Wales heading in right direction, says captain Alun Wyn-Jones

Second is nowhere for Alun Wyn-Jones – the Wales captain may have led his country to a final-day win over France but was not content with the Six Nations finish.

The 32-year-old was the man-of-the-match in an error-strewn Welsh victory in Cardiff which saw his nation finish only behind Grand Slam champions Ireland and pocked £3.5million in prize money.

France’s losing bonus-point saw England embarrassed in fifth after Eddie Jones was made to eat his words at Twickenham – he had called the Irish ‘scummy’ and the Irish duly smashed England 24-15 to complete a clean sweep.

Wales’ Taulupe Faletau gets tackled by France’s Mathieu Bastareaud in what was a physical battle at the Principality Stadium

But at the Principality Stadium while Jones, 117-cap Wales skipper, was happy with the win he was not prepared to settle for second.

‘Runners-up isn’t something we want,’ he said.

‘The way our games went we could’ve been going for a lot more but this last game we’ve displayed the character we need going forward.

Bastareaud showed why he is one of the most feared forwards in Europe as he burst through Wales’ defence

‘We were just trying to limit the errors and keep hold of the ball. We wanted to finish this campaign like we started it, with a win, and we’ve done that.

‘There’s more depth in the regions, guys are putting their hands up and putting pressure on the squad. It’s important with a big 18 months coming up.

‘The biggest thing we will take from that is the character, especially in the second half.’ Warren Gatland, the head coach said: ‘It was not pretty.

‘Today was not about the performance, it was about the result for us.

Wales got the first try of the game though when Liam William’s touched down from a Dan Biggar kick off making it 5-3

‘Congratulations to Ireland on a Grand Slam, they deserve it. But they will know they got a bit lucky with the Johnny Sexton drop-goal against France and the intercept against us. The tournament has been very close.

‘Leading into 2019 we feel we have more depth than in 2015. In 12 months’ time we will be in a really good place. This tournament has put us in a really good position.’ Wales won thanks to a resolute defensive effort – and the errors of French fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc. He and Maxime Machenaud missed a penalty each and France lost by a point.

Liam Williams took Wales’ only try, with Leigh Halfpenny kicking the rest. Gael Fickou scored for France, Trinh-Duc hit a drop goal and Machenaud hit the other points.

France left the kick off in a disastrous bit of play feeling it hadn’t gone past 10 metres, leaving Wales to stroll through

In London St Patrick’s Day was Ireland’s to savour. They sealed their third ever Grand Slam in this championship by hammering England 24-15 at Twickenham.

It was the first time since 1981 that an opposing team completed a clean sweep at England’s HQ – and the Irish thoroughly deserved the victory to end a stellar Six Nations.

Jacob Stockdale scored an acrobatic try to notch his seventh for the tournament – a Six Nations record for the 21-year-old wing.

Williams celebrates with Gareth Davies as they go into the lead but Leigh Halfpenny is unable to kick the conversion

Eddie Jones’ bad week became a whole lot worse – his acid tongue had him in hot water before the match and his increasingly abject team have turned up the heat on the head coach.

England’s fifth-place finish was their worst end to a championship in 35 years.

In Rome Scotland were made to sweat profusely for their 29-27 win over Italy.

Greig Laidlaw hit a penalty to nick the victory with a minute to go to complete the comeback – Scotland trailed 24-12 after 46 minutes but tries from Sean Maitland and Stuart Hogg took them into third. 

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