Week two of the RBS six nations ended last evening with England narrowly toppling the high flying Irish in Dublin. Scotland pulled out a powerful performance at Murray-field on Saturday to down Italy whilst Wales picked up their first win in 9 games against a flat France in Paris.
Scots dominate Italy at home
Scotland played host to the Azzuri who came into the game on the back of a strong performance in Rome against France last week. The Scots on the other hand struggled at twickernham last weekagainst England but found their form on Saturday and pulled off a massive 34-10 win against the travelling Italians.
Scotland accumulated its points through four converted tries and 2 penalties whilst Italy scored one converted try and a penalty. The try scorers for Scotland were Tim Visser, Matt Scott, Stuart Hogg and Sean Lamont whilst Greg Laidlaw knocked over all four conversions and both penalties. Alessandro Zanni was the sole try scorer for Italy along with Kris Burton’s conversion and Luciano Orquera knocked over one penalty.
The Scottish opened scoring with two penalties from Laidlaw in the 15 and 24th minutes. Visser scored the first try of the game when he beat two defenders out wide to cross over in the 28th minute. Italy gathered their only points of the half in the 39th minute when Luciano Orquera knocked over a 40m penalty to take Italy into the break trailing 13-03.
Scotland scored two back to back tries ten minutes into the second half first through Matt Scott who finished off a fabulous first phase move off a lineout. The next try was a brilliant interception by Stuart Hogg who ran 80m to score for the hosts. With Laidlaw’s conversions Scotland led 27-03 with 30 minutes left on the clock. Sean Lamont won possession on the halfway line when he kicked the ball away from an opponent and ran clear to cross between the posts with Laidlaw completing the inevitable conversion to take the score to 34-03.
Italy added some respectability to the scoreline in the 74th minute when they finally took advantage of a scrum, Sergio Parisse’s reverse pass allowing Alessandro Zanni to cross. Orquera’s kick ensured Italy got into double figures
Scotland will play host to a fired up Ireland team as both sets of players will look to impress with the lions spots up for grabs later this year.
Wales topple the frustrated French
In the second game of Week 2 in the 6 Nations Wales who had lost their last 8 games travelled to Paris to face a down and out France team who came in having lost to Italy just a week ago. Wales put forward a gutsy performance to frustrate the French crowd and grind out a 16-06 win.
Wales gathered their points with a spectacular George North try and a conversion along with 3 penalties off the boot of the ever accurate Leigh Halfpenny. The French on the other hand could only manage the 2 penalties from Fredrick Michalak.
Michalak opened the scoring for the game with a massive 45m penalty to give Les Blues the lead 14 minutes into the game. Halfpenny responded almost immediately when he knocked over a short range penalty to equalize at 3 all.
The Welsh defense was rock solid as it thwarted any attempt to make inroads by the French. Playing at five eight for the Blues Michalak looked out of form and struggled to control the French backs. Wales on the other hand lacked confidence as expected and were seen kicking away possession even though they had many attacking options. The first half played out with the score remaining at 3 all.
Halfpenny was bang on target two minutes into the second half as he gave the visitors a three point lead with a penalty whilst Michalak equalized ten minutes later with a penalty of his own.
The game dragged on giving the impression fans were in for a dull stale mate. But Dan Biggarwith a spark of brilliance chipped superbly behind the French defence, and winger George North collected the favorable bounce before diving over in the corner. Halfpenny’s perfect kick from the corner gave Wales a much needed 7 point lead. The sharpshooter, true to his name then slotted over his third penalty of the night with five minutes on the clock to give Wales their first win of the year.
Wales played very tentatively till the very end of the game and kicked away possession time and again. France was just atrocious with the ball in hand. The hosts never looked threatening and did not click as a unit on the day.
Wales remains on the road as they travel to Rome to face Italy. Wales will have to put up a good performance to beat the Azzurri to have any hopes of retaining the 6 Nations title.
England running high with back to back wins
The Red Rose has looked like a completely now team altogether running high on the back of their win over the All Blacks last year. The English travelled to Dublin to face Ireland who came in off the back of a solid win over Wales last week. England ground out the win over the Irish with a score line of 12 points to 6.
Neither team was able to cross their opponents’ goal line whilst England accumulated their points through the boot of Owen Farrell who knocked over four penalties. The Irish gathered their six points from Ronan O’gara who knocked over two penalties.
Farrell opened the scoring in just the second minute with a penalty in soggy conditions. Both Farrell and Irelands Jonny Sexton repeatedly kicked for territory as a result of the wet weather. Handling was difficult and although the dropped balls made for scrappy rugby, it was no less compelling given the brutality of the breakdown battle.
Farrell doubled the lead in the 28th minute with his second penalty of the evening. The scrappy rugby continued all through the half with both teams attempting to get into a groove. The visitors held their lead of 6 points till the half way mark.
O’Gara who came on for the injured Jonny Sexton knocked over Irelands first points of the game four minutes into the second half after the English scrum was penalized. The experienced five-eight equalized after James Haskell was sin-binned for interfering in the ruck while on the ground.
England fought hard in the next ten minutes even though they were a man down and was rewarded for it as Farrell was given two more penalty shots which he converted to double England’s lead.
Next week England will play host to France who have time and again proven that they can be very dangerous when backed into a corner.
