Wales on Top

From The Sunday Times

March 18, 2007
Wales blitz leaves England in tatters
Victory over England saved Wales the ignominy of a whitewash — and handed Scotland the wooden spoon
Stephen Jones, rugby correspondent, in Cardiff
ENGLAND finished their first RBS Six Nations campaign under new coach Brian Ashton in tatters, losing 27-18 to Wales at the Millennium stadium last night, while France retained their crown in a thrilling, yet controversial finale to the championship.

James Hook was the hero for Wales, scoring 22 of his side’s points, including a try in the third minute. England never fully recovered from the shock, though they could take some comfort from their fightback from 15-0 down.

With all six teams playing back-to-back on the same afternoon for the first time this season, “Super Saturday” lived up to its billing as Bernard Laporte’s French team scored a last-gasp try in a 46-19 win over Scotland in Paris to deny Ireland their first title since 1985.

Victory over England saved Wales the ignominy of a whitewash — and handed Scotland the wooden spoon.

Related Links
Super Saturday shows Six Nations at its best
Hook's boot puts paid to fightback
England taught lesson in Cardiff defeat
Ireland’s 51-24 demolition of Italy in Rome left France needing to beat Scotland by a margin of at least 24 points at the Stade de France. Prop Euan Murray’s try for Scotland four minutes from time looked to have dashed their hopes until, with the last play of the game, Elvis Vermeulen drove over for a try only confirmed after a nerve-jangling delay by the Irish video referee Simon McDowell.

Six tries and 16 points from the boot of fly-half Lionel Beauxis proved just enough for France, whose Grand Slam hopes had been shattered by England at Twickenham last Sunday.

Scotland managed three tries, through wingers Nikki Walker and Sean Lamont and prop Euan Murray, their captain Chris Paterson adding two conversions.

“It’s nice to win the Six Nations, but now we are looking forward to the World Cup, that’s the important thing,” said Vermeulen, who only came on as a late replacement.

France captain Rafael Ibanez said winning the Six Nations title would be proof of his side’s winning mentality. “I’m very proud of the guys,” said the Wasps hooker. “After last week against England, we showed some character here. We needed to work hard and as a team we have too many ups and downs, but today was important for us. I’m not sure it will mean anything for the World Cup, but we played well and won the Six Nations and that is good.”

Laporte said: “It was a great day for rugby, definitely our best match in the tournament and certainly our best match in quite some time.”

It was a last-minute try by Roland Marigny, Italy’s full-back — which also went to the television match official — that ultimately cost Ireland the championship. Eddie O’Sullivan’s men had to settle for the Triple Crown. “We scored 51 points, we got eight tries — we can’t be anything but happy with our performance. Our accuracy and execution were much better than they were last week [against Scotland],” he said. “You want to keep a clean slate, but that’s the way the game goes. You have to remember that we were in the position that we had to score tries.”



Well it's taken a long time to come........PatientGB...........