Long day of rugby ahead..
The final day of the Six Nations tournament sees all six teams playing again on the same day. Italy host Scotland in a battle to avoid the wooden spoon, kick-off 1pm. Ireland have only pride, and Eddie O’Sullivan’s continued employment, to play for against England at Twickenham, kick-off at 3pm. The only meaningful game starts in Cardiff at 5pm. Wales will need to stay within 20 points of a reshuffled France to take the trophy and can claim a Grand Slam by beating the once tournament favourites. BBC’s iPlayer will have the games later. Update Results below the fold. Congratulations to Wales. Six Nations Champions with a Grand Slam.Adds It may be only to avoid the wooden spoon but it’s an entertaining game so far. Half Time. Italy 10 – 17 Scotland Now Another entertaining 40 minutes of rugby sees Italy secure their first win of this year’s tournament. Final score. Italy 23 – 20 Scotland Twickenham And they’re off. 5min in And, after some nervous kicking, an early first try for Ireland. 7min And a penalty. 12min Good attacking play by England, and good defence from Ireland, ends with a penalty. 20min Another entertaining game, so far, and an England try. 30min Better play from both sides, but England look sharper in attack. And get a penalty. 35min Geordan Murphy limps off. Half-time Entertaining half, but Ireland’s early lead was too easily reversed by England. More possession might produce better attacking play.. might.. England 13 – 10 Ireland 2nd Half Underway. 44min England forward pressure rewarded with penalty. 50min Better play from Ireland’s backs brings a penalty. But it’s missed. 58min Another converted England try. 70min And another. 74min And a penalty. Final score England 33 – 10 Ireland. A poor second half from Ireland, but England deserved the win. Sharper in both attack and defence and helped by Irish errors and flat play. Cardiff Now the big one. Allez les Blues! 7min Another frenetic start. Penalty to Wales. 18min Sustained pressure from Wales, and a penalty. 20min France reply. 22min Swapping penalties. Half-time France beginning to find their feet in attack against a strong Wales defence. But Wales start the 2nd half a man down. Henson sin-binned. Wales 9 – 6 France 2nd Half 50min France draw level. 65min Wales have a converted try and a penalty. 73min Swapping penalties again. 77min Great attacking play from Wales rewarded with a try. Full-Time Wales 29 – 12 France. Well done Wales. Deserved victors on the day. Now Six Nations champions and with a Grand Slam.
First of all congrats Wales – thoroughly deserved the championship. Started with an awful 1st 40 against england and should have been dead and burried. However, their last 2 games have been excellent. Individually they are decent players, but collectively they play outstanding rugby.
Personally, I believe shaun edwards has been reponsible for a lot of their success. Without getting bogged down in detail, their defensive patterns have taken the tournament by storm. Their blitz defence has been incredibly difficult to combat and because they don’t commit up front they have stacks of players covering the inside channels.
Probably the only way to take wales on at the moment is to terrorise them up front but neither Ireland or France had a pack powerful enough to do this.
Ireland were pretty dreadful. Individually, the guys weren’t too bad – I thought ROG had an excellent tournament. However, in contrast to Wales, collectively we are a shambles and void of ideas. A change is now overdue and surely inevitable – or is it….?
Sammy: [i]“I have seen Ulster a few times on telly and live and Ryan Caldwell and Ferris both look like forwards with real potential. Caldwell looks really fast and a good passer of the ball. I have been a massive fan of Wallace ( and written him off before ) but next year I can’t see him being in Ireland team. Similalry I think Leamy and O’Connell are living off their reputations a bit. With the All Blacks and Australia next up -there will be no room for experimentation – even a new coach will be in the business of damage limitation – pity we didnt tour somewhere like Argentina or Fiji.”[/i]
Sammy, both Caldwell & Ferris played in an Ireland “A” game that [b]lost to Scotland 67-7[/b]!!!! I think they have a bit of way to go yet!
Match report here:
http://www.irfu.ie/21_11096.php
Wallace is obviously carrying an injury – his thigh has been very heavily strapped all through the 6Ns. I did see some stats of his for the Wales games where he was the top tackler!
If you are going to go on recent form then Leamy should be picked – he has been playing very well with Munster (who incidentally got out of a very difficult HCup group). TBH, I think he had a good enough 6Ns – Wales only beat Ireland by a bit of Irish stupidity (Dewi needs to be reminded of this and if we had a new coach we would well fancy our chances against Wales!) and he was injured 10 mins into England game and look what happened!
IMO, O’Connell should not have been played as he is only coming back from what at one stage was believed to be a career ending back injury. He has only played 2 games since the RWC (which apparently he played through on pain killers). O’Callaghan & O’Driscoll as a combination played well and O’Driscoll was hard done by to be dropped for O’Connell. I would not put any of those mentioned about out to pasture just yet!
Ireland’s SOS= SACK O’SULLIVAN
agh,
What I dont get is how come Reddan doesnt know what going on – Wales defensive shape very similar to Wasps. He presumably told EOS exactly how it works.
JaneyMac,
I agree about MOD – that was a bad call by EOS though POC looked good against Cardiff. But his decision making against Englezes – and gettinig isolated – just bad play.
But need soemthing different at 7 – with Heaslip in ( to do some of Wallys stuff )should be looking at Jennings perhaps.
A game result quitr incredible – but not everyone to blame for that.
JaneyMac,
just read the report above – many of those players for Ireland A dont play regularly for their provinces – looked a really week team – but a pretty incredible result.
A good coach can spot the ones that can move up a level – and although I have been a fan of EOS that aint one of his strong suits.
Easterby retired from International Rugby.
Easterby has had some great games for Ireland but EOS by his loyalty did him no favours in the end by keeping him in position for too long – with the Irish media turning against Easterby ( for his “unseen work” EOS) as Ireland’s fortunes faded.
Dewi,
How can you possibly say Rory Best should be on the lions team! Jerry Flannery is a better line out thrower and better in open play! And Ronan O’Gara is far better than Stephen Jones!There should be about 6 Ireland players on that Lions team Ronan O’Gara, Donnacha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, David Wallace, Brian O’Driscoll and possibly Geordan Murphy
Re: Best – Just hasn’t been a great six nations for hookers. We’ll agree to differ on Stephen Jones – who has been magnificent this season. O’Driscoll and Murphy got big competition. Let’s see mext season eh?
Dewi,
get thee from this site – you little red fecker