ENGLAND SURGE AHEAD, SCOTLAND CRASHLAND IN CARDIFF
(Images taken from Sky Sports)
So the Welsh have been toasted and England have signaled their intent to win the Six Nations championship on this occassion. Italy didn't look like a big deal, ever since they made the Five Nations into Six they have never come close to beating England, generally been wooden spoon contenders. OK they didn't do badly in Dublin but still, Andy Robinson's crew swinging by the Stadio Flamino should just result in a straightforward taking of Rome.
Well that was the theory at least. England battered the Italians early on. The Italian's backs were well and truly against the wall from the start...but weren't England looking to win this in the first 20 minutes? Well after 20 minutes the score was still 0-0. England did eventually open the scoring though, Hodgson setting up Tindall who burst through the Italian defence to put in a try which Hodgson converted. Italy replied with a penalty through Pez and before half time the lead was cut to 7-6 with the Italian kicker putting over a drop goal from long distance.
The Italian surge continued, causing the Rome fans to go nuts as Pez put in another drop goal from close range to give his side the lead after a braindead moment from the England defence from the kickoff. Now what? Well England rediscovered their appetite and got themselves a penalty which Hodgson put over to take back the lead. At which point the Italians, a lot of them not used to playing rugby of this quality, started running out of fuel. Matt Dawson was sent on to see what gold he could mine and the result was that he set up a Hodgson try. The Italians never looked like coming back from that and a Tindall, Cohen combo set up Cuerto for a chilled try which Hodgson converted. Come back they did though with Gonzalo Canale setting up Mauro Bergamasco so that Hodgson couldn't do anything about him, Pez converting. However the match ended with an Italian mission-impossible counter attack going badly wrong and James Simpson-Daniel adding a final try, Hodgson converting. 31-16 flattered England slightly but a win's a win.
Scotland vs Wales lookied to me the tastiest match up of the tournament so far. A fired up Scotland, a hungry Wales. Thrown together at the Millenium stadium. Roof closed. Plenty of(Welsh) noise. If Scotland could get out of this with the loot then they were going to be confirmed as Championship contenders.
From the opening exchanges though, the Scots didn't look like getting out with anything. The Welsh drove them backwards and when the Scottish scrum couldn't hack it by their own tryline, the ref put them out of their misery and gave the Welsh a penalty try, converted by Jones. The Scots replied with a Chris Patterson penalty but the Welsh had a solid edge and things went from bad to worse when a late tackle from Wales's Richard Gough got him sinbinned...but Scott Murray was then sent off after kicking him in the head! Needless to say the Scots had their work cut out and immediately had to dodge one bullet when Shane Williams's foot went into touch on the way to a try but there was no avoiding Gareth Thomas's lob over the Scottish defence for a try under the posts, easy money for Jones to convert. Patterson put in another penalty but at 14-6 there looked to be only one winner.
Scotland started off the second half though by succsessfully wheeling the scrum by their own tryline before launching a counter only for Alistair Hogg to moronically throw a pass into thin air near the Welsh line! Once again it was Wales who showed them how it should have been done with Dwayne Peel getting given a free run through the Scots defence before setting up Robert Sidoli before a bad pass from Patterson set up a Welsh counteer attack which gave Thomas his second try. Scotland did have the last word though, Hugo Southall grabbing a one late try before Patterson did what was best described using the basketball terminology of a "coast to coast" before converting the try. Did 28-18 flatter Scotland? Maybe not, they certainly never seemed to run out of fire. But it has to be said that this was Wales's day.
Elsewhere, at the Stade de France, France took on Ireland in what really was, to use a cliche, a game of two halves. France ran the first half, tries coming in from Aurelian Rougiere(converted by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde), Olivier Magne and David Marty(converted by Elissalde) before Ronan O'Gara put the Irish on the scoresheet with a penalty. Elissalde replied with a penalty of his own before converting Cedric Heymans two tries and a second one from Marty. Then came an attempted Irish comeback. O'Gara converting his own try before doing the same for Gordon D'Arcy, Donnacha O'Callaghan, and Andrew Trimble. It wasn't good enough for the Irish, but the 44-31 scoreline says that the match was definately interesting.
As a result, England surge into the outright lead in the Championship with France moving up to second, Ireland down to third and Scotland down to fourth. Grand Slam for England '06? Well, there's still visits to Murrayfield and Stade de France to go but it might not be unworkable.
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