This season's Six Nations got under way last Saturday with reigning champions Ireland hosting Italy. In a turgid match devoid of much excitement Jamie Heaslip scored the first try of this year's tournament soon followed by Tomas O'Leary and Ireland went in 23-8 ahead at half time with much expectation of a second half rout. In the event a couple of Irish penalties and one Italian was the sum total of the scoring leaving the hosts satisfied with the win but not the performance.
The other Saturday match saw Wales travel to Twickenham to take on England.Despite much to-ing and fro-ing the match approached half time with the sides locked at three points all, when a moment of imbecility from Alun Wynn-Jones saw him sin binned (and lucky not to be sent off). England took full advantage of his absence by not only scoring from the resultant penalty but also adding a converted try with the final move of the half to go in 13-3 ahead. With the lock still off the pitch the hosts added another converted try to stretch their lead to 20-3. On his return he started to make amends by providing the final pass for the first Welsh try and after the conversion the gap was down to 10 points.Wales kept on attacking but were guilty of far too many wayward passes, but with ten minutes left James Hook cut through to score a second Welsh try, which after the conversion cut the gap to just three points. Wales kept on pushing but in trying to force things just too much were intercepted and England broke away to score the decisive try which with the conversion and a last minute penalty gave them a 30-17 victory.
Sunday saw Scotland host France and the French opened up a 15-6 half time lead with two tries from centre Basteraud. Despite all Scotlands efforts (and certain moments of magic from France) the only scores in the second half were a penalty apiece leaving the final score 18-9 in favour of the visitors.
The second round of matches is this weekend:
Saturday, 13 February 2010
France v Ireland
Wales v Scotland
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Italy v England
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Second round
The second weekend of matches got under way with Scotland visiting Wales and shocking the hosts by storming into an early lead and reaching half time 18-9 ahead having scored two tries. Unfortunately for them (and of course the player) they had lost Chris Patterson in his 100th match to injury. Wales cut the deficit with a try but Dan Parks kicked Scotland into an eight point lead going into the final ten minutes although further injuries had disrupted the visitors. The visitors then imploded, first losing replacement hooker Scott Lawson to the sin bin and conceding a second try which cut the deficit to three points. Rightly or wrongly substitute Phil Goodman was then judged to have tripped a Welsh player and received his marching orders and the resultant penalty levelled the scores. At this stage with time up all the Scotts had to do was launch the kick off into touch to earn a draw but instead (for reasons only known to them) decided to keep the ball in play and then watched in horror as the Welsh cut through a tired and short handed team to score the most unlikely win there has been for many years.
Tournament favourites France were at home to defending champions Ireland and helped by poor Irish discipline were 17-3 up at half time - scoring 10 points while Healy was in the sin bin. Irish hooker Flannery was lucky to stay on the pitch after another bout of ill discipline (but was subsequently cited and was lucky to receive only a six week ban). The second half was more of the same with the French ruthlessly cutting the Irish defence to pieces and running out 33-10 winners.
England visited Italy on Sunday and the only good thing to say about the match was that they won. The less said about the performance the better.