ENGLAND'S SLAM FLAT TYRED BY SCOTS

 

(Image taken from Sky Sports)

England vs Scotland. OK...this one is interesting for me. As you'll know if you've read my personal page, I'm technically English but lived in Aberdeenshire in my primary school days. To put this in a rugby context, I first got into the sport during the 1991 Rugby World Cup. Scotland played England in the semis of that competition, England won 9-6 but I rooted for Scotland. Over a decade after I moved south of the border, I'm still generally neutral in England Scotland encounters. Having said that, with England the only side still up for a Grand Slam, I was kinda hoping the crew from south of the border would win this year's Murrayfield encounter.

Well Scotland got the first attack in, resulting in a scrum from which they made a hard run at the England tryline. Thus forcing a penalty which Chris Patterson kicked over to open the scoring. England replies by making their way inches from the Scottish tryline and forcing a penalty of their own which Charlie Hodgson converted to level matters. Scotland's turn to drive and they forced another penalty which put Danny Grewcock in the bin. Hodgson went on to miss a penalty, then Ben Cohen's fingers turned to butter just as he was about to score a try! 3-3 at half time.

England opened up the half by forcing a penalty which Hodgson kicked to give England their first lead of the match only for Patterson to level things after an England offside. Scotland soaked up the next English atttack and got another penalty on the counter, allowing Patterson to bring Scotland back into the lead and on the next Scottish attack the ball came out of a maul to Dan Parks who doubled Scotland's lead with a long range drop goal. England now had to respond but could only pick up another penalty which Hodgeson took care of. Scotland replied with a run for the English tryline which would have won them the game for sure if Ally Hogg hadn't been forced into touch. Patterson added in another penalty after their maul overloaded England. Game over really, the two kickers exchanged penalties but the final score was 18-12 Scotland. Not the classiest game of rugby I've seen but I doubt Scottish fans will care.

Elsewhere France took on Italy at the Stade de France. Jean Baptiste Elissalde and Ramiro Pez exchanging penalties to start with before the Italian kicker kicked two more to give his side the lead. France replied with a Thomas Liveremont try only for Pez to secure Italy's halftime lead with a drop goal. At half time Dimitry Yachvili replaced Ellisalde for France and the result was a second half turnaround. Yachvilli's penalty started things then Yannick Nyanga added in a try andYachvili converted tries from Peter de Villiers, Aureilien Rougerie and Frederic Michelak to make the final score 37-12. Respectable for France but it reminded me of what happened to England in Rome. The major players can no longer underestimate the Italians.

Finally, Ireland took on Wales at Landsdowne Road. Wales started off well enough, opening the scoring with a Mark Jones penalty but then it turned into an Ireland training session. Ronan O'Gara started with a penalty, then David Wallace grabbed a try and O'Gara a second penalty before converting a Shane Horgan try. He then went on to add two more penalties before converting a Peter Stringer try. 37-5 Ireland and Wales's hopes of retaining their Six Nations title are toast.

As it is, it's England still leading the championship with France second, Ireland third and Scotland fourth. Any one of those sides could take home the trophy.

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