Italy stun Scotland with last minute score
Italy produced a last minute penalty try to break Scottish hearts at Murrayfield. All of Scotland’s progress over the opening two weekends was dashed by a spirited Italian display. Much of the game was played in the middle of the field, as both sides showed a willingness to move the ball, if not always the imagination to deal telling blows. The Italian maul was extremely effective and proved their best red zone weapon, producing two tries. Stuart Hogg and Mark Bennett fizzed and probed for Scotland but couldn’t quite break the Azzurri defence.
A forward pass from Lamont to Hogg denied Scotland a score that would have changed the game midway through the second half, but the longer the game stayed close the more Italian belief grew. For the third game in a row Scotland did so many things well but could not bring it all together to produce a winning display. They now face a tough task against the two tournament favourites England and Ireland to avoid finishing bottom. Italy will, as always, hope this provides something to build on, not just a flash in the pan. The Italians deserve real credit from turning around a thumping at Twickenham into a gutsy away win.
Wales storm Paris to continue Six Nations resurgence
Wales produced a controlled and mature performance to overcome France in the late game on Saturday at the Stade de France. Dan Biggar produced another outstanding display, capped with the game-winning try following slick interplay between Webb and Lydiate.
France registered another improved performance, the variety of Morgan Parra’s game helping immensely. Yet they still lack imagination and are overly reliant on big carriers running into bodies. They were most impressive when they upped the tempo and went direct at the beginning of the second period, but Wales’ game management was far superior. Biggar put them in the right areas, the pack turned the screw and Halfpenny never looked like missing to generally keep Les Blues at arm’s length. Saint Andre’s tenure is looking increasingly untenable. Further losses could force the FFR’s hand. Wales still feel they have a shot at the title, but as unbeaten Ireland role into Cardiff, the Welsh will have to find an extra gear.
Ireland show ruthlessness to crush England in Dublin
Ireland took one step closer to the Grand Slam with an excellent win over the previously unbeaten England. Johnny Sexton was in imperious form once again, aided expertly by his half-back partner Conor Murray. The precision of their kicking, and the relentless chasing from Bowe, Henshaw et al was too much for the England back three.
England let themselves down and looked a different side to the one that had won two weeks previously. Far too many basic errors in almost every facet of play kept them first from developing momentum, then from capitalising upon it.
Ireland shaded the set-piece at crucial junctures, denying England vital attacking platforms. England’s attempts to mimic their hosts approach were too often under-rehearsed. The kick chase was ineffectual and too often the kicks weren’t contestable. Vunipola was perhaps the only Englishmen to enhance his reputation.
Ireland are starting to look like a very good team. If they can develop a more explosive attacking game to add to their tactical nous, they will be in with a real shot at the Rugby World Cup in six months’ time. England will lick their wounds and rue their mistakes, knowing that they did not do themselves justice.
Exeter win West Country battle as Bath continue to struggle
Bath’s form continued to stutter as they were downed by Exeter 16-6. The Chiefs move into third and are profiting from the international break. Leicester registered an important win over Sale at Welford Road 28-8, whilst Sarries left it late to beat a continually improving Newcastle Falcons at Allianz Park.
Ben Spencer’s second half penalties were enough to overcome three Falcons tries 22 – 17. Saints shaded Harlequins 17 – 13 on Friday night and Welsh took another hammering from their fellow Exiles as Irish ran up 50 at the Kassam and Alex Lewington stood out with a hat-trick. Wasps eased past Gloucester 32 – 21 to continue their unbeaten start in Coventry.
Leinster secure draw at Ospreys
The Pro 12 saw Leinster grind out a 9-9 draw at the Liberty Stadium, a Jimmy Gopperth penalty two minutes from time enough to give the Irishmen a share of the spoils in Swansea. Munster overcame Glasgow 22 – 10, a winning margin which could have been significantly higher had the hosts not missed four kicks at goal.
The Scarlets, despite being decimated by international call-ups, were gallant losers and pushed Ulster all the way at Ravenhill, eventually going down 25 – 20. Zebre bagged a rare win over the Dragons, triumphing 23-17 in Italy. It wasn’t a perfect weekend for Italian teams, however, as Connacht hammered Treviso 53 – 5 and Cardiff overcame Edinburgh 21 – 15 at the Arms Park.
Cheetahs hang on to pip Blues in thriller
In the game of the weekend the Cheetahs pipped the Blues at the last, 25 – 24, in a game with some wonderful moments of running rugby. The Hurricanes dispatched a Force side lacking intensity 13 – 42 and the Chiefs were far too strong for the Crusaders, who lost Robbie Fruean to a fractured arm. The Hamilton side have emerged as the early pace setters along with the Hurricanes. The Bulls, Brumbies and Highlanders all registered wins against the Sharks, Rebels and Reds respectively.
Try of the Week: Dan Biggar’s vital score in Paris takes the gong this week. The spectacular vision from Webb and the soft, quick-thinking hands from Lydiate to put the fly-half away were a moment of quality in an otherwise uninspired 6 Nations weekend.
Video credit: RBS 6 Nations
Hero of the Week: for winning his 111th cap with only Italy’s second away Six Nations win, Sergio Parisse takes the plaudits this week. He may not quite have the dynamism of years gone by, but remains a wonderfully iconic player, with unparalleled leadership skills. Special mentions also for Messrs Sexton and Biggar as well.
Villain of the Week: To put it bluntly, it’s the scrum. Or rather the northern hemisphere scrum. I’ve written about it before but I am at a loss of how to turn this part of the game around; how to have a contest, so that union doesn’t turn into league, but not a penalty/free kick or reset-fest. All suggestions are welcome below the line.
By Patrick Cheshire (@jpcheshire)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
Beautiful pass from Lydiate.
I think English fans would feel better if the hype was tempered a little. Didn’t do themselves justice? Played as expected I think. A poor autumn (by most fans accounts given only 1 win against the big 3) and a stuttering win over Italy (by expected standards) bookended a smashing defensive bullying of Wales at the MS. So maybe their true level is exactly as they played – some big lads up front, some exciting young backs who play well with space but overall man for man their players are not right now up there with the top teams and neither are their coaches. And Haskell can’t have more than 2 good games for England in a row.
Amusing to see Schmidt spend lots of last week using the press to say Ireland don’t kick the ball that much at all, they’re about much more than that … then they kick the hell out of it for 80 mins and rightly so with the chase they had. If it was Gats playing the press like that the knives would be out.
I’ll admit I did a little fist pump when Scotland lost given the 2 weeks of awful #finnocent and #timegate rubbish they’ve subjected Wales to. They acted as if they were illegally robbed of the result against us – well, if they were that good then they’d have beaten Italy as well.
Cardiff won. Couldn’t believe it. Pity the awful broadcasters scheduled it at the same time as most youth rugby in Wales is played so only 1 man and his dog watched it.
The press don’t criticize that tactic because Schmidt won.
Nobody criticised warrenball until it stopped working. There isn’t a press conspiracy against gatland.
It’s not so much the tactic, this isn’t about Warrenball – it’s the mind games in the press. Gats tries to pull fast ones with references to choke tackles, crossing, etc. and gets pilloried for it. Schmidt is … ummm, economical with the truth about kicking and not a word about “why is he playing mind games?
I don’t think there is a conspiracy, I think they simply don’t like him and love the chance to shove his face in it.
I think it might be more to do with the fact Gatland and Edwards like to talk about other teams tactics, which is why it has been seen as mind games. Schmidt was just talking about his own tactics and he may have not told the truth but I don’t really see that as mind games only an idiot would completely believe what a coach told you about his own game plan.
Actually Schmidt was talking about England’s tactics as much as his own i.e. referring to their tendency to kick the ball more than Ireland. Only an idiot would believe that any reference to any teams approach wasn’t well thought out.
Yes but there is a difference about talking about the oppositions tactics in connection with your own i.e comparing the two. To question how legal and safe other teams tactics are, which is what Gatland and Edwards like to do. I don’t think that you can real argue that Gatland and Edwards don’t like to play mind games. I am sorry but saying you going to run more with the ball and then not do doing so, is not playing mind games, not in my book anyway.
I am afraid the Clive Woodwards of this world build this EnglishvTeam up to much. They are indeed very ordinary and in my opinion need to change their coach as SL has had long enough! In the game on Sat Ireland controlled the game through out! The scrums and lineouts were fairly even,however Ireland dominated the breakdown and were the only team who looked dangerous with ball in hand. The English backs don’t seem to understand,that in order to create a gap u need to create space by passing ball in space for someone to run on to or by overlap on outside. All they do is pass the ball to the player next to them then set up phase,the pass ball again etcv,etc till the inevitable knock on occurs! It is all just to predictable and dare I say,boring!
As for Scotland, them and Italy are out of their depth in the Six Nations and perhaps they should play against the likes of Rumania,Georgia etc!
England need to understand how to create space and pass? Yet the team that beat the comfortably on Saturday did not even try to do that. They played an outstanding kicking game. Not sure I follow the logic?
Nothing wrong with England’s backs as far as I can see. Ireland dominated the breakdown, the line out and the kicking game. England played the first 70 minutes with about 30% possession and not much more territory – we could have BOD in his prime in our back line and we still wouldn’t have looked any good with that ball.
Yes Ireland did use predominant very effective kicking game,however that does not alter the fact that when the England had the ball,in the backs they had no idea how to create space!
I think we can use prior evidence and not dwell on their use of the 30% possession England had before drawing on this as a serious issue. Plenty of space was created in the Wales and Italy game when England had some genuine possession and territory. In fact, for the last 10 minutes on Sunday England were also ok in this area.
My point is simply that England may not be perfect here, but it not a primary issue or the reason we lost yesterday.
I didn’t by into all the hype before Saturday and I also refuse to get too downbeat now. SL to my mind is doing a pretty decent job, not perfect, but pretty good.
England struggled in three key areas on Saturday:
Breakdown – England got smashed in the breakdown on Saturday, it happens. Not an area England are normally poor but you occasionally just get outplayed there. It is not a source of worry or anything that is SL’s fault.
The Line out – historically very good here but been poor all 6 nations. Have to lay the blame at Attwoods door here as he is now the line out caller and keeps making awful decisions. His choice to go to the back once we’d gone to the corner with Toner marking Haskell was madness. Lawes or Parling need to be back in asap for this area.
Kicking game – this covers our kicking out of hand which was not on the same level of Sexton/Murray, and also our kick chase. Was it a tactic to not really put pressure on the Irish receivers? Mad one if it was.
The only one of those three issues that I’d lay at SL’s door is the kick chase – and that is assuming that the awful chasing was some sort of tactic. It may well have just been the players letting him down.
Does it not worry you Jacob that England have seemed so ill prepared in all three matches? Surely SL and the coaches need to cop something for that? In the first 2 matches we recovered by the second half, this time not until about the 60th minute?
Were we ill prepared for all three matches? Not sure about that. Have we started well? No.
After the 8th minute in Cardiff Wales scored 6 points. That try was a bit of a freak off the back of a scrum where England was rolling forwards. Not an excuse or taking anything away from Faletau and Webb but also not something that is a massive issue.
I think we massively underestimated Italy – which did not worry me. I don’t know if that was to do with the coaches of the media circus getting to the players whenever England play well. England were awful first 20, then suddenly kicked into gear, played very good rugby, then switched off when the game seemed won. Poor, but not something I’d necessarily lay at SL’s door.
As I say, poor kicking management, both attacking and defense is the biggest worry right now for SL as far as I can see. He needs to come up with a good strategy, and quickly.
Everyone says how England get hyped up when they win, well the exact same happens when the lose and it’s all rubbish.
I completely agree with Jacob. Rugby come down to three key areas; Set Piece, Breakdown and the Kicking Game. England lost all three. But that doesn’t mean that England are suddenly a bad team, Ireland just made us looking worse than we are, it is what they do. They did exactly the same it Wales last year. Shut down the opposition and stop them from playing.
My main feeling is one of frustration, we should of know what Ireland were going to do. And as much as I believe the comments that England will go away and learn lesson from this, I would have hoped we had done that enough times already!
Not sure how people can say Lancaster as had enough time and other such rubbish, he has been in charged three years, that’s not either a WC cycle. And since the last WC England have been the most consistent team in the Six Nations.
What disappointed me most was that there are a number of players who playing for their place and yet didn’t step up. Haskell, Attwood, Goode should be playing out of their skins every match given SL’s predisposition to stick with his tried and tested. I imagine Wood, Lawes and Brown will walk back into the starting 15. Impressed with Ford, Kruis and Joseph though, really think they stepped up when more experienced heads were losing theirs. Thought Billy V had a good match too. Robshaw probably had one of his worst, especially as Captain.
Agree with you on some poor performances, Attwood and Goode in particulary were poor.
Vunipola really impressed me, thought he was brilliant.
Did you not get the impression that Robshaw’s decision to go for the corner was based on a potential lack of confidence in Ford’s kicking? That was my first thought and I may be massively wrong there. Either way, was a strange decision at 6-3. What was stranger was the line out call from Attwood though – really need Lawes or Parling back for the next game. Without either of those the line out has gone from a strength to a weakness.
I may be wrong about this as couldn’t really hear much of the commentary in the pub i was in, however, I thought it looked like that the penalty had been awarded for collapsing the maul and that Joubert had just verbally warned O’Connell for this and therefore a lineout from five metres against a side who has just been warned for collapsing seems to me to be fair option?
Don’t think it was lack of confidence in Ford, the kick he missed in the first half was pretty much on the edge of his range, kickers are going to miss a few from out there if that is their limit?
I dont think he was warning O Connell rather O Connell explaining that they werent collapsing the maul.
It seems to me that the english media and fans can become far too binary in their analysis of thier teams. They are either world beaters or awful. This is an excellent Irish team who were all over them for 60 mins. Despite this, if Easter had gone over in the 71st minute, it would have been a close run thing.
A bit more accuracy and this England team will compete with the best and beat them.
The Lancaster bashing is ridiculous
Completely agree with you here B.
That shouldn’t be mistaken for suggesting England could have won yesterday, they were well and truly well beaten. But it was not a trouncing in the style of Cardiff 2013.
Plenty of areas to improve, but we should already have known that.
What a cracking set of results…..
The negative Scots got their just desserts at the hands of Italy.
Wales beat France for the 4th consecutive season.
The wheels fell off the chariot yet again this year as England’s much predicted much anticipated GS goes up in a puff of smoke again as per usual.
If Carlsberg did weekend’s for Welsh rugby fans this would be it for Round 3 of the 6N
Don’t be silly, after the autumn very few people expected us to beat Wales, let alone Ireland at home. I don’t think even the idiot section of the media touted England as on for the GS
Pablito, you are correct. Most pundits picked us as third, with a few braver souls going for second or first on points difference if we won one of our away games. All three results still possible! Enoch we know you are one eyed about England, but did think of you when Priestland came on!
After the autumn yes, but after beating Wales and Italy this year there was definitely a media led belief that the slam was on and there was much concurring across the internet. This was the game of the tournament. The decider, etc. Seems we now have another decider next weekend.
I don’t think you can blame the media for hyping a “decider” between the two unbeaten sides – and you certainly can not blame the England fans.
No England fan I spoke to was seriously thinking a GS was on, so this nonsense of laughing at us is a bit over the top as far as I can see.
billyburgess
You pretty much said it. When I’ve done it, I’m anti English or have a chip.
The reality is though, that SL is unimaginative & his back line yesterday looked pedestrian, leaden footed & as though they were running in treacle. Ford was only ok @ best, nothing special, so why didn’t the narrow minded Lancaster bring on Cipriani – early. Would he have fared worse the Ford? Burrell made a couple of bursts, but not much else & what of JJ (who?), the ‘new Guscott’? Bluddy anon, that’s what. The wingers had a couple of runs, but the on left, doesn’t Jack Nowell know what a fend is? The back 3 did have a couple of moments, incl Goode who ran out ‘D’ under extreme pressure on 1 notable occasion, but they also missed a few in the air. More homework?
The Irish did stand up in the scrum which did surprise me somewhat, but they did dominate the breakdown & their clearances were quicker, more accurate & the DID run some ball,esp later on. However, altho winners are grinners, they could only manage 1 try – from the air. The English ‘D’ stood up well, particularly before 1/2 time when Billy stopped the Irish runner in his tracks by the posts. Could have been critical, but wasn’t in the end. IMO Ireland ought to have gone wide, right with a set move to penetrate out of the traffic.
England’s missed line out when they could have kicked for goal was much discussed, but this was only retro talk. They usually win their own, but this time didn’t. It happens. If they’d caught & driven, as it is 1 or their strengths, then scored, it would have been the ‘right’ decision.
@ the end England got on top & could have pulled it back, if not off, but for a fwd pass. Basic, but vital stuff again. It also happens, but this time they were spotted. Homework again, just like those off side grabs from in front of their own players who’d spilled the pill.
England ‘back on track’? Not on that showing Mr. soundbite. A swap of coaches might help.
Do agree that England’s back line did very little yesterday; but was it more more to do with the lack of ball England had than anything poor the backs were doing?
England has nothing of the ball (30% possession was the stat at half time and it only got worse).
Is any back line going to be able to do anything with that?
Completely agree Cipriani should have come on – I’d forgotten about this!! Can’t believe SL did not bring him on – now that is a decision SL got absolutely and completely wrong!
In general though, though the back line did ok with the limited ball they had. Goode is limited in attack, but Foden and Brown are both injured so not SL’s fault.
Thought Joseph and Burrell had decent yards when they did get hand on ball; it just was not often enough. That’s what happens when you lose the breakdown battle.
Jacob, it was lack of quick ball rather than lack of ball that did us. Ireland bossed the breakdown and slowed down everything. No backline has a chance under those circumstances, however skilful.
Staggy. Whilst England didn’t have any quick ball, the lack of ball at all really didn’t do us any good at all!
So what – England lost a game – it’s hardly panic stations (unlike Scotland)!!! Don’t be surprised if wales beat Ireland………then how do we some up the 6 Nations?!?!?!
As pointed out above, it always seem to be heaven or hell for some England supporters. For me this result is not a damning indictment of the england team. We were beaten by a much more tactically astute team, fielding the world’s best 9 and 10 combo, who worked exactly to their game plan.
That said, I really do wish 12Ts had got the hell out of the way of Easter when he went for the line in the last 10 mins. If the try had been given, it would have been squeaky bum time for the Irish. Still, the best team undoubtedly won.
Whilst we shouldn’t consign SL to the fires of hell, it does not mean that we cannot critcise. And there are specific areas that have been consistently weak under his tenure and need to be resolved.
1. Selection. I could see it, thousands of others could see it, so why can’t the England coaching team see that Goode is not an international player. The man looks like he is running in treacle. Futermore what the hell is going on with Croft and Easter? I can just about understand Croft as a sub for the locks (although I still think its a bloody silly decision given how long he was out for and the fact that he’s shown no form whatsoever), but I just cannot understand Easter as lock replacement and Croft as a back row replacement. If you want Easter to cover lock fine although he won’t be as effective, but given how many back row players England could choose from, to select Croft is close to insanity. Finally, when England’s only hope was to speed the game up and we needed a Care or a Simpson, we got Wigglesworth who seemed to view getting to each ruck quickly as being merely optional
2. Substitutes. Last 20 mins, we needed players who can carry the ball and players who can change a game. M Vunipola and Easter both made a visible difference. So why was Henry Thomas left on the bench and even worse, why on earth did Cipriani not get on the field. I just cannot understand the thinking behind it
3. The Breakdown. Its actually relatively simple. You are a forward – when its your ball, defend it by going hard into rucks and driving past the ball. Do not stand 2 metres away watching as your 2 wingers try to dislodge the opposition 3,5 and 6. If the oppostion has the ball don’t just give up, choose your moment and counter-ruck and disrupt. The one game when England got this right was THAT game against NZ and look what happened then
Oh and at least contest a couple of line-outs for christ’s sake
Other than that, I guess you still have to hope your players turn up on the day. Haskell is unfortunately looking like a one game wonder. Attwood is just strange – most tackles yet weirdly ineffective – I championed him as I thought the pack needed more bulk and power, but currently he’s not supplying it. Youngs is ok but nothing more than that, wich we had a Conor Murray.
Still, all they can do now is make sure they win the last two games by hefty margins. My team assuming no injuries
Marler, Youngs, Cole, Lawes, Kruis, Haskell (last chance begfore Ewers should take his place), Robshaw, BV, Youngs, Ford, Nowell, Burrell, Joseph, Watson, Brown
Hartley, Vunipola, Thomas/Brookes, Attwood, Easter, Care, Cipriani, Eastmond
PS – thought Robshaw’s was the correct decision – penaly just given against Ireland in the maul, Ford’s kicking not 100% reliable and a difficult angle, should have been all set up for another rumble and probably another penalty conceded. Let down by a poor call and poor execution.
PPS – surely Hero of the Week has to be Lydiate for showing that, despite not having touched one during the course of a game before Sat, he does actually know what a rugby ball looks like and what to do with it
Ah .. Lydiate … ;-)
Agree with most of what you’re saying except a few things.
You may not mean this, but it read as if you were criticising SL for the Breakdown? Agree we got beaten up here but not sure how we can pin it on SL?
Selection – tough one. It is the XV I’d have picked. Brown and Foden were both injured, would you really have gone for Pennell? Can’t blame him here.
Substitutions – madness to me to not bring Cipriani on. Also don’t really understand Croft. 12T needs to get far away from the 23 asap too.
However, I do understand Easter. There aren’t many lock alternatives with the amount of injuries in this area, Easter has played a lot of rugby there and his performances of the bench there justify his selection for that spot from what I can see.
Like the look of your 23 but wouldn’t have Eastmond there – probably go with a back three player. Maybe even Wade.
Regarding the vexed question of scrums … a number of years ago here in New Zealand a new rule was employed for about a season at provincial level where from the moment the ball was put in you could not push the opposing scrum more than a metre forward of the mark. It improved the flow of the game considerably but as one old school commentator put it: “it has reduced the scrum to a hooking contest”. Actually as a former lock my opinion was that’s all it should be anyway simply as a means to re-start the game. Growing up on a farm the sight of mindless beasts pushing against each other in the middle of a paddock soon lost any interest as a spectacle and I fear this is what could happen to rugby for the world sporting audience as promoters try to expand its global appeal. I cannot remember why the new law was not adopted after its trial here but certainly it would be time for the IRB to look at it again.