Antoine Dupont lauded the France support for their role in a long-awaited away win against Scotland at Murrayfield.
In each of the previous two Six Nations campaigns, defeats to Scotland cost France their shot at the title, with a 2020 Grand Slam bid ending in Edinburgh.
That defeat had been the most recent of three in a row for Les Bleus at Murrayfield, where they were without a win since 2014.
But Fabien Galthie's side put that pain behind them in real style with a 36-17 triumph, their biggest against Scotland since 2008.
"There is a lot of satisfaction to be drawn from this game," said Dupont, finished with 64 metres carried after playing a key role in the opening try.
"We made a very good start, then we gave them some points. They came back but despite that, despite two or three errors in our camp, we did not panic.
"We stayed together, united collectively throughout the match, which paid off in the end.
"We didn't necessarily have very good memories here at Murrayfield. There were times when we almost thought we were at the Stade de France, the Marseillaise made a lot of noise.
"We felt supported and it felt good as soon as the bus arrived. The Scottish crowd is an incredible crowd, they kept supporting their team despite the score. It was a great feeling."
Bayern Munich put pressure back on Borussia Dortmund as they battled to a 1-0 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
The leaders were kept at bay by Oliver Glasner's side until Leroy Sane struck with 19 minutes of normal time remaining.
The victory, a first against Glasner for Bayern boss Julian Nagelsmann in his Bundesliga coaching career at the sixth attempt, moved the champions nine points clear of Dortmund at the top of the table ahead of their clash with Augsburg on Sunday.
Frankfurt largely contained Bayern in a cagey first half, although Kevin Trapp had to make a strong double save to keep out Joshua Kimmich's volley and Kingsley Coman's follow-up.
Robert Lewandowski was denied following a good throughball from Serge Gnabry and Trapp sprung to keep out another effort from the striker two minutes later.
Just at it looked like Bayern were running out of ideas, Kimmich slid the ball through to Sane in the box, and the winger kept his composure to slot past Trapp.
Frankfurt mounted some late pressure, leading to a few scrambles in the Bayern box, but Sven Ulreich was mostly untroubled in goal.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting ignored a free Sane, shooting straight at Trapp when a cross seemed the better option, but Frankfurt could not punish the error.
Karim Benzema and Real Madrid left it late to go nine points clear at the top of LaLiga with a 1-0 win at Rayo Vallecano.
Madrid entered Saturday's contest with the chance to stretch their advantage over second-placed Sevilla but laboured for long periods against a side on a four-game losing streak.
Casemiro had the ball in the net late in the first half but saw his strike ruled out for offside.
Madrid struggled to exert dominance thereafter and were somewhat fortunate not to fall behind in the second half, but seven minutes from time Benzema tapped in to seal the points after an excellent one-two with Vinicius Junior.
Manchester City avoided giving Liverpool further encouragement in the Premier League title race as Phil Foden's late winner rescued a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.
Pep Guardiola's were seemingly struggling to bounce back from their 3-2 home defeat by Tottenham last weekend, but Foden struck eight minutes from time to time to ensure the champions went six points clear again.
Everton were more dangerous in the first half but could not make the most of their opportunities.
City were initially having similar struggles until Foden pounced on Michael Keane's defensive error, and the visitors somehow escaped a late penalty concession when Rodri was not penalised for handball in the area.
Pre-match focus at Goodison Park centred on tributes to Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing invasion, with the public's reaction all the more poignant in the presence of Ukraine internationals Oleksandr Zinchenko and Vitaliy Mykolenko.
The contest itself took a little while to capture the imagination, but it was Everton who first went close, with Jonjoe Kenny slamming into the side-netting.
Richarlison should have done better with a close-range snapshot shortly after, hammering it straight at Ederson, who then watched Anthony Gordon's 25-yard free-kick fly agonisingly over on the stroke of half-time.
City livened up at the other end in the second half as Foden, Joao Cancelo, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva all tested Jordan Pickford in a short period.
But he was helpless as Foden capitalised on Keane's inability to cut out a deflected pass to break the deadlock.
Everton might have been given the chance to level from the spot, but neither referee Paul Tierney nor the VAR felt the need to punish Rodri for handling in City's box.
Ralf Rangnick criticised Manchester United's sharpness after they failed to capitalise on their dominance in a frustrating 0-0 draw with Watford.
After scoring four goals at Leeds United in their previous Premier League encounter, United drew a blank despite having 22 shots at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Just three hit the target, with United's Expected Goals of 2.43 against the Hornets the highest for any Premier League team not to score in a game this season.
The stalemate dealt a blow to United's hopes of a top-four finish, leaving them just two points ahead of fifth-placed Arsenal, who have three games in hand.
"We did everything apart from score. It's hard to take that result," Rangnick told Match of the Day.
"In the end, if you miss that many chances it is difficult to win the game. We were in full control for almost the whole game, we didn't allow them hardly any counter-attacks.
"We need to be sharper in front of goal, you can hardly create more chances than we did today. In the end it is a very frustrating afternoon.
"Had anyone told me that we would create that many clear chances I would have said 'yes, that is enough for us to score one of two goals at least'. But we didn't."
Cristiano Ronaldo went closest to scoring for United, hitting the post in the fifth minute, his misfortune setting the tone for a game in which Watford successfully rode their luck.
On Ronaldo's opportunity, Rangnick added: "That was not the only one [chance]. In the first half we had five massive chances then in the second half we had another three or four. Today we had enough chances to win that game.
"Sometimes we are unlucky, when we hit the post, but we also had a few opportunities one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
"This is not luck, it is a question of sharpness and efficiency in front of goal."
West Indies Women’s captain, Stafanie Taylor, is confident the team is an improving force in One Day International cricket, ahead of the start of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, which bowls off in under a week’s time.
The West Indies, who briefly took part in the qualifiers, will get their campaign underway against host New Zealand on Friday, with few having the team among the favourites to win the title. For one, the West Indies have never won the tournament with their best result coming in 2013 when they finished runners-up to Australia.
Nor is the team’s record in the format particularly impressive. Over the last five years, the team has won just 3 of the last 14 series. In that run of games, they played 46 matches, winning 15, drawing 2, and losing 27 with 2 no results. Taylor, however, believes the team has shown improvement in recent months, with two of those wins coming in the last year.
“I think we're making strides (in the ODI format),” Taylor told members of the media.
"For us, it is more about improving every time and getting better at that,” she added.
The team has, however, never beaten New Zealand with their last encounter ending in a chastening 205 runs defeat to close out a 3-0 series defeat in 2018.
“We’re pretty excited about that. You probably wouldn't want to play the hosts in the first game but it is what it is,” Taylor said.
“I think for us, we have to go out there and play to the best of our abilities. You can see New Zealand doing pretty well, we've had a lot of cricket to look at, so hopefully we could get one over them."
Dusan Vlahovic continued his fine form as Juventus boosted their Serie A top-four hopes with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Empoli.
Moise Kean's header and Vlahovic's neat finish came either side of Szymon Zurkowski's scrappy leveller, as Juve established a 2-1 half-time advantage on Saturday.
Vlahovic's sublime lob put Juve two ahead, though Andrea La Mantia's goal produced a nervous ending for the visitors.
Yet Massimiliano Allegri's team stood firm amid late pressure to move six points clear in fourth place.
Danilo and Denis Zakaria both passed up good opportunities in the early exchanges but the visitors broke the deadlock when Kean met Adrien Rabiot's cross, powering a header past Guglielmo Vicario.
Juve suffered an injury blow when the impressive Zakaria limped off, before Empoli levelled as Zurkowski evaded the visitors' statuesque defenders to prod home from a corner.
Juve were not to be denied their half-time lead, however, with the superb Vlahovic turning smartly on Juan Cuadrado's pass before drilling home.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich announced on Saturday he is handing over the "stewardship and care" of the club to the trustees of its charitable foundation.
England punished an error-strewn Wales performance to win 23-19 at Twickenham and remain France's nearest challengers in the 2022 Six Nations.
The Red Rose had responded to their opening defeat to Scotland with a routine victory over Italy but would have expected a greater test against the defending champions on Saturday.
Instead, England controlled much of the proceedings, with Wales initially impressing only in limiting their scoring.
Marcus Smith's penalty kicking ensured the home side were comfortable early on, though, and an Alex Dombrandt try early in the second period meant an attempted Wales comeback – led by scores from Josh Adams, Nick Tompkins and Kieran Hardy – fell just short.
There was precious little quality in a first half that England dominated, with their 12 points all coming from the boot of Smith.
England's best chance of a try saw them halted in front of the line before Charlie Ewels was penalised for a knock-on, although the TMO spotted Liam Williams had dislodged the ball, earning a yellow card.
Williams headed for the sin bin, yet England added only three points to their total through Smith's latest penalty in his time off the pitch.
The breakthrough try was suitably scruffy in the 43rd minute when Ryan Elias' lineout cleared all of his team-mates and allowed Dombrandt to steal in and score.
Wales' response was rather more impressive, with Adams found free on the left for one try before Tompkins exploited a gap for another, cutting the lead from 17 points to five.
England introduced Ben Youngs for a record-breaking 115th cap as they sought to stem the tide, although it was a further pair of fine Smith kicks that really eased the nerves.
A quick restart from Hardy to score with seconds remaining gave England one last attack to see out with the match on the line, but Eddie Jones' men held on.
Another slow Welsh start
A worrying trend of this Wales campaign has been their poor first-half showings. This was the second of three matches in which they have failed to score a point before the break.
Struggling prior to half-time is nothing new in this fixture, though. They have not led at the interval in any of their 12 Six Nations matches at Twickenham and are the only side with that miserable record.
Smith's boot the standout
Smith finished with 18 points, matching his previous Test best against Canada last July. On that occasion, however, his points came courtesy of nine conversions in a one-sided triumph; this time, with six penalties, his contribution was far more decisive.
The England fly-half also now leads the charts for points in this championship, 12 ahead of Melvyn Jaminet, with whom he had been tied heading into Saturday.
What's next?
Ireland will have the opportunity to nudge ahead of England when they host Italy on Sunday, but they are then the next visitors to Twickenham. Wales must attempt to halt France's Grand Slam charge in Cardiff.
Andrey Rublev cruised to the Dubai Tennis Championship title with a 6-3 6-4 final victory to end the dream run of qualifier Jiri Vesely.
Having made headlines after his semi-final triumph over Hubert Hurkacz by writing "no war please" on a television camera in protest at Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Rublev wrapped up his third title in just a matter of days in emphatic fashion, after winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille last week.
The Russian world number seven had needed three sets in each of his last three contests but wrapped up a more straightforward victory against his Czech opponent, who had defeated 20-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic en route to the final.
Rublev broke Vesely's serve in the fourth game of the contest, not dropping a single point behind his first serve as he roared to a 6-3 win in the opening set.
The 24-year-old then broke again in the opening game of the second set, before the Czech, ranked number 123 in the world, battled back bravely to level the set at 3-3.
Rublev responded in brutal fashion, however, immediately breaking again and going on to seal a comfortable victory, hitting just eight unforced errors throughout the contest, as he claimed his 10th career title.
The victory made it 13 match wins in a row for Rublev across singles and doubles after his successful time in Marseille, where he successfully teamed up with Ukrainian Denys Molchanov for a symbolic doubles triumph.
"I was lucky today, and that's why I am happy to be the champion, I didn't expect this," said Rublev. "It's an amazing feeling and I don't know what to say."
Manchester City and Everton showed solidarity with Ukraine ahead of Saturday's Premier League meeting at Goodison Park.
The reigning champions and Frank Lampard's strugglers both have Ukrainian players within their squads – Oleksandr Zinchenko and Vitaliy Mykolenko – who were named on the respective benches.
Zinchenko and Mykolenko embraced during the warm-ups and received a warm reception from fans inside the ground.
More tributes were paid before kick-off, with Ukrainian flags and a banner showing support for Mykolenko on show from the Everton faithful.
City's players came out for kick-off in tops bearing the slogan 'NO WAR' and the Ukraine flag, while Everton's squad made their way onto the pitch with Ukrainian flags draped around their shoulders.
Everton also elected against playing an air-raid siren prior to their walk-out anthem of Z-Cars, with The Hollies' ballad 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' played over the tannoy. It was previously used by the club to show solidarity with rivals Liverpool over the Hillsborough disaster.
Zinchenko and Mykolenko both seemed close to tears on the sidelines.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, to international condemnation. The fighting has since escalated.
Zinchenko attended a vigil in Manchester on Thursday, with Pep Guardiola saying the full-back was "incredibly strong".
Iga Swiatek thrashed Anett Kontaveit on Saturday to win the Qatar Ladies Open title.
The world number eight triumphed 6-2 6-0 to win her first Tour title of 2022 and the fourth of her career.
Swiatek, who has now claimed two titles at the WTA 1000 level, won the final 10 games of the contest as Kontaveit was powerless to stop her nine-match winning streak coming to an end.
The 2020 French Open champion Swiatek has only dropped 11 games in the four finals she has won.
Kontaveit fought back to 2-2 after an early break of serve, but that was the last time she would win a game as Swiatek took control.
Having survived break points to see out the opening set, Swiatek powered through the second, dropping just four points on serve as she raced to victory in 66 minutes.
Swiatek has now won her last three matches against Kontaveit, taking the overall head-to-head record to 3-2 wins in her favour.
Manchester United's top-four aspirations suffered a setback as they were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by Watford.
United appeared to have found their goalscoring touch during a 4-2 win at Leeds United last Sunday.
But they reverted back to what has often been their type under Ralf Rangnick, dominating possession and chances but ultimately disappointing in front of goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Elanga and Paul Pogba were all guilty of spurning opportunities as struggling Watford clung on to claim a valuable point in a result that will serve as a further boost to United's rivals in the chase for Champions League football.
United quickly set about an onslaught on the Watford goal and saw a pair of gilt-edged chances go begging as Ronaldo turned and struck the left-hand post from Aaron Wan-Bissaka's cross, and Bruno Fernandes could only shoot straight at Ben Foster after a wonderful move involving Ronaldo and Anthony Elanga.
Ronaldo then had the ball in the net only to be correctly flagged for offside, before Fernandes skewed wide from Paul Pogba's cross with the goal at his mercy.
Fernandes was soon guilty of similar profligacy, heading wide under no pressure after Ronaldo had skipped over Foster and found his compatriot with a cross from the right.
Pogba made a dismal waste of a superb far-post ball as United continued in the ascendancy after the interval.
Ronaldo was aghast not to see Kevin Friend point to the spot after he went down under Hassane Kamara's challenge, and all around Old Trafford were stunned not to see Elanga find the back of the net after he latched on to a deft flick from Pogba.
There was further incredulity when Elanga then inadvertently blocked a goal-bound effort from Ronaldo following excellent work down the left byline from Fernandes.
Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford were each thrown into the fray as United sought the breakthrough.
But a deserved winner did not arrive as Watford secured a stalemate that will be cheered heartily in London with Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham all chasing United.
Barcelona boss Xavi has been impressed by his side's January signings.
Xavi has overseen an unbeaten run of nine league matches, as his rejuvenated team chase Champions League qualification, while the Catalan giants also claimed a 5-3 aggregate win over Serie A title contenders Napoli in the Europa League.
Barca's performances have been buoyed by the arrivals of Ferran Torres, Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with the latter of the trio becoming just the fourth player to score in the Spanish, English, German, and French top flights this century when he netted a hat-trick in a 4-1 thrashing of Valencia last week.
Each of the trio then registered goal contributions in Barca's thrilling 4-2 win in Naples on Thursday, and Xavi was keen to highlight the impact that his new forwards have had on his side.
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