JOB DONE MESSILY FOR ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND

 

 

When England faced Italy last year the result was a straightforward 31-16 win at the Stadio Olimpico. The Italians tend to put up a fight on home turf but even there they haven't won a Six Nations match against the White shirts and though England have some history with them prior to the Azzurri joining the main rugby tournament in Europe that goes back to the 1991 Rugby World Cup, it certainly does not include an Italian win anywhere.

And given that this year's match was at Twickenham, I didn't see any reason to fear the Italians here, particularly not after what I saw of the quality Red Rose performance against Scotland! The mean headline worth talking about was the inclusion of this guy called Nick Easter who the experts were raving about. Given that Italy got caned on home turf vs France last time out, I wasn't expecting any major threat from the visitors on this occassion.

Well England certainly went right on to the attack early on Johnny grabbed a penalty. Other than that though Italy did appear to have learned some lessons from their French disaster. Such as keep the back door guarded and padlocked. Their attacking wasn't up to much though with their kicking particularly hopeless, Johnny showing him how it's done with two more pens before the defence was eventually breached with the ball making its way out to Robinson despite what looked like a cackhanded pass in between and you won't stop Jason from that close a range. 14-0 at half time.

The second half was an opportunity to finish the Italians off. Instead Brian Ashton decided to match them in a sludge battle. The Italians had the bulk of posession as a result even though the first score of the half was another Wilkinson penalty. That didn't prove particularly inspiring though and even the Italians were able to take advantage of that sort of play, charging through on the counter before Andrea Scavanacca got the ball for the try which he converted. That woke England up enough to pick up the pace and Johnny finished off the Italians with another pen, but though a win's a win, even Brian Ashton knows that with only a 20-7 scoreline to show for at home to Italy, something must have gone wrong.

If you're looking for a real tasty rugby affair though, Scotland vs Wales is always a good bet. If you were to average everything out through rugby history, these two sides would probably come up evens. Last year brough a 28-18 win for Wales at the Millenium stadium, which admittedly flattered the Scots to some extent. The last time the Scots actually beat the Welsh anywhere though was back in my half of Residence days of '03, 30-22 at Murrayfield.

The Scots return to Murrayfield for this year's encounter with home advantage probably crucial. The Scots may be returning home after getting bruised at Twickenham, but the Scotland fan in me was never going to judge them by that. A home encounter against a Welsh side who'd given a below par display on home soil against Ireland though? That was the team in the last chance saloon. As always, be prepared for some fire, there was a lot of pride at stake.

It was the Scots who went on the attack early on and Chris Patterson was quick to make sure his side profitted with a penalty. It was Wales's turn to try their hand at attacking but it didn't last very long and once the Scots were back on the attack, Patterson got another penalty, though Steven Jones finally got the Welsh on the scoreboard with a pen of his own soon after but no try came from the visitors, allowing the Scots to turn up the heat with another Patterson penalty though Jones got his team another three points before half time. 9-6. Take your pick.

Well Scotland again started the second half with the more fire and Patterson got another slotted between the posts and then another but as the commentators said, it seemed that "no one wants to score a try today". Jones pulled a pen back for Wales but sure enough it was the Scots that had the bulk of the play, Patterson getting another pen and a Scotsman getting over the line...but the Scots would have been lucky to be given that one, the Welsh had held the ball up. Patterson got one last penalty. Messy but a win's a win given the circumstances and 21-9 doesn't sound that bad.

Elsewhere, Ireland rumbled with France at Croke Park, a Gaelic football ground opening for rugby business. The crowd at Croke had plenty of the promised noise but two opening David Skrela penalties for France suggested that the Irish team couldn't do it justice. Ronan O'Gara pulled a pen back but that Raphael Ibanez surged in for the game's first try and Skrela converted. O'Gara then replied by scoring a try of his own. Now we're talking about a game and O'Gara then hit one penalty to give his side the lead and another what looked like a second win of the tournament for Ireland. France had other ideas though and a Vincent Clerc try turned the game round at the last possible minute with Lionel Beauxis converting. Final score 20-17 and from an English perspective Croke looks very workable indeed.

So the table now reads France first, England second, Ireland third and Scotland's win gets them up to fourth.

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