IRELAND 46 - 7 ITALY
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| Brian O Driscoll gets a guard of honor as he leaves the field : Pic:ESPN Scrum |
Ireland remain top of the Six Nations Championship table as they thrashed Italy 46-7 at the Aviva Stadium as the home crowd bid a farewell to one of it`s sporting legends and gave a great send off to Brian O` Driscoll, in what was the famous number Thirteen`s final appearance in the famous Green jersey of Ireland at home.
The game it`s self was another example of domination by the home side as they pulled apart the Italian side with ease, in what was really a sideshow around Brian O` Driscoll final home for his Country.
It took just Six minutes of play to see the man in action as the centre shown off his handling skills to perfection, to help set up the first try. Johnny Sexton led the attack and after a little quick one-two with O Driscoll, Sexton dashed for the line and scored the opening points of the game with the Irish getting into their stride early, leading 7-0 with the extras.
Italy then scored a try of their own after Andrew Trimble put a beast of a hit on Paul Derbyshire which then saw the ball ran loose and collected by Leonardo Sarto, who ran down the touchline before dropped the shoulder with the oncoming Rob Kearney and saw Sarto go behind the posts for a 7-7 score.
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| Sexton runs to the line :Telegraph.co.uk |
Johnny Sexton kicked over a penalty for the hosts and then saw Trimble go over for another Ireland try, with some unhappy over the try being awarded. As in the build up to it, Ireland had run the ball right next to where Gordon D`Arcy was getting some treatment by the physio on the pitch and saw O Driscoll then make chest pass toward to Trimble, which saw him take the pass and go over for 17-7 with Sexton adding the two points.
Cian Healy then grabbed the third try for Ireland after he picked the ball up from a ruck and saw him crash over from close range unchallenged for a 22-7 scoreline. Not too long after O Driscoll was at his best once again as while being held by the defence, the Centre then had presence of mind and the unbelievable strength to flip a ball out wide to the Kearney brothers, as first off Rob had the ball before David came on the overlap and he in turn played it back for Sexton who joined on the play to score his second try of the game and put the game out of reach now for the Italians at 27-7 after 59 minutes of the game gone.
The Aviva Stadium then all stood to give a standing ovation to Brian O Driscoll in his final Home game for the Irish as he was replaced on the hour mark and seen the fans continue to applaud and show their appreciation for the most capped player not only for Ireland but the history of the game too collecting his 140 cap of his Illustrious career.
Ireland then grabbed their 5th try of the game, with them turning over the ball from Italy and from there saw the ball played to substitute Sean Cronin and he dashed in the corner in the 68th minute, with Paddy Jackson kicking the extra points for a 34-7 score.
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| Andrew Trimble scores Try for Irish: BBC Sports |
Italy was physically battered and broken by the Irish, so it came as no surprise when they continued to pile the pressure on more and score another try, with Fergus McFadden taking a pass from Eoin Reddan and McFadden had a clear run to the line as Ireland was handing out a damn good beating to the visitors.
With the 80th minute gone, Italy must have thought the home side would just kick the ball out to end the game and take pity, but they were wrong. The home side went in search of one last try and they got it, when Jack McGrath picked it up from the ruck and powered through the shattered Italian defence to see Ireland record their SIXTH try of the game and make it 46-7 and another rampant performance by the leaders and favourites to win the Championship.
SCOTLAND 17 - 19 FRANCE
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| Pic: BBC Sports |
Scotland will look back on this game and think it wasn`t France that beat them, it was Scotland that beat themselves as they were in control for the majority of the game. It was the away side that took the lead after the first minute of play with Maxime Machenaud kicking over a penalty and then extended the lead with another penalty to see them 6-0 up.
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| Hugent bolts the full length of pitch for try: bbc sports |
Machenaud then kicked a penalty over for the visitors which saw them moved back ahead to go 9-7, that was till Tommy Seymour scored a well worked try by Scotland as a lot of quick hands by the hosts saw Duncan Weir pass to Matt Scott and he then switched it back to Seymour who galloped to the line and put the home side 14-9 up, with Laidlaw continuing his 100% kicking record.
Scotland headed into the half time break leading as the French looked far from a side that was challenging for the title this season, based on this and previous performances.
France was then gifted points by the home side when the Scots was pushing their
opponents back in their own 22 and so when an attempted long pass was
intercepted by Hugent in the middle of the defence, he then ran the full length
of the field to score a sensational solo try and see Machenaud kick over the
two point conversion for a 16-14 score line.
Duncan Weir who was the hero two weeks ago for the Scots with a drop goal against Italy saw him kick over another drop goal, to see the Murrayfield crowd rise to their feet in celebrations and see the hosts take a slim one point advantage for a 17-16 lead after 61 minutes of the game.
The home side looked almost
certain to hold on as the French was looking clueless and out of sorts in this
contest.
With just over five
minutes in the game left to go Duncan Weir had a chance to seal the win for the
Scots with a penalty kick, but unfortunately for him and the home side the kick
swerved away of the right hand post and seen the ball go wide.
France was then
handed a chance to steal the win from their hosts as Jean-Marc Doussain kicked what
proved to be the winning points in the game as from 20 metres out, Doussain converted
the kick and the French picked up a lucky 19-17 win. Scotland will look back
and wonder how on earth they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,
when the Scots were in charge for the game.
ENGLAND 29 - 18 WALES
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| Danny Care takes the applause after scoring the opening try: Telegraph.co.uk |
England had been waiting a year for this fixture to come as they looked to get revenge on the Welsh for last year’s title decider in Cardiff`s Millenium Stadium, where Wales had bullied, battered and demolished the England side with power and pace and seen them humbled by the Champions.
This time round though, the shoe would be on the other foot with England dishing out their own revenge for their loss and in doing so killed off any chances of Wales retaining their title, for what would have been a historic three championships in a row.
Wales made good start when their scrum won an early penalty inside the opening couple of minutes and that was what helped the Welsh win last time out against their bitter rival. That was as good as it got for Wales as England then started to step up after that early setback in the scrum and saw the home side drive toward the Welsh line.
Wales in the process conceded a penalty and saw Danny Care take a quick tap on the five-metre line, with the England man`s quick thinking seen him quickly crash over for a try with the away side switching off and was the easiest try Care will ever score in his career.
Owen Farrell who endured a torrid game in that encounter Twelve months ago in Cardiff, saw his kicking immaculate all day with the boot and recorded a 100% success rate to give the hosts lead 7-0.
Wales was then awarded a penalty after Courtney Lawes failed to roll away at the ruck and saw Wales kicker Leigh Halfpenny have the simplest of penalty kicks to see the score become 7-3 in favour of the English.
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| Burrell dives over for the try: BBC SPORTS |
Both sides then traded penalty kicks with England not keeping their discipline as they were battering the Welsh side, but they were making silly errors and helped the champions stay within touch of the home side at the half hour mark, with the score moving onto 13-9 to England.
French Referee Roman Poite then wanted to join in on the game himself as he blocked off a Welsh tackler and then got a little hit from Courtney Lawes to see him run into a massive gap, before play being brought back for a scrum. Poite the former French detective then held his hand up over the incident and saw both teams raise a smile over it all.
However both sides were soon back at it and saw England grab a try through the quick thinking of Billy Twelvetrees, as his grubber kick behind the Wales defence in the corner, saw Luther Burrell first to it and got downward pressure on it for a try to make it 18-9 before Farrell added two more points to the total for 20-9.
England continued to shoot themselves in the foot, giving away two late penalties in the first half which handed Wales a lifeline with Halfpenny kicking both over to see his side to trail by five points at half time, losing 20-15.
The second half saw Owen Farrell kick over a penalty for England with the hosts forcing the Welsh to concede the penalty at the scrum and with the kick seen England move further ahead.
Gethin Jenkins was then shown the yellow card and made to sit out the game for ten minutes and put his side down to 14 men in the process after all the warning he was constantly given for over not rolling away.
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| Triple crown winners :Yahoo sports |
Farrell stepped up and slotted over 26-15 and if England had been disciplined enough in the match, then Wales would not have scored. Plus all the points the Welsh did score came from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny and it wasn`t just the boot that he tried to help Wales with as he made a last ditch tackle on Lawes to stop him grabbing another try. In stopping the try Halfpenny suffered a dislocated shoulder and had to be substituted as his Six Nations campaign came to a painful end along with England dismantling them too.
Farrell completed the scoring in the game as he helped kick England to revenge and a victory that gave them the Triple Crown along with hopes of landing the title next weekend, depending on if they can beat Italy in Rome and also on how the Ireland/France game finishes up too.
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