The third round of the Six Nations' rugby championship began with Wales being too strong for Italy in the foul weather of Rome. Italy, without the suspended Parisse, had no answer to the power and speed of their revitalised visitors and the Welsh eventually won fairly easily by 26-9. Italy, as always, tried hard but they simply aren't quite as good as their Six Nations' rivals yet, notwithstanding their surprise victory over France on the opening weekend. Wales, after a bad start, are now emerging as the most likely challengers to England for the championship.
England then took on France at Twickenham and found themselves up against a team with much more spirit and menace than they'd shown in their first 2 disappointing games. Following their defeats at the hands of Italy and Wales, the French brought back a few older players and, for the first half at least, gave England a real scare. Despite an early penalty scored by Owen Farrell, it was France who looked more dangerous for most of the half and they took a deserved lead into the break at 10-9.
The second half was a different story. England were more composed and a series of inexplicable replacements by France saw the home side gradually take control. A try for Manu Tuilagi and more penalties from Farrell and his replacement, Flood, took England to a fairly comfortable win by 23-13, and set up the prospect of a Triple Crown and Grand Slam decider at the Millennium Stadium in 3 weeks time. England probably weren't at their best today and their tackling was particularly poor in the first half, but they were still the better team overall and are becoming a real force.
The weekend's final match, Scotland versus Ireland at Murrayfield was a bruising encounter in which the Scots defended for almost the entire first half. Ireland threw everything at the Scottish line but lapses meant that points were hard to come by. By half-time, Ireland led by only 3-0, having missed two penalties and failed to score anything when Scotland had a man -sin-binned'; their line-out was something of a mess which didn't help either. A try came early in the second half, though the conversion was missed, as the game carried on in the same vein. Scotland finally gained a penalty under the Irish posts to get themselves back in the game after 52 minutes and added a second 8 minutes later to close the gap to just 6-8. Five minutes later and the Scots, profiting from greater possession, had another penalty and took a most improbable lead. Yet another penalty for Scotland with just 6 minutes left was just reward for their second half revival although Ireland really should have been out of sight by half-time; instead, they found themselves 8-12 behind and in desperate need of a try to save the day. The last few minutes saw a furious assault from Ireland but the ball was lost with only 90 seconds to go and that was effectively the end of their effort. Against all the odds, Ireland lost a match they should have had sewn up by half-time and Scotland came away with the points. Scotland are still in with a sniff of winning the championship, while Ireland must go back to the drawing board.
We now have to wait 2 weeks to find out whether it's Wales or Scotland who will provide the final competition to England, and whether France will be able to get themselves off of the bottom of the table with a win in Dublin. As for England, surely a win over Italy at Twickenham is all but certain.
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