How the teams used their bench in Round 4 of the Six Nations

The results this weekend have blown the Six Nations wide open with France, Scotland and Ireland all now in the running to win the title while Italy, England and Wales are out of the running. The two big talking points of the weekend were the phenomonal performance from Scotland over France and before it could soak in, Italy matched that result after beating England in Italy.

One of the red flags for England fans was the reluctance of Steve Borthwick to use his bench in a game that could have used a pick up, especially from England's point of view.

France - 218 Minutes:

Fabien Galthie gave more minutes to his bench players than any other coach this weekend. A lot of this has to do with the game plan France have with their bench, adopting something similar to the Springboks, but also due to the fact that France were chasing the game at 26-14 when Mauvaka, Flament, Meafou and Barassi came on in the 45th minute.

Scotland - 197 Minutes:

Scotland were the second highest side when it came to minutes played by the substitutes. Apart from injury forced changes this is likely due to the high intensity and volume of play it took to beat France and maintaining intensity and and game plan was vital.

Italy - 170 Minutes:

Ruzza, Hasa, Fusco and Marin all played 30 minutes as Italy set the ball rolling in their plan to finish off and get the win over England.

Wales - 153 Minutes:

Smith and Cracknell were brought into the game with just five minutes played in the second half but neither Hardy nor Evans made it onto the field.

Ireland - 129 Minutes:

Andy Farrell did not call on his bench until the 60th minute when he brought Clarkson, vd Flier and McCarthy on and the rest of his replacement front row three minutes later, every player was on by the 69th minute.

England - 92 Minutes:

While there is an argument that Borthwick was unable to use his bench effectively due to the double yellow cards to Underhill and Itoje, being forced to leave George on longer from a leadership point of view but four of his bench got seven orr less minutes to play against Italy, all four of these players have the ability to turn things around. Many feel leaving Marcus Smith and Henry Pollock riding the pine for so long was a huge error