With the first round of the 2018 Six Nations in the books, we pick out the best players to make our Team of the Week.

Wales lead the way with seven representatives in our selection after their clinical demolition of Scotland. England are next best with five players while Ireland and France contribute the rest of our XV.

Let’s see who made the cut.

Team of the Week: Six Nations, Round 1

15 Leigh Halfpenny (Wales): Halfpenny moved closer to Scotland great Chris Paterson on the Six Nations all-time points-scorers’ list, racking up 24 points, including four conversions, two penalties and two tries. Showed a greater improvement and willingness with ball in hand, something he has often been criticised for. Covered well on defence, too.

14 Anthony Watson (England): England had man-of-the-match Anthony Watson to thank for blowing Italy out of the water in the opening ten minutes with a scintillating brace in which he displayed his pace and trickery. The second was a particularly special finish in which he skinned three of the five defenders he beat in total on the day.

13 Scott Williams (Wales): Williams gave a Ryan Crotty-like performance for Wales. Marshalled the defence superbly, showed great upper body strength in the tackle to hold up his opponent as well as his unique ability to rip the ball in the tackle on more than one occasion. Ensured opposite number Chris Harris had a shocker. Also contributed a try assist.

12 Owen Farrell (England): The England playmaker racked up a total of 14 points, four conversions, a penalty, a try and a try assist on the day. Defensively sound, Farrell’s distribution was on-point, as he made a number of telling passes sending his teammates through gaps. Takes so much pressure off George Ford. Meanwhile, Wales’ Hadleigh Parkes was a rock on defence and set up a try.

11 Steff Evans (Wales): The man is a constant menace to the opposition defence and shows the trickery, pace and ability to wriggle himself out of tight corners reminiscent of a Shane Williams in his prime. Got his well-deserved try (although he should have had another were it not for Alun Wyn Jones’ poor pass). Beat six defenders from his 17 carries for 103 metres.

10 Johnny Sexton (Ireland): Fly-half was a competitive area with Rhys Patchell and George Ford both impressing for Wales and England respectively, but Sexton was his country’s match-winner following a 45-metre drop-goal. Although the pivot missed a relatively simple penalty a few minutes earlier, the Leinster man displayed his class by remaining composed and producing a moment which will be remembered for some time.

9 Gareth Davies (Wales): Continued his regional form on the international scene by comprehensively outplaying Ali Price and scoring a vital intercept try. Scotland had begun brightly and were on the front foot before Davies’ intervention, a moment which completely altered the course of the game. Maxime Machenaud (France) and Conor Murray (Ireland) produced solid performances but Davies, having made 72 metres and two clean breaks, comfortably takes the scrum-half berth.

8 Sam Simmonds (England): His stats have been well documented on social media but it is worth repeating: two tries, 23 tackles, three clean breaks and 80 metres made. Not bad for a player on his Six Nations debut. While Billy Vunipola should take the shirt back if he recovers from injury and strings a run of games together, it certainly gives Eddie Jones options, whether at eight or seven. Simmonds’ performance was Michael Hooper-esque and you could conceivably see both of them lining up together.

7 Josh Navidi (Wales): Injuries have taken its toll on the Welsh back-row, with Taulupe Faletau and former captain Sam Warburton notable absentees, but Navidi more than allayed those concerns. It was a typically industrious performance from the Cardiff Blues man as he made 15 tackles and won a couple of crucial turnovers at the breakdown. Ireland’s Dan Leavy also did well when coming on for Josh van der Flier while Hamish Watson was probably Scotland’s best player, but the Wales’ openside easily takes this spot.

6 Aaron Shingler (Wales): Another Scarlets stalwart to maintain his fine form, despite the step up. Shingler has always been a great athlete and that was demonstrated by his all-action display on Saturday, but his close-quarter work has improved immeasurably. It has allowed him to go from excellent club player to a flanker of genuine international quality and it will be interesting to see whether he can continue that improvement next weekend. Of the other contenders, Sebastian Negri looks a real find for Italy while his opposite number on Sunday, England’s Courtney Lawes, also showed up well.

5 James Ryan (Ireland): Made his Six Nations debut and although there was plenty of pressure on him – after he was preferred to veteran second-row Devin Toner – he repaid the faith shown in him by his coach, Joe Schmidt, with a solid all-round display. The 21-year-old was a willing ball carrier gaining 27 metres from 15 carries and completed an impressive 12 tackles.

4 Alun Wyn Jones (Wales): The Wales skipper was at the forefront of his side’s forward effort in their one-sided victory over Scotland in Cardiff. The Ospreys stalwart was his usual busy self in the lineouts but also impressed as a ball carrier and gained 35 metres from six runs with two clean breaks and one defender beaten. Also made seven tackles.

3 Dan Cole (England): The Leicester Tigers man delivered a strong scrummaging performance and completely dominated his direct opponent, Andrea Lovotti, at the set-piece. Cole did his bit at the coalface of the champions’ forward effort especially on defence where he made eight hits. Beats out Wales’ Samson Lee, who shone in Cardiff.

2 Guilhem Guirado (France): Les Bleus‘ captain led from the front against Ireland and was very unlucky to finish on the losing side in Paris. Guirado performed well in his core duties and impressed with his decision making but it was on defence that he made the biggest impact and his 31 tackles were most by any player from either side in this Test.

1 Mako Vunipola (England): The British and Irish Lion was dominant in the scrum and showed some nice touches with the ball against Italy in Rome. Vunipola also made a big impact in executing his defensive duties and finished the match with 11 tackles made.

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