Rugby Mad Blog

Six Nations Game 11 – Scotland vs England (15-9)

An early penalty for Scotland was an early reward, with Chris Paterson accurately kicking his 27th consecutive goal kick! The heavy mud and deluging rain can’t have been easy. At the end of the first quarter, England Fullback Iain Balshaw and Rory Lamont slid to collect a ball. Instead, Balshaw’s knee connected with Lamont’s head, and there was a lengthy delay as the Scot was stretchered off, out cold. Later reports say he’s OK but has gone to hospitals for checkups. He’ll have a sore head, for sure.

The play was quite scrappy generally as the conditions continued to play their part. But Jonny Wilkinson [right] became Rugby Union’s highest points scorer when he punted over another penalty, bringing the scores level at 3-3.

Andrew Sheridan gave away a silly penatly on the half hour – Paterson made it 28 kicks in a row and the Scots went ahead again 6-3.

The rain let up briefly, but then started again in earnest just before half time. So they played kicking ping pong for a while. With three minutes to go to the break, Jonny kicked his next penalty just short. In the last minute, Simon Shaw gave away another penalty, the Paterson kicking machine was on song and Scotland went in at half time 9-3 up.

The Scots got the perfect start to the second half with another penalty and England seemed to fall apart – they lost a couple of lineouts, they knocked on and kept infringing at rucks. The wheels came off the chariot. Whatever happened to the spark they showed in Paris? They were full of stodge.

Then Dan Parks [above] had a go for a long-range penalty which he punted over with confidence. At 15-3 down, England were definitely in trouble. Eventually they had a chance at goal in the 49th minute. Jonny’s aim was good, and it was 15-6. Still trailing heavily, there didn’t seem to be any creativity or ambition from the England squad, and the Scots took their chances where they could. Three minutes later, another 3 points for Jonny, gradually eroding the deficit to 15-9.

Going into the final quarter, England had a lineout in Scottish territory and made a bit of headway up the pitch. But then they threw a forward pass. A series of scrums went first one way, then the other. It was a dour old game, probably more interesting to watch paint dry.

In the 65th minute, England finally strung a few phases together in the Scottish half. But it was far from pretty. Scotland pinched the ball. Then won a penalty. And England’s chances slipped away again.

Brian Ashton decided it was time to bring on the cavalry and it was all change from the bench. Scotland put together a decent bit of play, and Dan Parks looked like he was going for a drop goal, but it was charged down and England gained possession. Then Jonny was subbed by Charlie Hodgson [right] – it’s a while since we’ve seen him in an England shirt!

With ten minutes to go, and a converted try required for England to snatch victory, England finally had a lineout in the Scottish half. But yet again, they couldn’t string together a decent run of play.

So the game ended at 15-9, Scottish fans celebrated their Calcutta Cup victory and English fans are left wondering what sort of game they will witness next week in the final round against Ireland. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get any worse!

Do you realise what the date is? Remember what you were doing this time three years ago? Ah, glory days…

Now, we have to look forward to the weekend’s games and dream about what it would be like if we were still ranked #1!

Andy Robinson’s picked the team for Round 2 against the Springboks, and he expects great things of Andy Goode. We certainly need a solid contender for the Number 10 shirt, now that Charlie Hodgson has joined Jonny in the injury camp.

Sheridan’s also got an extended time off with injury – so that’s three Sale big hitters now on the sidelines – Scotland back rower Jason White also sustained a serious knock during the game against the Pacific Islands, and is out for at least nine months. Sale must be worried that this triple whammy could well hinder their Guinness Premiership title defence.

Indeed, Saracens are equal on points with Sale in the Premiership right now, hovering at number six. Sale are at five only by virtue of having won one more match than Sarries:

As you can see, Sarries are not short of point-scoring ability either – they have the biggest tally so far, and fly-half Glen Jackson is the top points scorer in the Premiership (for the second year running) – he’s currently on 116 to Charlie Hodgson’s 80, and poor old Charlie is unlikely to be scoring any more this season.

Bath and Worcester are struggling at the bottom of the table – Bath having only won two games out of 8 so far, and Worcester none. Something had to give – Worcester have just announced they’ve parted company with coach Anthony Eddy. More good news for Sarries, perhaps, as they are playing Worcester on Sunday at home. I’ll be at the match and will post some photos as soon as I can.

I forgot to mention it earlier, but as a paid-up member of the England Rugby Supporters’ Club (ERSC), amongst other benefits, I get the Official RFU England Rugby Yearbook sent to me. It plopped through the letterbox the other morning. Sadly, it makes grim reading, the 2005/06 season not being what any of us would have hoped for in the year before a World Cup! Still, the pictures were nice.

And talking of which, here’s an image I took at one of the matches England managed to win this season, against Wales in the opening Six Nations match at Twickenham. The Two Number 10’s, Stephen Jones and Charlie Hodgson go head to head. You can see more images from that game and others on my dedicated site, rugbypix.com.

Oh, and I’ve just noticed this little gem on the BBC Rugby Union site, where Jonny Wilkinson states the bleedin’ obvious.