Author: Bardon
England 45+ – +Ireland 21 England and Ireland faced off in only the second all-North Hemisphere final in the history of the World Rugby U20 Championship. This was England’s fourth final appearance on the trot. England came into the final as favourites having seen off South Africa in their semi-final. However a 26-20 win in the Six Nations gave the Irish hope of repeating the feat. First half England dominated the game from the start pinning the Irish in their own half. 13 Marchant’s dancing feet unpicked the Irish defence to make it 7-0 after 14 minutes. At the close…
France and England continued their winning starts to this years RBS 6 Nations to emerge from the pack as the early front runners. After a turgid affair in Paris, the game at the Principality Stadium was a much needed tonic. Then the English in general, and Jonathan Joseph in particular, ran riot against Italy in Rome. “Lee Grant”, “Kevin O” and I report on the games. France 10 — Ireland 9 by “Bardon” The wet weather played a big part in what was a dreary error-strewn affair in Paris. Sexton opened the scoring after one of many late hits that…
Italy hosted the first game of Super Saturday and were looking to restore some pride after last week’s turgid affair. Wales needed to win by at least 25 points and were in search of a big win to set a target for both Ireland and England in the later games. Italy 20 – Wales 61 First Half Wales need to get the scoreboard moving as soon as possible but it was Italy who opened the scoring. Evans was pinged for obstruction and Haimona converted for 3-0 Italy. A good start for the misfiring Italian outhalf but that’s all it would…
Wales went into this game knowing that a win would bring themselves and England back into the Championship hunt. Ireland were looking for an eleventh win on the bounce to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive. Wales 23 – Ireland 16 First Half Wales started with a high tempo and the pressure they applied to the Irish saw a succession of penalties conceded by the men in green. O’Connell was pinged for not rolling away. Up stepped Halfpenny who stroked it over, 3-0 Wales. O’Mahony went off his feet at a ruck, Halfpenny obliged from the tee, 6-0. Heaslip held…
Scotland the Grave There’s no doubt that Vern Cotter has improved things in the Scottish national setup. They’re more confident and ambitious going forward but their inability to close out the game against Italy will be a big worry. With 66 minutes on the clock Scotland were threatening the Italian line and all the visitors could do was infringe to keep them out. Scotland extended their lead to 19-15 and it looked for all the world that they would go on to win. Then a catalogue of mistakes and infringements by the Scots, in the last ten minutes, conspired to…
With both team’s having lost their first two fixtures, the clash of Scotland and Italy at Murrayfield was already being labeled a wooden spoon decider. Both teams were desperate to clinch a victory and show they are actually making progress. Here’s a report on the game by BabyBlueElephant. Italy 22 – Scotland 19 by “BabyBlue Elephant” Italy managed to secure a rare away win on the first game of the third round of this year’s Six Nations. Much was made in the build up to the game in Europe about Italy’s inclusion being invalid. Italy responded to…
Round two of the Six Nations kicked off with England expected to make it two out of two against Italy at Twickenham. Italy, looking for a response to last week’s abject performance against Ireland, turned to stalwarts Bortolami and Burgamasco. England 47 – Italy 17 For the first couple of minutes Italy couldn’t get their hands on the ball as first because Attwood and then Haskell pinched Italian throws into the lineout. Italy then produced a lineout steal of their own courtesy of Bortolami. They took full advantage of it and ran the ball at England. Some soft defending then…
This year’s Six Nations kicks off on Friday when England travel to the Millennium stadium to face Rugby World Cup Pool A rivals Wales. There will be plenty of intrigue as players look to secure their Rugby World Cup places and coaches try to get any sort of advantage ahead of the big one at the end of the year. Before that though there’s the little matter of the winner to be decided and each of the players involved will be doing everything within their power to ensure it’s them under the confetti come the 21st of March. Here’s a…