ENGLAND TURN IT ON, SCOTS BLACK OUT

 

 

England and Australia - one of the great sporting rivalries and in terms of rugby it's one that doesn't always go the way of the men in white. Having said that the Aussies do seem to have a habit of coming up short on the big occasions which has been good enough for us. The men in white even managed to win down under earlier this year, scrabbling a 21-20 win at the Stadium Australia. The Aussies fought them to the end after the English were pretty much able to run the first half. However the bright Aussie comeback wasn't able to prevent England from winning with what was arguably one of their best performances of the Martin Johnson era.

Fastforward a few months and it was time for the Aussies to try their hand north of the equator. They'd already seen off the Welsh fairly smoothly but there was enough hope for England from both the relatively close defeat to the All Blacks and the win down under earlier this year to suggest that the visitors were going to be in for a rough ride at Twickenham. Martin Johnson fielded a relatively settled team(though wearing an unusual strip) and the Aussies had come to the home of English rugby via Leicester. Hartley started on this occasion but other than that it was "steady as she goes" personel wise - Johnson hoping that his guys had learned their lessons.

Well the men in white certainly didn't hang around but the Aussies were never going to roll over immediately. They did have problems with their kicking though and it was Flood that opened the scoring for England with a pen. Then following a solid linout England kept pushing the ball through the middle and that led to a try for Ashton right under the posts which Flood converted. Aussie kicker James O'Connor finally got his act together at the fourth time of asking by kicking over a pen but then Flood replied with two more. The Wallabies then shot themselves in the foot by getting one of their guys sin binned! Fine by us. O'Connor did grab another pen before half time though England 16-6 up.

In the second half, England pretty much picked up from where they left off with Flood kicking over another pen and soon afterwards England not only shut down the best Aussie attack yet but launched a fast break in which Ashton proved unstoppable, Flood converting. The Aussies weren't done though with Kurtley Beale running through the England half before lobbing the defence, collecting and diving over the line, O'Connor converting. Flood grabbed a pen but the Aussies had more to say with Beales again doing most of the damage, exchanging passes with James Slipper before grabbing his second try. England replied with another two Flood pens though allowing England to cruise to a great 35-18 win.

The last time Scotland faced New Zealand was back in '08 and back then Frank Hadden was coaching the Scots. The All Blacks gave them a serious reality check though, crunching them to the tune of 32-6 at Murrayfield. This was pretty much par for the course for the Scots. The fact is that the Scots have been playing the All Blacks since 1905 and the Scots have 'still' to beat the Kiwis on either side of the equator - they've played each other 27 times over the decades! In the meantime, New Zealand have claimed 10 Tri-Nations titles and the 1987 RWC! And they are regularly a team that people tend to crown as "best team in the world".

Nowadays, former England coach Andy Robinson is Scotland gaffer and this can't have been his ideal opening to his team's autumn campaign. Once again, everyone's giving the All Blacks the world crown ahead of time and off the back of beating England, a visit to Murrayfield was hardly likely to be much of a roadblock. Still, it have Robinson the chance to check out a couple of new faces, Rich Gray in the second row and Rich Vernon at number 8. It's not like he had much to lose, even Kiwi coach Graham Henry had been saying that just beating the Scots was not enough on this occasion - this tour was more of a team building excercise for him.

Well contrary to expections the Scots opened the scoring thanks to Dan Parks. The All Blacks soon gave them a reality checked though when Jimmy Cowan fed Sonny-Bill Williams for a try under the posts, Dan Carter converting. Mils Muilana then found Isala Toeava who found Carter for him to run on and grab a try which he converted. Then the All Blacks found even more space for Carter to set up Muilana, Carter converting that try. Hosea Gear then proced to eat the Scottish defence singlehandedly with Carter converting yet again. The Scots should just have been relieved they didn't concede any further tries in the last ten minutes. New Zealand 28-3 up at half time.

In the second half, the All Blacks slowly made their way into the Scottish half once again untill Williams found a channel for Muilana to run through in the corner for his second try, Carter converting. After that, the Kiwis went relatively easy on their hosts for a few minutes. They weren't going to be denied a 6th try though and once they smelled the Scottish line it wasn't like they were going to be stopped. Williams found Conrad Smith, Steven Donald converted. And then right at the end came try number seven, Donald finding Ellis and then converting the resulting try. The anhiliation was complete, New Zealand won 49-3 and Robinson has a lot of work to do.

Elsewhere, Wales faced South Africa at the Millenium Stadium. Morne Steyn opened the scoring with a penalty for the Boks only for the Welsh to take the lead through a George North try converted by Stephen Jones who went on to convert a second Welsh try from James Hook. Steyn went on to kick two pens to Jones's one before half time. Jones and Steyn grabbed another pen each early in the second half before Willem Alberts and Victor Matfield grabbed tries for the Boks, both converted by Steyn to turn the game round before the Welsh replied with North's second try. It wasn't enough and a Steyn pen was the last score of the game. South Africa won 29-25.

Ireland faced Samoa at the Aviva Stadium. The men in green opened the scoring early on with a Ronan O'Gara penalty and then the Irish kicker went on to convert a Jamie Heaslip penalty. Samoa replied with a Alesena Tuilagi try which was converted by Paul William only for O'Gara to hit another pen before half time. Williams hit a pen after half time but the Irish replied with O'Gara converting his own try to give his team a 20-10 win. It wasn't seen as the classiest display of all time by the Irish but it was still their first win in five games. The Samoans are certainly a rough and ready bunch and it'll be interesting to see what happens when they come to Twickenham.

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