by dominating the game from start to finish.

So what did we learn from the first weekend of the 6 Nations. Some would say not much that we didn’t know on Friday but it was a weekend that gave us flashes of brilliance amongst the pragmatism and a couple of controversial refereeing decisions.

When Scarlet's back row forward Aaron Shingler was informed that he was to join the Welsh squad, in one of Warren Gatland's infamous training camps in Gdansk, Poland, the icing was well and truly on the cake.