ENGLAND TURN ON THE CLASS, SCOTS CAN'T STOP IRISH
Last time around, England faced France at the Stade de France. The result was nothing short of awesome. England opened the game with Wilkinson converting a Sackey try before the class kicker added a pen before France could even get on the scoreboard. Les Bleus replied with Damien Traille converting a Lionel Nallet try. Johnny kicked another pen to give England breathing space before half time then Traille pulled three points back with a pen. Johnny then grabbed a drop goal and pen, France could only reply with a Dimitri Yashvilli pen and then England finished the game off with a try from debutant Richard Wigglesworth, converted by Johnny to take England back across the channel with a 24-13 win in their pocket!
This time around, well the first Six Nations with Martin Johnson as manager has been a messy one. One decent home win followed by two narrow away defeats and we're out of the title race already. Indiscipline has been a serious annoyance Enter Simon Shaw and Tom Croft again in the home that that would be enough to steady the ship. The French for their part were definitely still in the picture but appeared to be going with an experimental lineup. In Johnson's playing days "Le Crunch" was often the title decider. Now both sides came in with something to prove though there was a sense of optimism amongst English fans that this match would be where we'd turn our fortunes around.
It wasn't long before we were dispelling the doubts, ripping apart the French defence and Flutey set up Cuerto for an immediate try, converted by Flood. After that the French looked out of their depth and Flood added a pen to make it ten without reply. A lineout later saw the French offer no resistance again and Flutey ran through for a try converted by Flood. The men in white went over the line for a third time soon after but it was disallowed due to a forward pass and the game devolved into a kicking contest which left the French pinned down and some smooth passes saw Armitage grab try number three, converted by Flood before England surge immediately from the kick off, Flood doing the running before passing to Worsley who made it 29-0 England at half time. Where was this display in the last two games?
And immediately in the second half Armitage picked up the ball and surged through before offloading to Flutey for his second try. Eventually though France got an attack going and at the second time of asking, drove over the line, Dimitri Szarzewski getting the credit. That woke up both the traveling French fans and the team themselves and the French were looking to get back some pride. Julien Malzieu was given way too much space and the French had a second try. Even if the French had pulled off their comeback, it would have been an absolute travesty. England were the attacking team at the final whistle, winning 34-10. Too late to mount a title challenge though.
As for Scotland, well last time round they faced Ireland at Croke Park. The Irish don't show many teams much mercy in their cathedral and sure enough, the Scots lost 34-13. The last time the two sides faced off at Murrayfield it proved to be painful. Scotland effectively dominated the match and yet the Irish still came up with a late score and a 19-18 win. The last time the Scots won this fixture was actually at Ireland's old Lansdowne Road ground. It was back in '01 with the fixture originally postponed till late in the year due to the foot and mouth scare of that year. The Scots managed to hammer the Irish 32-10 with me watching in my Halls of Residence flat.
This time around well the Scots were talking a good game and certainly had every right to after seeing off the Italians pretty smoothly for their first win of the Championship. Patterson starting as kicker certainly helped matters a lot. However the Italian success came too late for the Scots to get back into the title race. The Irish however were getting Grand Slam ideas, and it looked like it would take more than a trip to Murrayfield to stop them. Particularly as what certainly sounded like half the crowd in the Scottish arena were clothed in green, either physically or in spirit. Fingers were crossed for the Scots though, it was certainly workable for them to mug the favourites.
And mug the favourites was certainly what Scotland were looking to do early on. It was the Irish that conceded the first penalty at Patterson did the business. O Gara replied after a braindead moment from the Scots but Patterson soon restored his team's lead, the Scottish kicker extending that lead later on. O'Gara pulled three back but the home side were still proving the stronger unit even though that didn't shut up the Irish fans. Patterson kicked over another penalty and at the end of the half it look a late tackle to prevent a fastbreaking Scotland try. The Scots were leading 12-6 at half time and the Irish dreams were in serious jeopardy.
The Irish clearly had work to do in the second half and they immediately put the heat on Scotland. The home side were able to repel one raid but then Peter Stringer took the ball off a lineout to set up Jamie Heaslip and Ireland were back in business, O'Gara converting to turn the game around. Ireland started running the show from the lineouts and O'Gara added a drop goal before Patterson looked to get the Scots back in the game with a pen. Scottish attacks proved to be rare though and O'Gara added one last final pen and the Scots found themselves losing the match 22-15. For the Irish, it means that they're one step away from history of one form or another.
Elsewhere, Wales faced Italy at the Stadio Fluminio. Andrea Marcato opened the scoring for the Italians with a penalty but the Welsh turned that around when Shane Williams grabbed a try converted by James Hook, Marcato grabbing a couple more penalties before half time. Marcato grabbed another penalty in the second half and though Hook grabbed a couple of pens of his own, Marcato replied and it looked as though Italy would scalp the reigning champions until Tom Shanklin grabbed a late try which Hook converted, allowing the Welsh to get out of Rome with a 20-15 point lead and kept their title chances alive despite the nervy moments.
So, that leaves Scotland 5th in the table, two points ahead of Italy and the wooden spoon. England are two points ahead of the Scots and have moved up to 3rd. However, there is no way they can catch the Irish, four points clear of them at the top of the table.
Click here to go to 'other sports' archive
Comments go here
