With no six nations this weekend it has given me chance to sit back and look over last weekends rugby, so lets start with the first game.
Wales 20 France 26
Friday night saw a great start to the 6 Nations weekend. Seemingly down and out at halftime, Wales again turned the game on its head with a fantastic comeback and came very close to winning.
From the start, Wales rocked the French with a powerful drive but, inexplicably, abandoned that tactic till things were almost hopeless in the second half. This ploy pulled in the French defensive line and gave the dangerous Welsh backs room to play.
The adventurous Welsh game does lead to some loose play and they gave away two interception tries. They were not helped by some refereeing inconsistencies. Richie Rees was rightly penalised for handling in the ruck but, almost immediately, an identical French offence went unpunished.
The courageous Welsh second half comeback was truly remarkable. The key tactic was to negate the strong French tight head scrummaging by turning the scrum.
The efforts of the titanic Bradley Davies were at the core of everything good from Wales. There had been a pre-match minute’s silence because of his mother’s recent, sudden death and he undoubtedly played his heart out in her memory.
All the Welsh backs had their moments but, unfortunately, some glaring mistakes linger in the memory. Lee Byrne squandered two attacking lineout opportunities by missing straightforward penalty touch kicks. Stephen Jones, assisted by a bit of blocking, made a great break but then ignored his support and kicked the ball away. The British Lions star, Jamie Roberts powered through the French defence but then failed to deliver a straightforward scoring pass to the supporting James Hook.
The streetwise French gave themselves an opportunity to regroup with ten minutes remaining. Play was delayed by an “injury” to No8, Harinordoquy. The delay took the steam out of the Welsh and several French substitutions enabled them to regain some control.
Shane Williams’ breathtaking final try was the game’s outstanding moment. With it, he broke Gareth Edwards’ Welsh try scoring record though I’m sure he’ll recognise that he’s played in far more matches than the legendary Gareth. The try brought back memories of the great Welsh sides of the 70s.
England 16 Ireland 20
Having predicted an Irish win, I was naturally cheering them on throughout the game. However, I did this as an almost lone voice at Harrogate RUFC and I certainly didn’t have the support of those around me. Adding alcohol to the mix, did not increase my popularity.
England just failed to deliver and the game was won and lost at the breakdown. They attacked from deep at the start but were turned over at the breakdown when they got into a threatening position. Another attempt at attacking from deep was thwarted when Ireland powered through a weak ruck, turned the ball over and went on to score with their first bit of real possession.
Jonny Wilkinson is being criticised for standing too deep but he has to do this if he gets slow ball with all his forwards committed to the breakdown. The Irish defence then has time to get set and organised, which is another reason for him having to stand so deep.
Ireland gave England a lesson in clinical finishing by pouncing on every opportunity to score despite the English domination of possession.
I agree with Martin Corry’s assertion that England should resist the call for wholesale changes. They need to improve and grow as a team and constant changing would force them to start again from scratch every time.
Italy 16 Scotland 12
This was another game where the result hung in the balance for 80 minutes but the Puntinplay prediction was again 100% accurate.
Scotland had some complaints about the refereeing but they failed to take their chances and lost their composure as the game progressed. Italy showed that it can pay to concentrate on keeping in contention and wait for the opposition to make mistakes.
This makes Scotland favourites for the dreaded Wooden Spoon but as my Scottish stepfather pointed out, “we still have England to play at Murrayfield and, if we win that, it will have been a successful season”. Nothing changes
Premier League Preview
The relegation battle at the bottom of the League is really hotting up. Leeds are no longer dead certs to go down. They have gained League points in their last 10 games and have actually won the last 2. Sale are now only ahead of Leeds on score difference and their recent form is not encouraging. Worcester, Newcastle and Harlequins are only 5 points ahead of the bottom two so there’s still a lot to fight for.
Saracens, so long the League leaders, have now lost 4 of their last 5 games and won’t be taking Sunday’s trip to Headingley lightly. Northampton won gloating rights over local rivals, Leicester, last weekend but are still just behind them at the top of the table.
Three Clubs, London Irish, Bath & Gloucester, now seem to have got back to winning ways and nobody will be taking them lightly for the rest of the season.
Rhys Morgan
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