Three lineouts that sunk Ireland
Lineout one
In the 22nd minute Ireland were down 3-12 but they had their best attacking chance with a 5-metre lineout.
A maul drive was on the cards and Wales wouldn’t compete, right? Wrong. Openside flanker Sam Waburton was hoisted in front of skyscraper Devon Toner of Ireland and won the ball at the back. Ireland got penalised anyway for interference, and incidentally, Rory Best threw the ball skew—to the Wales’ side—it would have been a scrum for Wales at worst.
Warburton nabs Ireland throw .
Lineout two
In the 79th minute and the score 23-16 to Wales, Ireland had the same situation and needed a converted try to draw. This time Sean Cronin threw the ball in from the Wales 5-metre line, and Luke Charteris intercepted. Wales cleared, but short.
Lineout three
So Ireland had another 5-metre lineout; Wales didn’t compete, but the maul drive collapsed and Barnes couldn’t see any infringement.
Scrum Wales and then, game over.
Did England blow it?
England had news of the Wales victory; a win at home against modest Scotland would give them a 3-1 record, the same as Ireland and Wales. Since Six Nations had no bonus point system it would come down to points for and against should all three win in the final round next week.
England would try to stack up as many points as they could.
England stuffed up a try in the first minute when 12 Luther Burrell refrained from passing to his winger and was nabbed by Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg.
Never mind, the sensational 13 Jonathan Joseph twinkle-toed and scored after four minutes. Surely there would be more of that; but not soon as it turned out. By half-time Scotland had scored a try themselves and led 13-10.
England scored another two tries in the second half and held Scotland scoreless, but they left the graves of several butchered tries on the park.
They won 25-13, but their margin of twelve points should have been 30.
Andy Robinson – “Wales don’t score enough tries”
Rank rankings
Wales’ win against Ireland not only kept their Six Nations dream alive but it also lifted them to fifth in the World Rugby rankings. Wales jumped ahead of Australia despite beating them only once in their last 15 games—in 2008.
Australia, who were ranked second in 2012 are now sixth, three years later. This is their worst ranking ever since the system started in 2003. The Wallabies could be in a Rugby World Cup [RWC] pool with two teams ranked higher than they are: England and Wales.
But rankings won’t help Wales in the RWC according to Andy Robinson, former Head Coach of England and Scotland, who spoke to BBC Wales Sports Scrum V.
Wales don’t score enough tries, and bonus points may come into the mix.
The only thing for sure is that the Wallabies will not fear Wales because they have won ten on the bounce.
Paul O’Connell scores in his first test match in 2002 .
Two milestones for two greats
Ireland skipper Paul O’Connell played his 100th game for Ireland on the weekend, against Wales. He first cap was in the same fixture in 2002 at Landsdowne Road, but the milestone meant nothing to him because Ireland lost at Millennium Stadium 23-16.
It wasn’t his fault: he was the best player in his side but the others weren’t up to much. Johnny Sexton, the form flyhalf in the world, was due for a bad game and he had a shocker; worthy scrumhalf Conor Murray, wasn’t much better.
A few months after O’Connell ran on in his first game for Ireland, in Dublin in 2002, Sergio Parisse, the Italy skipper, started in his first test match, against New Zealand in Hamilton.
After Italy’s victory at Murrayfield in Round 3, Parisse collapsed with joy, and must have hoped for upset win in Rome in Round 4. It would be his 112th test match, and he would surpass Marco Bortolami as the player with the most number of caps for Italy.
But Italy performed worse for Parisse than Ireland did in Cardiff for O’Connell: France scored 29 points and Italy got a doughnut.
Shaun Edwards – Minister of Defence .
The Shaun Edwards factor
Wales took their chances at Millennium Stadium whilst Ireland didn’t; they also won the aerial battle. But the biggest reason for their win was their uncompromising and intelligent defence.
They made a tournament record of 250 tackles and Luke Charteris made over 30 by himself: both figures that Aussie rugby league players would giggle at if they heard they were significant numbers—but they don’t have to shift people around in rucks.
There was one period of 32 phases in the Wales 22 that Wales repelled, and another long series when Ireland tried to play narrow near the Wales goal line and were stopped cold, when the space was out wide.
And it wasn’t just the tight defensive stuff that was impressive but also the reading by defenders of what was going to happen.
A lot of this was down to Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards, whose contract ends after the Rugby Word Cup.
Ex-Wales flanker Martyn Williams said that he should be re-signed immediately otherwise it would be a huge loss for Wales.
He has a point: and Shaun Edwards will be a hot property.
France to win Six Nations?
As weird as that sounds it is possible.
As crap as they were in Rome last weekend, they had their second win of Six Nations, and if they beat England come Saturday, they will have three. Crap or not, they beat Italy 29-0 and improved their for-and-against differential enough to give them the faintest of sniffs.
If they beat England by 8 points or more in the last game they will get ahead of them, but Wales and Ireland also have to lose their games for this fairy tale to have a happy ending for France, and even then it depends on how much Ireland loses by.
Maestri scores v. Italy – can France get a miracle? .
Whats more likely to happen?
The three teams with a 3-1 record, playing in this order, will win:
Wales (+12) away v. Italy
Ireland (+33) away v. Scotland
England (+37) home v. France (+22)
Wales has the poorest for-and-against differential of the three but their ace-in-the-hole is that they are playing Italy, the weakest team in the competition. They will have to win by 22 points more than Ireland do and 26 more than England win by. They will have to go berserk scoring points—but that hasn’t been their strong point this year.
Ireland has to do what England couldn’t against Scotland: put them away with a big win margin, just in case France don’t show up to play at Twickenham: something they are guilty of a lot.
Meantime England will be sitting back watching the early games and they will know how much they have to win by.
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