The last weekend of the 6-Nations tournament saw some hard fought Rugby and a huge surprise.
Scotland finally found some sort of form and eventually achieved a fairly comfortable victory over Italy. The Italians fought hard but were not quite up to the incredible form that brought them victory over the French; the forwards made a consistent mess of the line-out and the defence was simply not as effective. A win by 21-8 ensured that Scotland climbed off the bottom of the table and Italy took the wooden spoon, though it's clear that they're no longer the 'push-over' of a few years ago. Whether he keeps his job or not, Nick Mallet has achieved great things with this side, while Andy Robinson knows that he has a lot to do if the Scots are to provide any sort of challenge in the World Cup.
In the day's second match in Dublin, England started with vigour but Ireland were quickly in control. The home side had most of the possession and territory, and England seemed a pale shadow of their former selves. Penalties galore saw the Irish steam into the lead, O'Driscoll went over for a try disallowed for a very marginal forward pass, and Bowe did score a try. 14-0 to Ireland and no sign that England even knew how to play the game effectively suggested that the hype about an English 'Grand Slam' was just that - hype. Ireland were quicker to the ball, used it more effectively and made fewer errors as England struggled to make any progress at all.
Things went from bad to worse for England when Ben Youngs was sent to the sin bin for a puerile show of petulance, and Brian O'Driscoll finally did score a try to break a long standing 6-Nations' record. Although Steve Thompson took advantage of a mad moment from the Irish to score a try, Wilko missed the conversion and Ireland continued to dominate the game. The best that can be said from an English viewpoint is that they were less outplayed in the second half than in the first, which isn't saying much. The 24-8 scoreline was no more than Ireland deserved, as England had been torn apart and any ideas they may have had about World Cup success must surely be in tatters. This was a shockingly poor performance from England, and an enormous surprise, but the Irish have to be given full credit for an excellent showing in front of their home crowd.
England's defeat meant that Wales could steal the Championship crown with an emphatic win over the French, but this was not to be. France bounced back from their beating by Italy and were on top from the outset, just. Although there wasn't a lot to choose between the sides, there was enough to allow the French to take an 11-3 lead by half-time and they increased this to 21-9 following a weak Welsh start to the second period. James Hook managed to get himself 'sin-binned' France added a third try and the game was effectively over within the hour, with France leading 28-9. Wales did play more freely from this point but it was probably more a case of France taking their foot off the peddle than Wales improving.
In the end, Wales couldn't break through and France ended the game still in control, having undoubtedly regained some of the pride in the last match. Nonetheless, they can have no illusions about the mountain they have to climb before the World Cup, and Wales know that their World Cup hopes are slim to say the least. England were Champions, but their success was severely tarnished by their performance today and it leaves one expecting the southern hemisphere teams to dominate the World Cup in August.
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