Rugby Mad Blog

Six Nations Game 14 - England vs Ireland (33-10)

After poor performances from both sides last week, it was crunch time for England and Ireland’s last game of the Championship.

Ireland struck first with a try from Rob Kearney in the 4th minute – just the start that English fans at Twickenham didn’t want! Ronan O’Gara added the extras without a hitch, and the hosts were down 0-7. England were caught holding on a few minutes later, and O’Gara punished them with another kick. 0-10 down and it wasn’t looking good for England.

In the 12th minute, Danny Cipriani [right] replied with a penalty of his own, clawing back 3 points. A few minutes later, Paul Sackey scored a wonderful try in the corner. Cipriani converted to bring the scores level at 10-all.

Toby Flood chipped ahead and gathered himself, and Irish hands were caught in the subsequent ruck. Another three points for Ciprirani, and England went ahead 13-10. There the score remained for the rest of the first half.

In the second period, England opened the floodgates. Despite an early Irish attack, it came to nothing. Lesley Vainikolo got a bit of a run in the 43rd minute, and England were pressuring the Irish defence. The men in green were caught playing on the ground again, Cipriani added another 3 to his total and England were 16-10 ahead.

Another Irish attack in the 46th minute came to nothing after a knock-on. At 55 minutes, old hand Jonny Wilkinson came on to the park. Then Iain Balshaw flew up the wing, who passed to Matthew Tait [left] to cross in the corner. The extras brought it to 23-10.

In the 70th minute, Jamie Noon broke through the Irish defence in the left corner, juggling the ball in mid air, but keeping control long enough to score by the flag. Another conversion and the Red Rose boys were leading by 20 points, at 30-10.

With 8 minutes left on the clock, the Irish were caught once again, playing the ball in a ruck. The resulting penalty was true from Cipriani and the hosts were 33-10 up.

The last couple of minutes saw Ireland pushing for the line, but they knocked on and England ran a move up into the Irish half. They couldn’t make another score, but at least they looked much more convincing this week.

Danny Cipriani’s full England debut was impressive – Jonny needs to watch his back if he’s not to be overshadowed by the young buck.

Six Nations Game 6 – Italy vs England (19-23)

England fans can be forgiven for thinking there was a certain amount of déjà vu this weekend. For the second game running, the Red Rose boys looked promising, even impressive in the first 40 minutes, but seemed to go to pieces in the second half. Thankfully this time the result was different.

Jonny Wilkinson [right] initially appeared to be on song when he made a lovely chip ahead, caught a kind bounce and flipped a pass out of the back of his hand to Paul Sackey, who ran in for a score in the first couple of minutes. Wilkinson added the extras in England were ahead 0-7. Italy replied after five minutes with a penatly struck by David Bortolussi, and another at 12 minutes, pulling the hosts back to 6-7.

Around the quarter hour, Jamie Noon charged down a Bortolussi kick, passed to Wilkinson who offloaded to Toby Flood, who took a flamboyant dive in the corner. The all-newcastle midfield were firing well together. Jonny’s conversion took him to 1,000 points in an England shirt and England to a 6-14 lead.

England managed another two penalties before the break, both from the boot of Wilkinson, giving them a 14-point cushion at 6-20. But as with last week, England lost the plot in the second half. Whatever Brian Ashton had said to them in the dressing room at half time, I wish he hadn’t bothered!

Italy managed the lion’s share of possession and territory in the second half, and two more pentalties for the Azzurri kept them in touch with England, 12-20. Then Ashton decided to bring on some replacements, and the team seemed to loose even more cohesion.

Richard Wigglesworth [left] was given his first cap at Scrum Half. And Danny Cipriani came on, only to have a clearance kick charged down by Simon Picone who then flew half way up the pitch to score under the posts – more or less uncontested by England’s defence. Bortolussi added the extra two points, pulling Italy back to 19-23.

So England’s fans were left with a couple of nervous minutes before the whistle blew, and Italy were still pushing and praying for a last-minute miracle. It was their best result against England in the 14 tests the two countries have played.

An England this sloppy will be put to the sword by France next time round, especially as the game is in Paris. They really must learn to play like they did in the first half – for the whole 80 minutes – or they will be heading for another pasting.

With Saracens’ recent form, I think most folks were expecting an easy victory against the visiting Newcastle Falcons. But we all know what comes before a fall, and Jonny Wilkinson & Co pulled off their first victory at Vicarage Road since 2001, and also their first away win in the Premiership in over a year.

As has happened in recent weeks for the Men In Black, the first half was a bit of a disaster. A fortnight ago in Viadana, they managed the comeback-from-the-dead, turning round a 26-3 deficit at half time, into a miraculous 26-34 win by final whistle. The travelling fans were naturally ecstatic. Those of us at home following the game online were left nursing our bitten fingernails!

The biggest casualty of the game was Hooker Matt Cairns [above] who suffered a broken arm during the match, and has since had a metal plate inserted to aid recovery, but he will be out until at least the end of March. The Gaffer is naturally worried about Hooking cover during the Six Nations, as Fabio Ongaro is likely to be called up by Italy for the duration. We all hope Cairnsy has a speedy recouperation!

The Christmas fixture on 22nd December saw Sarrie and his team travel away to Harlequins. Yet again, the first 30-odd minutes were pretty dire from all accounts. I was unable to follow this one online as my broadband connection was broken for 10 days over Christmas! Very annoying. Still, Sarries managed to pull back a 20-27 win.

I think the Christmas holidays must have been relaxing for the guys, since they seemed to come out of the tunnel for the Newcastle game thinking they were easily going to beat the Falcons. Within 3 minutes the defence was caught napping and Matthew Tait beat Brent Russell to cross the line for a try.

[Look Who's Behind You! Jonny Wilkinson is manaced by Lock Chris Jack]

Whilst Jonny’s playmaking skills seemed fine, his placekicking left a bit to be desired. He missed at least two kicks at goal, and Saracens’ Gordon Ross, starting the first half, wasn’t a lot better. Odd, since it wasn’t particularly windy, even though the rain appeared for a while.

The Falcons’ Scrum seemed to stand up at every opportunity, and I’m surprised referee Sean Davey didn’t ping them for it more often. Saracens have been having a good scrum of late, so there’s no reason to think just because Carl Hayman was gracing the Newcastle Front Row that things would change dramatically – Kevin Yates left] and Cencus Johnston are pretty good masters of the dark arts themselves!

Another thing that wasn’t going too well for Saracens was their lineout. Several were stolen during the game, which doesn’t happen often. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised, give the statistics that Newcastle’s Lock Mark Sorenson is the top lineout stealer in the Premiership, and is 3rd for catching his own team throws. No wonder Hugh Vyvyan [right], looked so surprised to have caught this one!

Sarries woke up in the second half and played some good rugby, scoring two tries (Vyvyan and de Kock) plus having another judged to have been held up over the line by the TMO.

They even went into the lead briefly towards the end, but Newcastle’s Jamie Noon put the nail in the coffin scoring in the 78th minute, with Jonny Wilkinson [left] hammering it further in with the conversion.

One thing I did find confusing was the Falcons’ away strip, which seems to be a direct ripoff of England’s gear from a couple of years ago. Perhaps they got them in a closeout sale?

At least losing by only 3 points meant Sarries pick up a bonus point, which might well come in handy later in the season. And they are still 3rd in the Premiership table at present. Next weekend’s away trip to Brizzle will see if they can climb any higher in the near future.

You can see more of my photos from Sunday’s game here.

Next time I’m at Vicarage Road will be for the Heineken Cup tie against Biarritz on 12th January – hopefully it won’t be quite as dark as it was for the Newcastle game! And a victory then would certainly help Sarries towards a HC Quater Final place.

So the mighty All Blacks came and squashed all before them at Twickenham. England suffered their biggest defeat on home turf by going down 20-41 to New Zealand on Bonfire Night.

[It all looks promising (above) as the boys line up to face the Haka (below)]

What went wrong for England? Well, I didn’t actually think they played really badly, they just didn’t clean up as well as the ABs – any mistake and they make you pay, usually with 7 points! We gave away five penalties but scored as many tries as they did – unfortunately, ref M. Jutge didn’t quite see it that way and disallowed Jamie Noon’s perfectly good first try. The Ref’s boss agreed it was a try after the match. Plus Dan Carter’s boot rarely let him down – so the penalties were made to count.

Merde, as they say.

As for the newbies; Shaun Perry looked good at No. 9, and scoring a try on your debut ain’t bad either. He and replacement Pete Richards both looked more lively than I’ve seen say, Harry Ellis, in an England shirt recently. I hope they can both make a go of it – a rivalry like the one between Dawson and Kyran Bracken could only be good for the Scrummies, I say.

Paul Sackey burned up the turf when he got the ball. Not often enough, sadly. And Anthony Allen did OK too – even though it was his wayward pass that gifted Joe Rokocoko a try. Let’s face it, if it wasn’t Allen, it probably would have been someone else! And he was certainly making and taking plenty of big hits, even on guys twice his size. Brian Ashton was pleased with the new guys , at any rate.

The front row boys, Sheridan, Chuter & White (sounds like a dodgy car-dealership!) are usually renowned for their dominance up front, but Messers Woodcock and Hayman were shoving as good as they got – and often better.

From memory, I don’t think the lineout was too shakey; Ben Kay and Danny Grewcock seemed to have that mostly sewn up. Pity they couldn’t steal a few more though. Lewis Moody chased round the pitch after everything, as usual! BBC Sport gives them all points out of ten.

I’ve plenty more photos from the game at rugbypix.com.

So next weekend, we have the Pumas. Another team who will give us a run for our money. Look how they held off the Lions to a draw last year. It was only Jonny’s last-minute penalty that saved face at the Millennium Stadium.

I’m not going to that game, but will be along to see Sarries vs Leicester in Watford on Sunday. Will report back later!