Can England win the Six Nations with two fixtures remaining?

England kept their Six Nations hopes alive with a narrow win over Scotland on Saturday and with two games to play they can still win the tournament…just.

The game finished 16-15 in England’s favour at Twickenham, proving to be a painful loss for the Scots, who now have no chance of Six Nations glory.

The weekend’s action was round three, with Ireland the only side to boast a hat-trick of victories so far.

France have two wins and a defeat from their three games, as do England, but the French are ahead thanks to an extra bonus point.

These are the three sides that can still win the Six Nations, with Ireland on 14 points, France on 11 and England on 10 with two games to play.

Much will become clear in the next round of fixtures as there is a crucial clash between Ireland and France in Dublin on 8 March. A day later England host Italy at Twickenham.

How do Six Nations points work?

Four points are awarded for a win and two points for a draw.

Then there are two bonus points available in each match, with one for scoring four or more tries and the other for losing by seven points or fewer. You can claim both bonus points by doing both those things – scoring four or more tries and losing by seven points or fewer.

If a team wins all five matches then they get three bonus points, which is to remove the possibility of a side only winning four matches but pipping a team that has won five on bonus points.

So England can win the Six Nations still, but they will need plenty to go their way over the next two rounds of fixtures.

England need Ireland to slip up and they will almost certainly need then to do so in their next outing against France.

The last game of the tournament for the Irish is in Italy, with the Italians only ever beating Ireland once before in Six Nations history, back in 2013.

If Ireland beat France then it would take an enormous upset in the final round of fixtures to stop them completing the Grand Slam.

However, with England wanting France to beat Ireland, they would then be hoping for the French to not get the job done in their final game, which is against Scotland in Paris.

Scotland have already beaten Italy and pushed England hard, but would be underdogs at the Stade de France, but even if France win but without a bonus point then the English could pounce.

A lot needs to happen for England to emerge as unlikely Six Nations champions this year, but it does remain possible and if they can beat Italy handily next time out then they could still be in business.