HUMILIATION FOR ENGLAND, SCOTLAND SOLID

 

 

Well the match against the All Blacks was a cack up, no questions asked. However Argentina looked easier meat(this being rugby not football). They'd drawn and beaten us in Buenos Aires a couple of times but they've never beaten us at Twickenham and that record goes back to 1990! Admittedly England vs Argentina rugby matches don't last long in the memory, the last one was at the Salas Velezfield in '02 and England won 26-18.

The '06 vintage England have still to find their feet though and Andy Robinson certainly wasn't interested in changing the side that got caned by the All Blacks by much, probably hoping for his men to get an easier ride against an Argie side that only got together midweek. On the other hand, when the opposition has players that have raced to come back from injury just for this one match then you know they can't be underestimated. It made for a nervy Twickenham crowd.

One way to calm nerves is for Charlie Hodgeson to open the scoring with a penalty. One way not to calm nerves is for England to then put on the messiest display I have ever seen. The first benefit Argentina gained from this was a Felipe Contepomi penalty. After that though England made so many mistakes it felt like the World champions and the South American outsiders had been bodyswapped! Eventually though Sackey picked up the ball and showed why Andy Robinson was picking him in the first place, blasting through the Argie defence for his first try, which Hodgeson converted. However more cackups by England meant that the visitors' new kicker Frederico Todeschini added to penalties to leave England with only a 10-9 lead.

The first major event of the second half was Todeschini kicking another penalty to give Argentina the lead. England did not have a clue how to respond though and the fact that the best Robinson could do was a ton of substitutions including replacing the off form Hodgeson with rookie Toby Flood. The Argies effectivly won the game though when Todeschini picked up a lose ball in his own half and surely someone should have stopped him but he wound up converting his own try. Flood began England's work on an uphill struggle. Could England resue this effort with a converted try? Well Balshaw eventually found a hole in the Argie defence to send English rugby fans mad with relief only for Flood to choke on the conversion. That summed up England's display and Todeschini finished us off with two further penalties. Even I can see that Andy Robinson does not know what he's doing.

Scotland in the meantime were up against Romania in Murrayfield. The East Europeans may not be partt of the Six Nations but they're certainly a lot better than any of the other outsiders even if they did need to qualify for next year's World Cup. The last time the two sides met, the Scots won 39-19 and that was in Bucharest back in '05. Romania have never won at Murrayfield with the record going back to 1981 and given Scotland's rise in form in the Six Nations, Scottish fans had to be in a better mood than their English counterparts.

Well Romania had an early attack but the Scots soon broke and the Romanian defence was always expected to be weak and thanks to his teammates Jonnie Beatie found enough space to grab a try on his debut with another debutant, Phil Godman converting. The next Romania attack led to a Florin Vlaciu penalty though. From there on in the Scots ran riot, Hugo Southwell surging through the Romanian half, lobbing the remaining defenders before sliding over the wet grass to score. Godman added a penalty before Southwell went on another surge and when that move was stopped he was able to pick up the pieces. The Romanians then drove over the line but the ref didn't give the try and the Scots went into half time 20-3 up.

The Scots didn't hang around in the second half either with another debutant, Rob Dewey collecting the next try with Godman converting. Vlaciu got another penalty but that was it for the Romanians. It was pretty quiet generally but when a Romanian kick found Southwell the vistors were on the back foot yet again and it was Godman's turn to run in from close range and convert. The Romanians started to get the act together defensively after a Scottish lineout but space still opened up for Dougie Hall to join the debutant try party, with Godman converting and another wayward Romanian kick led to George Cusiter getting set up for a try. Godman converted, final score 48-6.

Elsewhere, Wales were hosting a "Pacific Islands" side at the Millenium Stadium and early on the hosts looked to cruise to victory off the back of a Ceri Sweeney penalty, followed by tries from Mark Jones, James Hook and Kevin Morgan(all converted by Sweeney). Justin Va'a finally got the islanders off the ground with a try only for the Welsh to respond with a Lee Byrne try converted by Sweeney. Seilala Mapusa countered with another Islanders try but Sweeney then converted one of his own. Tusi Pisi then added a penalty before converting an Aca Ratuva try but they were unable to keep the run going and Wales won 38-20.

Ireland had arguably the biggest match of the lot, up against South Africa and Lansdowne Road. Jaco Pretorius opened the scoring for the Boks with a penalty but the Irish soon took over with Ronan O'Gara converting tries from Andrew Trimble and Marcus Horan as well as adding a penalty. The Boks responded with a Francios Steyn try, O'Gara countered with another penalty before the Boks looked on the verge of a turn around when Pretorius converted a Bryan Habana try only for the Irish to finish the visitors off when O'Gara converted another Horgan try to win 26-15.

Congrats to the Celts but will England vs South Africa even be worth enduring I wonder?

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