ENGLAND, SCOTLLAND MEAN BUSINESS FOR '06

 

(Image taken from Sky Sports)

 

Well it's that time of year. The big European players locking horns at close quarters. Five Nations back in the 90s, Six Nations now, same deal. A garanteed mix of fire and rugby class.

England wound up opening up against Wales at Twickenham. To be honest, Wales at Twickers is usually a fairly easy deal(it's the visits to Cardiff that cause headaches) but then again the Dragons did win the Grand Slam last time out with England poor. Question was, was 2005 a fluke? Both sides were about to find out the hard way.

England certainly weren't in the mood for hanging around and soon set up camp in Welsh territory and in the 13th minute a succsessful line out led to Mark Cuerto receving the ball from Mike Tindallbefore toasting the Welsh defence with a hot charge, Charlie Hodgeson firing in the conversion. The Welsh soon responded though and forced a penalty which Steven Jones put over only for England to reply in kind through Hodgson. An attacking maul got England another penalty which was thrown in before the pack drove over for another try, Lewis Moody taking the credit...only for the Welsh to take succsessful advantage of a lineout on the other end thanks to Martyn Williams after Michael Owen knocked out the English defence, with Jones converting. England came into half time 15-10 up. This looked like a match.

Hodgson started the second half by kicking over for three more points. Jones replied. And when Williams got himself sinbinned for a shoulder charge, Hodgeson added another 3. At which point England decided to remind the visitors where they were, first finding a weak spot in the Welsh defence after a few phases of play for Tindall to add a try and keeping the Welsh on the back foot from there on in. Dallalgio barrelled in one post scrum try(converted by Hodgson), before Matt Dawson ran through for another(converted by substitute Andy Goode) and with the Welsh defence unable to get their act together Tom Voyce was able to join the try party before the end(converted by Goode). The final score of 47-13 says that what happened here was what always happens when the Welsh come to Twickenham, they get trashed! And after the disaster of '05, it was good to see the England class of '06 do so.

Next order of business was Scotland going up against France at Murrayfield. In theory, Scotland vs France matches are always interesting ties but that assumes that Scotland are on form. Scotland haven't really been on form for a while and haven't beaten the French in a Six Nations tie since '99. New coach Frank Hadden needed to put his money where his mouth was.

Early on the Scots looked to do just that, a Jason White surge forcing the French on to their own try line from where Scotland nibbled away and made a hole big enough to Sean Lamont to slip through and bank a try, Chris Patterson converting. Et France? Gave away a penalty, allowing Patterson to make it 10. Scotland's kicker was then unlucky to not get himself a try when the ball bounced wrongly but when the French tackled him without the ball he just kicked the penalty over. Just before half time Les Bleus finally got an attack going and picked up a Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penaly from it but still, Scotland's lead of 13-3 was looking like an amazing result.

The Scots weren't done yet though. Early in the second half the pack decided to join the party with a massive drive which the French could do nothing about whatsoever so Lamont was allowed to put another five points in the bank for a try right up there with Gavin Hastings's classic in Paris '95! Patterson making it seven. Finally the French realised that they needed to stop getting outclassed and so they pushed the temp allowing Jullien Bonnaire to pick up a try. The next Scotland attack got shut down, Elissalde kicked over a penalty and then Scotland's defence was breached again when Sebastien Bruno slipped through. At 20-16 things looked a bit more nervy(though if Elissalde had converted then it really would have gotten interesting). Scotland had the last word, kicking the ball into touch deep in French territory to end a great day for Scottish rugby fans.

The other order of business was Ireland's match against Italy at Lansdowne Road. Ramiro Pez opened the scoring for the Italians with an early penalty only for Ireland to turn things round with a Jerry Flannery try converted by Ronan O'Gara. The visitors swung things back when Pez converted a Mauro Bergamasco try only for O'Gara to level things with a penalty before half time. In the second half Paul Griffin gave the Italians the lead with a penalty before the Irish swung things round again with an O'Gara converted Tommy Bowe try. The Irish kicker then beat Pez 3-1 in a kicking contest. 26-16 would have been a tighter scoreline than the Irish would have liked but a win's a win.

So far, England are leading the Championship on point difference, with Ireland in second and Scotland in third.

More of this where that came from please!

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