Dan Lydiate took his place as captain, with championship vice-captain Alun Wyn Jones also ruled out injured.

[10] The same day, another tight game saw England retain the Calcutta Cup in a narrow 15–9 win over Scotland, with tries from George Kruis and Jack Nowell.

[12] Ireland's defence of the title was damaged further in Week 2 when they were beaten 10–9 in a second successive narrow victory for France.

[14] On Sunday, England easily beat Italy 40–9 after a tight first half, with Jonathan Joseph scoring a hat-trick of tries.

[16] On Saturday, Scotland won their first Six Nations game in 10 attempts, winning 36–20 in Rome with Greig Laidlaw kicking 21 points.

[18] Entering the fourth round of matches, the England-Wales game was touted as a Championship decider,[19] although France – a point behind Wales and two behind England – still had an outside chance of winning it.

All three matches were played on the same day in the last round, with England needing to win in Paris to complete the Grand Slam for the first time since 2003.

In this first year of the split UK TV deal, the BBC covered eight matches from the tournament, and ITV the other seven.