Six Nations 2026: Five talking points from round two

These are tough times to be a Wales fan. The toughest in living memory for a generation raised with regular Six Nations success and a team full of stars like Sam Warburton and Alun Wyn Jones.

There are many issues in Welsh rugby, but by any measure, recent results are a complete horror show as Sunday’s record loss to France makes it 13 successive Six Nations defeats and a 10th successive home loss in the tournament.

It has now been 1,072 days since their last Six Nations win in March 2023 against Italy in Rome and 1,464 days since their last Championship win on home soil against Scotland in February 2022.

It appears that supporters are starting to vote with their feet. The attendance against France was 57,744, making it the lowest ever crowd at a Six Nations tournament in Cardiff.

But speaking after the match on BBC One, former captain Warburton was encouraged by some aspects of Wales’ play and said they needed to look at what had gone well such as the strong defence, the outside line and the performance of Eddie James.

“Some aspects of the game went very well, they weren’t outplayed, they were outplayed on the ball. There are some positives to take into account next week,” Warburton said.

“Given the small victories, there is no point in sending them off when they go down. We have to ask how can we improve from this point? Who are the young players who seem to have the mentality?

“We’re not trying to solve this in one week, we’re going to be at this for a few years, so let’s all toughen up and look every week for small improvements and move forward.”

There were “definitely green shoots,” Jones said.

“The effort was there but it’s international rugby and you’ll be judged on the results, but it was there from an effort point of view,” he added.

Former England captain Martin Johnson also offered words of encouragement.

“Wales can always play and score tries, they’ve got good rugby players so you’re never too far away and they can sit there thinking they’ve been beaten at home by a very good French team. But there will be some games coming up where they think we can win this.”