Fortress Murrayfield repels the Welsh

Scotland once again punched above their weight at home, sending Wales packing 21-9 in an abysmal Six Nations game on Saturday and maintaining an impressive Six Nations record at Murrayfield.

Seven penalties from Chris Paterson put paid to the Welsh, who simply could not find any cohesion and were left steam-rollered by some crunching Scottish defence.

All week this has been billed as a game to thrill, with both sides opting to go for an attacking approach and throw caution to the wind, which was blowing strong at a wet Murrayfield.

Yet it transpired into a poor and frustrating encounter that Scotland deserved to win on two counts, Chris Paterson's kicking and the shocking standard of play produced by Wales.

Wales were poor, verging on the brink of abysmal, the fact Scotland were only marginally better afforded them a shaky platform from which Paterson was able to win the game with his flawless kicking display, the only area of the game that was mistake-free.  The rest of this dour affair was infested with basic errors and needless infringements, made increasingly more by Wales as the game wore on and kick by kick slipped from their grasp.

Credit must be given to Scotland for the way they bounced back from their demoralising defeat against England, but one can only think that a performance better than that which Wales offered would have been enough to beat Scotland.

Only one area of the Welsh game will come away from Edinburgh with any credit and that was the defence, but for the large part it was only when they were under severe pressure that they started defending with any intent.  Too often in the middle of the park Wales were left wanting in the tackle.

Yet when their line was under threat the defence picked up several notches as a handful of players earned themselves some credit for their efforts, notably Martyn Williams and Mark Jones.

Whereas Wales never once looked like scoring a try Scotland at least had chances, but were sadly unable to take them.  After leading 6-0 with a quarter of the match gone, through two Paterson penalties, Rob Dewey made the first telling break leading to Paterson coming within inches of scoring.

Dewey brushed aside the half-hearted attempt at a tackle from Dwayne Peel and thundered into the 22.  As the ball was moved wide it seemed as if Scotland must score with a two-man overlap, yet their backs drifted across the pitch eating up what room was left before Paterson took the ball.  But for a monstrous tackle from Mark Jones, one of the game's highlights, Paterson would have scored.

Stephen Jones finally got Wales on the scoreboard with a simple shot at goal, but that was soon cancelled out by Paterson's third effort, this time Wales were guilty of being offside in the backs.

As half time approached Jones added a second penalty to pull Wales within three points, the closest they would come to Scotland for the remainder of this encounter.

The second half was slightly better than the first, as Scotland mounted several raids on the Welsh line, the closest resulting in Allan Jacobsen being held up over the line by a heroic double tackle from Tom Shanklin and Alun Wyn-Jones.

Chris Paterson, who was at the heart of the few bright moments in the game, came agonizingly close moments before Jacobsen was held up after gathering a poor Jamie Robinson pass.  Having chipped and gathered he seemed certain to score but a slight stumble and a brave tackle from Stephen Jones denied the Scottish captain.

As it was it was left to the boot of Paterson to add the nails to the Welsh coffin, one by one.  Stephen Jones, for the record, did add a third Welsh penalty moments before Rhys Thomas gave Paterson his sixth, which earned Thomas a spell in the sin-bin.

With the game up and Scotland assured of victory it was only fitting that Paterson put the final nail in the coffin with his final penalty, a kick that leaves Wales floundering at the bottom of the Six Nations pile, while Scotland have restored some pride after their opening day defeat.

The fact that the game's main highlights were a series of bone-crunching hits from Mark Jones, as well Paterson's kicking, goes a long way to accentuating just how poor the skill levels were.

Wales will need to rethink and focus on their basics heavily, and to be fair Scotland will need to do the same.  Their only saving grace was the ability to string phases of play together when it was needed to give Paterson his chances.

Man of the Match:  It is hardly surprising that this game produced only a few candidates for this award.  Mark Jones and Martyn Williams were prominent for Wales in defence, with Williams single handedly keeping Wales in the contest at times with his work at the breakdown.  Even Scotland failed to provide too many more candidates, Simon Taylor and David Callam worked valiantly in the back-row throughout.  But it was Chris Paterson for his kicking and near-try who takes this award.

Moment of the Match:  There were few to mention but for us it was Paterson's chip and chase that almost brought him and his country a much deserved try.

Villain of the Match:  There was no real villain on this occasion.  Rhys Tomas was given the game's only yellow card but it was hardly a villainous moment, rather the culmination of a series of idiocies.

The scorers

For Scotland:
Pens:  Paterson 7

For Wales:
Pens:  Jones S 3

Yellow card:  Thomas (Wales, 58, hands in the ruck)

The Teams:

Scotland:  15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Rob Dewey, 11 Chris Paterson (c), 10 Phil Godman, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 David Callam, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 Scott Murray, 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements:  16 Ross Ford, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 Nathan Hines, 19 Allister Hogg, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Simon Webster, 22 Nikki Walker.

Wales:  15 Kevin Morgan, 14 Mark Jones, 13 Jamie Robinson, 12 James Hook, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Stephen Jones (c), 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Alix Popham, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Robert Sidoli, 3 Adam Jones, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Duncan Jones.
Replacements:  16 Matthew Rees, 17 Gethin Jenkins, 18 Ian Gough, 19 Jonathan Thomas, 20 Michael Phillips, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Tom Shanklin.

Referee:  Alan Lewis (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Chris White (England), Federico Cuesta (Argentina)
Television match official:  Rob Debney (England)
Assessor:  Douglas Kerr (Scotland)

England quickly lose their sparkle

England managed to eke out a 20-7 victory over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham on Saturday, but all similarity with the dominant rampage past the Scots a week ago ended there.

Jonny Wilkinson gave the worshipping crowd something to crow about, when his third-minute penalty took him past Neil Jenkins' total of 406 which Wilkinson had equalled against Scotland last week.

That was one true nugget of gold.  The rest was like so much unwashed iron pyrites.  The watching Princes William and Harry spent most of the match with their chins on the heels of their hands, as England ignored the fact that they had the beating of Italy out wide and spent the match trying to plough through Italy's roughnecks in the cold winter mud.

England, awesome last week, descended once again into the awful, and indeed were fortunate at times that Italy's current trough shows no sign of rising towards their peak of last November.

If England came to Twickenham this Saturday in the hope that the Calcutta Cup sparkle would turn into champagne, they must have been disappointed indeed to be dished up flat beer that resembled dishwater.

There was no sparkle at all, and even people like the ebullient Harry Ellis became plodders.  With ten minutes to go Jonny Wilkinson dropped for goal, as if that was needed to make the match safe for his side.  With five minutes to go, he kicked a penalty and some people booed their national treasure.  With 24 seconds to go he kicked for touch.

It was that drab.

In the end it was a try apiece.  Not once in the second half did England score a try or look like scoring a try.  Italy got a try and promised to score on other occasions as they dominated the half.

In the match as a whole England had the better of possession, Italy the territory.  And in the end Italy were the ones running and looking like an all-round side while England kicked or played one-at-a-time rugby.

I say again:  it was a drab match.

At one stage the loudest noise was when Wilkinson kicked the ball out and it hit a photographer.  Later the crowd did a Mexican wave.  "Sweet Chariot" was muted.

Hats off to the Italians who stood up manfully and redeemed themselves from last week's poor performance in Rome.  They lost on the scoreboard but won in many other ways.

Asked after the match if they should not have tried to run the ball earlier, returning veteran Alessandro Troncon said:  "Yes.  We played very simple, very structured."

For England it was a soundbite echoing back to the bitter ashes of November.

And Harry, Wills and Kate were there to provide more interest than the rugby!

The set pieces worked well enough for both sides and England won the penalty count 13-6.  Wilkinson goaled five kicks for England, Andrea Scanavacca missed two for Italy.

The England backs were devoid of fluidity.  Big men Andy Farrell and Mike Tindall posed little threat to Italy and, when Italy came alive, were overshadowed in attacking ability by Gonzalo Canale and the best centre on the field, Mirco Bergamasco.  Before they began running Italy resorted to a futile series of high kicks varied by an equally futile series of diagonal kicks, both of which were simply transferring possession to England.  But England seemed never to consider using their backs as a way of breaking the shackles on the game.

Throughout the match the delivery from the tackle/ruck was slow, slow, slow, and more than anything knocked the pace of the game flat.

The mauling, except for two by Italy, was painfully static.

At the final whistle the vanquished had broader smiles than the victors.

England kicked off and within three minutes had three points on the board as, when Martín Castrogiovanni was penalised for collapsing an England scrum, Wilkinson goaled a penalty to become the highest scorer in the International Championship, passing Neil Jenkins.

Wilkinson kicked another penalty on 15 minutes and a third on 23 minutes.

At this stage Denis Dallan broke his ankle.  It was a simple as that.  He was chasing a kick and tripped over the lower leg of Sergio Parisse.  There was a long wait while he was taken off in agony.

England came close but Tindall was brought down at the five-metre line which he may have thought was the goal-line, but a poor clearance by Roland de Marigny gave England a five-metre line-out on their right.  Italy lost their captain Marco Bortolami to the sin bin for coming in at the side of a promising England maul.  While he was absent England scored a try.

England eventually went wide to the left where Josh Lewsey patted on a pass to Jason Robinson, who, with Kaine Robertson sucked in, scored in the corner.  That was a minute before half-time and meant that England led 14-0 at the break.

In that half England had had three five-metre line-outs without being over to brush aside the Italian defence.  The spirit of Horatio was still there!

England set up camp in their own territory in for much of the second half and on a rare sortie out of it scored when Wilkinson kicked a penalty.  17-0 after 55 minutes.

It was then that Italy livened things up and Troncon had much to do with it as he played quickly and Italy got quicker ball from the tackle/ruck than England ever did.  Josh Sole and Carlo Festuccia were close to scoring and then they had a five-metre line-out as Wilkinson cleared weakly.

England survived but then came the best bit of rugby in the whole match, a sparkling jewel set off by dull foil.  From well within their own 22 and not far from the touch-line on their left they started to counter with clever running and passing by Mirco Bergamasco, Matteo Pratichetti and Scanavacca who set Sole running at the line.  Sole was brought down but Scanavacca got it from the ground and ran unchallenged for some 12 metres to score under the posts.  Italian glee was barely controlled.

Scanavacca converted to make it 17-7, and in the last 15 minutes Wilkinson kicked a penalty and Italy played the better rugby till the final whistle went.

Man of the Match:  Harry Ellis was a contender and so was Martin Corry.  For Italy there were Mirco Bergamasco, Josh Sole and our Man of the Match Alessandro Troncon, playing his 93 Test with verve, skill and commitment, looking like Italy's leader.

Moment of the Match:  Andrea Scanavacca's try.  No other moment came close.

Villain of the Match:  Not really, not even mortified Marco Bortolami and his little yellow card.

The scorers:

For England:
Try:  Robinson
Pens:  Wilkinson 5

For Italy:
Try:  Scanavacca
Con:  Pez

Yellow card:  Bortolami (35, Italy, collapsing a maul)

The teams:

England:  15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Josh Lewsey, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Andy Farrell, 11 Jason Robinson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Martin Corry, 7 Magnus Lund, 6 Nick Easter, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Phil Vickery (captain), 2 George Chuter, 1 Perry Freshwater
Replacements:  16 Lee Mears, 17 Julian White, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 Tom Rees, 20 Shaun Perry (Bristol), 21 Toby Flood, 22 Mathew Tait.

Italy:  15 Roland De Marigny, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Denis Dallan, 10 Andrea Scanavacca, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Maurizio Zaffiri, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami (captain), 4 Santiago Dellapè, 3 Martín Castrogiovanni, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero
Replacements:  16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Salvatore Perugini (Toulouse), 18 Valerio Bernabò, 19 Roberto Mandelli, 20 Paul Griffen, 21 Ramiro Pez, 22 Matteo Pratichetti

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges:  Joël Jutge (France), Christophe Berdos (France)
Television match official:  Hugh Watkins (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

Tonga are going to France

On a hot, sunny day in Auckland, New Zealand, Tonga qualified for the second World Cup in a row.  They qualifying to compete at the RWC in France in September by giving Korea a thumping -- this time 85-3.  At half-time Tonga led 38-0.

Korea have not narrowed the gap, for in the 2003 qualifier they lost 75-0 and 119-0.

The report is from the International Rugby Board.

Tonga's qualification means that all but one of the 20 teams for next year's Tournament have been filled.  Tonga qualifies as Répechage 2 and joins the automatic qualifiers from RWC 2003 in Australia -- quarter-finalists England, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Wales -- and Samoa (Oceania 1), Fiji (Oceania 2), Argentina (Americas 1), Canada (Americas 2), USA (Americas 3), Italy (Europe 1), Romania (Europe 2), Namibia (Africa 1), Georgia (Europe 3) and Japan (Asia 1) in France.

Tonga will play in Pool in Pool A in France alongside champions England, South Africa, Samoa and USA in Pool A and will kick-off its finals campaign against USA in Montpellier on September 12.

The atmosphere before kick-off at Waitemata Park was electric as both sets of fans within the 2 800 crowd eagerly awaited a match that would determine the penultimate team to qualify for Rugby World Cup 2007.  Indeed, as the two teams took to the field they were greeted by a crescendo of noise from the travelling supporters who put their drums and horns to good use.

The Tongans were clinical, powerful and patient, running in 13 tries against a Korea side that struggled to match the physicality of their opponents at both the set piece and the breakdown.  Without any decent possession and trapped within their own 22 for much of the game, Korea had withstand waves of attacks from a Tongan side that was determined to blow away the cobwebs after a couple of months without a match.

Making good use of explosive runners like lock Teu'imuli Kaufusi, fullback Vungakoto Lilo and centre Hudson Tonga'uiha to punch holes in a tiring Korea defence, Tonga soon started running in the tries.  Indeed the game was effectively over as a contest before the interval as the Pacific Island team raced into a 38-0 lead.

There was no relenting after the break as Tonga made the most of every opportunity presented with Hudson Tonga'uiha, first five Fangatapu Apikotoa and wingers Vaea Poteki and Sione Fonua all scoring their second try of the match in the second half to secure safe passage to Rugby World Cup 2007.

Tonga's qualification means that just one place remains to be filled for the Tournament in France with Portugal and Uruguay playing home and away fixtures next month to determine who will qualify as Repechage 1 and join New Zealand, Scotland, Italy and Romania in Pool C.

Scorers:

For Tonga:
Tries:  S Fonua 2, V Poteki 2, H Tonga'uiha 2, F Apikotoa 2, H T-Pole, T Kaufusi, V Lilo, H Paea, S Kalamafoni
Cons:  F Apikotoa 10

For Korea:
Pen:  Jun-Ki Hong

The Russian Bear triumphs in Madrid

Russia easily beat Spain 39-14 in Madrid on Saturday afternoon in a European Nations Cup match played at the Central Ciudad Universitaria.

The result is a great disappointment to Spain after their good showing in their 21-18 defeat by Portugal the weekend before.  It also will cause worries because after the double-round competition over two years the bottom side will be relegated and Spain has just returned from relegation.

Spain actually led in the second half after Juan Cano has d scored a try but after that Russia simply took over, and they did this with 14 men for prop Ivan Prischpenko was sent off in the first half.

It may seem strange but the Spanish pack dominated but the victory went to the speedy outside men of the Russia.

The match started evenly enough with a penalty goal by Yuri Kushnarev for Russia followed by an equaliser by new cap Manuel Olivares at flyhalf for Spain.  He kicked a second penalty and Spain led 6-3 after 14 minutes.

Russia had a period of attack but lost centre Igor Galinovski to the sin bin and Spain's pack put great pressure on the visitors who were better in the line-outs than the home side.

A five-metre line-out gave Russia the chance to maul and they went over for a try credited to Andrey Garbuzov.  Then just before half-time Alexandr Shakirov took advantage of a serious Spanish blunder on defence to score the second try so that the Bears led the Lions 13-6 at the break.

In the second half the Swainish coach Ged Glynn brought on Juan González and Sergio Souto, and this seemed to add more purpose to Spain for Olivares scored a third penalty goal and then Cano got his try, a great try that started in the Spanish 22.  Spain now led 14-13.

But then Galinosvki got a counterattack try and replacement scrumhalf Viktor Motorin converted.  Motorin was able tpo get the Russian backs going at speed, and this changed the game.Three tries followed by Gvozdovsky, who got two, and then finally an intercept try by Kushnarev in injury time.  Motorin converted two of them.

Scorers:

For Russia:
Tries:  Garbuzov, Shakirov, Galinosvki, Gvozdovsky 2, Kushnarev
Cons:  Motorin 3
Pen:  Kushnarev

For Spain:
Try:  Cano
Pens:  Olivares 3

Teams:

Spain:  15 César Sempere, 14 Juan Cano, 13 Manuel Mazo, 12 Javier Canosa, 11 David Mota, 10 Manuel Olivares, 9 Pablo Feijóo, 8 Iván Criado captain, 7 Alfonso Mata, 6 Cyril Hijar, 5 Sergio Souto, 4 Guillermo Bárcena, 3 Javier Salazar 2 Mathieu Cidré, 1 Jon Insausti
Replacements:  16 Diego Zarzosa, 17 Manuel Serrano, 18 Carlos Souto, David Hernández, 20 Igor Mirones, 21 Juan González, 22 Ignacio Gutiérrez

Russia:  15 Igor Klyuchnikov, 14 Andrey Kuzin, 13 Mikhail Babaev, 12 Igor Galinovsky, 11 Alexandr Gvozdovsky, 10 Yuri Kushnarev, 9 Alexandr Shakirov, 8 Alexey Panasenko, 7 Andrey Garbuzov, 6 Kirill Kushnarev, 5 Kirill Kulyomin, 4 Artem Fatakhov, 3 Ivan Prischepenko, 2 Vladimir Marchenko, 1 Alexandr Khrokin
Replacements:  16 Ivan Naumenko, 17 Viktor Kobzev, 18 Sergey Novoselov, 19 Andrey Temnov, 20 Viktor Motorin, 21 Yaroslav Rechnev, 22 Vladimir Ostrushko

Referee:  Andy Macpherson (Scotland)
Touch judges:  Andy Ireland, Alan Forrest (both Scotland)

Ireland complete another Welsh mission

Ireland made a winning start to their Six Nations campaign on Sunday, beating Wales in Cardiff 19-9 in a fabulous game of rugby.

It doesn't sound like much of a scoreline, but it tells a false tale.  Both teams conjured up a thrilling brand of rugby to wow the crowd, with Ireland's belligerence and discipline on the ball just winning through in the end.

Wales and Ireland certainly saved the best rugby of the weekend for last.  At Cana of Galilee the wedding organisers were almost accused for saving the best wine for last.  This match was a climax to the weekend and a glorious reaffirmation of the virtues of rugby after two one-sided Six Nations matches and much bumbling and fumbling in the not-so-super Super 14.

It was a match played with intensity, skill, adventure and courage -- the best of rugby.  Afterwards Eddie O'Sullivan, unsmiling, described it as a "rough and tumble" game -- which did it no justice at all.

Ireland scored three tries to nil, which suggests a comfortable victory but it was not so.

After the match Dwayne Peel remarked that Wales had dominated the first half, and indeed they had.  But Ireland had three chances to score in the half and scored on two of those occasions.

The first try was after 45 seconds.  Ireland kicked off, Wales kicked back and Ireland attacked with -- an omen -- Gordon D'Arcy running at the Welsh.  Back the ball came from the tackle and Peter Stringer kicked down towards the Welsh left where young, late-replacement Chris Czekaj could have let the ball bounce out but chose instead to grab it and turn it in to Stephen Jones who kicked, aiming at the touch-line.  The ball did not get there because Brian O'Driscoll charged it down.  Hooker Rory Best was on hand to scoop up the ball and plunge over for the try.  5-0 after 45 seconds.

Not downhearted Wales then took over and attacked.  An Irish Off-side gave Jones a simple penalty.  5-3.

Then came Ireland's second chance to score, the chance they did not take.  Again it was D'Arcy who set it going with a strong break going left.  Ireland were battering at the line when Denis Hickie did a corkscrew and darted at the line, passing to David Wallace, who did not take the pass with nobody between him and a stride to the line, and Wales survived.

A counterattack by lively Kevin Morgan set Wales going again and a penalty against Donncha O'Callaghan for collapsing a maul gave Jones his second easy kick and Wales the lead (6-5) after 19 pulsating minutes.

Wales at this stage varied their game with clever kicking, sharp handling and tapped penalties to keep the Irish under pressure.  To their credit the wise Irish heads did not panic and their defence always looked in control.

But another Irish off-side gave Jones another penalty.  Wales led 9-5 after 24 minutes.  They were not destined to score again in the match.

In one attack Hickie suffered a scalp wound and went off with a blood-laced face.  He came back later with a scrum cap to cover his five stitches.  While he was away Geordan Murphy replaced him.

Hickie was not the only bleeder in the match for Ryan Jones and Ian Gough were also off for patching.

Then came Ireland's third chance.  Ronan O'Gara kicked a long kick down towards his left.  It rolled and carried on rolling.  Young James Hook stood and watched it roll, perhaps hoping it would roll into touch-in-goal.  But a rugby ball has its own inbuilt perversity and the ball rolled out five metres from the Welsh line.  Wales won the line-out and Peel kicked high downfield but not out.

Murphy caught ran and kicked high and long, haring after the ball.  Taller than Peel he jumped above him and caught the ball to set Ireland attacking on their left.  From here they sped the ball to the right margin of the field where O'Driscoll cut inside Czekaj to stretch and score in the corner.  O'Gara converted from touch.

Bread of Heaven yielded to the Fields of Athenry as half-time came and Ireland led 12-9.

Ireland were close early in the second half when Czekaj was free and then grubbered speeding in blue boots after the ball but he was impeded by Simon Easterby.  Some cried for a penalty try but the referee settled for an Irish five-metre scrum and Peter Stringer cleared.  It was Wales's best chance to score a try in the match.

A score in the half was a long time coming but the match remained enthralling as the teams' energies seemed never sapped.

O'Gara had a long run as he broke.  Andrew Trimble was close.  Ireland made a penalty into a five-metre line-out -- and then overthrew the ball.  Ireland attacked but a turnover saw Gough kick clear -- but when passing may have been a more productive option.

Ireland bashed from another five-metre line-out but when they spread the ball wide they lost a turnover when O'Driscoll was tackled.

After replacement Aled Brew had knocked on near his 22 on the Irish left, Ireland spread the ball with long passes from the ensuing scrum.  They skipped D'Arcy who went on the loop, cut past two defenders.  Three Welshmen hauled him down at the line, but the ball came back to Ireland and Stringer scrambled it to O'Gara on his right.  The fly-half was strong enough to keep Jamie Robinson's tackle to get the ball down.  The referee checked with the television match official who had a much easier time than his counterpart at Twickenham had had in awarding Jonny Wilkinson's try.  It was a try, and O'Gara converted it from touch.

Man of the Match:  Wales had Martyn Williams, Dwayne Peel, Kevin Morgan and Ryan Jones who were outstanding in a team that was outstanding.  Ireland had Brian O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, Paul O'Connell and our Man of the Match Gordon D'Arcy, so effective on attack and so hard on defence.

Moment of the Match:  If one were to pick just a moment, a single moment, it would probably Geordan Murphy's high kick, chase and catch that led to Brian O'Driscoll's try.

Villain of the Match:  Nobody -- absolutely nobody for it was a match of great good manners in the midst of so much passionate intensity.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Pens:  Jones 3

For Ireland:
Tries:  Best R, O'Driscoll, O'Gara
Cons:  O'Gara 2

The Teams:

Wales:  15 Kevin Morgan, 14 Hal Luscombe, 13 Jamie Robinson, 12 James Hook, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Stephen Jones (c), 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Alix Popham, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Chris Horsman, 2 Rhys Thomas, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements:  16 Matthew Rees, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Robert Sidoli, 19 Gavin Thomas, 20 Mike Phillips, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Aled Brew.

Ireland:  15 Girvan Dempsey, 14 Andrew Trimble,13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 David Wallace, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements:  16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Simon Best, 19 Neil Best, 18 Mick O'Driscoll, 20 Isaac Boss, 21 Paddy Wallace, 22 Geordan Murphy.

Referee:  Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Steve Walsh (New Zealand), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official:  Graham Hughes (England)
Assessor:  Steve Hilditch (Ireland)

Lobos just beat Leones in Lisboa

The Wolves of Portugal beat the Lions of Spain 21-18 at Estadio Universitário in Lisbon in the opening weekend of the European Nations Cup.

It is, in a sense, a good result for Spain for Portugal are on a roll after two RWC qualifier victories over Morocco and the possibility of another qualifying round with Uruguay.  Spain have had much less intense preparations with recently on a match with France Amateur which they lost 47-0.

Spain, a well-organised rugby nation, are just back in the European Nations Cup after being relegated.  Portugal are well established and in fact won the title the tournament before last.

There was not much between the two sides who each scored two tries.  In fact had Cesare Sempere goaled a penalty in injury time, Spain would have drawn the match.

At half-time Spain led 13-10.  But by then they had lost their experienced flyhalf Estaban Roqué, who was replaced by Ignacio Gutiérrez.

Scorers:

For Portugal:
Tries:  Diogo Mateus, Vasco Uva
Con:  Cardoso Pinto
Pens:  Cardoso Pinto 3

For Spain:
Tries:  Cidre 2
Con:  Roqué
Pens:  Roqué 2

Teams:

Portugal:  15 Pedro Cabral, 14 Francisco Mira, 13 Miguel Morais, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 Pedro Carvalho, 10 Duarte Cardoso Pinto, 9 Luis Pissarra, 8 Vasco Uva, 7 Joao Uva, 6 Juan Severino, 5 Gonçalo Uva, 4 Pedro Vieira, 3 Joaquim Ferreira, 2 Joao Correira,1 Rui Cordeiro
Replacements:  16 Duarte Gustavo, 17 Rodrigo Aguilar, 18 Diogo Coutinho, 19 Salvador Palha, 20 Filipe Saldanha, 21 José Pinto, 22 Hugo Melo

Spain:  15 Pedro Martín, 14 Juan Cano, 13 César Sempere, 12 Manuel Mazo, 11 Rafael Álvarez, 10 Esteban Roqué, 9 Pablo Feijóo, 8 Iván Criado, 7 Alfonso Mata, 6 Cyril Hijar, 5 Sergio Souto, 4 Guillermo Bárcena, 3 Javier Salazar, 2 Mathieu Cidre, 1 Jon Insausti
Replacements:  16 Diego Zarzosa, 17 Luís Cano, 18 Manuel Serrano, 19 David Hernández, 20 Igor Mirones, 21 Juan González, 22 Ignacio Gutiérrez

Referee:  Hervé Dubes (France)
Touch judges:  Didier Mene, Vincent Azoulay (both France)
Commissioner:  Alan Mansell (England)

Lelos shock Oaks in Bucaresti

Georgia won the Antim Cup when they beat neighbours Romania 20-17 at the Stadion Ghencea in Bucharest on Saturday afternoon.

This away win could well mean that Georgia will -- not for the first time, -- wrest the European Nations Cup from Romania.  It is played over two legs and the second leg, next year, between the two rivals will be in Tblissi.

Georgia, who had assembled in Bucharest on Monday, had led 13-6 at half-time and 20-9 early in the second half till the Romanians fought back.

Scorers:

For Romania:
Try:  Petre
Drop:  Tofan
Pens:  Vlaicu 3

For Georgia:
Tries:  Guiorgadze, Udessiani
Cons:  Kvirikashvili 2
Pens:  Kvirikashvili 2

Teams:

Georgia:  15 Paliko Jimsheladze, 14 Gosha Shkinini, 13 Rezo Guigauri, 12 Irakli Guiorgadze, 11 Irakli Machkaneli, 10 Meko Kvirikashvili, 9 Irakli Abusseridze, 8 Besso Udessiani, 7 Mamuka Magrakvelidze, 6 Ilia Maissuradze, 5 Levan Datunashvili, 4 Ilia Zedguinidze (captain), 3 David Zirakashvili, 2 Akvsent Guiorgadze, 1 David Khinchaguishvili
Replacements:  16 Avtandil Kopaliani, 17 David Gasviani, 18 Victor Didebulidze, 19 George Chkhaidze, 20 Bidzina Samkharadze, 21 David Katcharava, 22 George Elizbarashvili

Romania:  15 Florin Vlaicu, 14 Catalin Fercu, 13 Gabriel Brezoianu, 12 Romeo Gontineac, 11 Cristian Sauan, 10 Ionut Tofan, 9 Lucian Sarbu, 8 Costica Mersoiu, 7 Mihai Macovei, 6 Florin Corodeanu, 5 Cristian Petre, 4 Sorin Socol, 3 Petrisor Toderasc, 2 Marius Tincu, 1 Petru Balan.
Replacements:  16 Cezar Popescu, 17 Razvan Mavrodin, 18 Ion Paulica, 19 Valentin Ursache, 20 Valentin Calafateanu, 21 Csaba Gal, 22 Iulian Dumitras

Referee:  Colin Stanley (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Alan Rogan (Ireland), David Wilkinson (Ireland)

Old guard brings new England home

Jonny Wilkinson notched a personal haul of 27 points -- including one highly dubious try -- as England roared back onto the international scene with a 42-20 win over Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday.

This was the dawn of a new era for England under the watchful eye of Brian Ashton for the first time, but there was so much of the old England on display -- the England who won the World Cup in 2003.

There was the powerful surging mauls from the forward pack, a fluidity to the back-line play that has been missing for so long, and then there was that familiar name all over the score sheet again, Jonny Wilkinson.

On his first game back in an England shirt since he dropped that goal in Sydney in 2003 Wilkinson produced an impeccable display of goal kicking, helping himself to a personal haul of 27 points, including a highly controversial try.

England fans the world over will be asking themselves, "what if Jonny had been fit for the last three years?".  His goal kicking alone justified his selection in the side, after just 43 minutes of rugby since his latest injury.  But there was an air of the old Wilkinson as he settled back into the shirt he made his own for so long before injuries separated him from it.

However it was not just a case of Wilkinson winning England the game, despite being involved in all that was good from the men in white, as England looked a different side from that which plummeted into the depths last November.  Vickery was an inspiring captain, ever ready and willing to lead by example, Corry looked revitalised at the base of the scrum, and Joe Worsley was close to his marauding best.

Then there was Andy Farrell.  So much had been made of his move to rugby union and after a long awaited debut in his new code many felt he was not the answer England were desperately searching for.  His display today may have been overshadowed by Ellis and Wilkinson but if anything that suited him perfectly.

He was able to quietly go about his business, and how he went about it.  His running was direct and he made crossing the gain line look easy.  With Wilkinson kicking so effectively it allowed Farrell to concentrate on his distribution, an asset he used to full effect in midfield releasing those outside of him.

The spotlight may have been on Wilkinson but it was his half back partner Harry Ellis who stole the show, if that is possible when Wilkinson is involved.  Ellis made countless breaks around the tired Scotland fringes racking up the yards in the process.  He also offered England a useful kicking option, which resulted in a Jason Robinson try, albeit after Sean Lamont had made a hash of grounding the ball.

Scotland came to Twickenham in confident mood, but will leave with their tails firmly between their legs after they were outclassed.  Having given the home fans an early fright through a Simon Taylor try, they slowly faded from the game as legs became heavy and missed tackles came more often.

There would have been a sense of déjà-vu for England fans, as Wilkinson kicked three penalties and a drop goal in the first half, effortlessly resuming where he last left off in an England shirt.  So too did Jason Robinson, who bagged a brace of tries, although he seems to have lost a yard of pace since coming back from retirement.

The first of his tries came at a crucial time.  Leading by two points with half time approaching Robinson dummied the drifting defence before scooting over the whitewash.  The try was made by Farrell's direct running and a superb flick on by who other than Jonny Wilkinson.

Trailing by just seven points at the break Scotland would have felt that they were still in touch of England, and when a Chris Paterson penalty reduced the gap to just four points English nerves would have been jangling.  That was before Wilkinson continued his onslaught in the second period.  Two more penalties eased England further ahead before Robinson was in again.

As they did all day England's forwards laid the platform with a dynamic rolling maul before Ellis slid a clever grubber kick in behind Sean Lamont.  With Robinson bearing down on him Lamont seemed to have the kicked covered, and then he seemed to slip and lose his footing, allowing Robinson to apply the downward pressure for the easiest of tries.

With Wilkinson adding the touchline conversion one could sense the Scottish heads drop as they admitted defeat.  As if he hadn't done enough already Wilkinson rounded off a perfect afternoon for England and himself by adding a try to his collection of kicks.  Ellis laid the foundations with a sharp break before finding Wilkinson in support.  As he dived for the line it appeared as if his foot was in touch at the time of the grounding.  The TMO was called upon and despite all of the technology available to him failed to see the stray foot and allowed the try -- a truly shocking decision.

By this stage Scotland were tired and defeated, which is probably why they failed to see Magnus Lund lurking on the blindside of a maul allowing him a simple try to compound Scotland's woes.  Wilkinson missed the conversion but it was insignificant by this stage, England had announced their reemergence on the international stage.

Content with their efforts England switched off in the closing stages to allow Rob Dewey in for a consolation try, a just reward for their efforts as while they were outclassed they never threw in the towel.  David Callam was outstanding in fighting a losing battle, and Chris Cusiter was a thorn in the England rose.

But the day will belong to England, their new coach, Brian Ashton, their new captain, Phil Vickery, and their same old Jonny Wilkinson, as they reclaimed the Calcutta Cup in some style.

Man of the Match:  A mention for Scotland as they had star performers, but not enough to spoil the party.  David Callam was in superb form, tackling himself to a standstill.  Chris Cusiter gave his all behind a struggling pack and Dan Parks kicked with aplomb.  But it is no surprise the award goes to an English man, but which one?  It is hard not to be drawn to Jonny Wilkinson and the way he shook off three years of injury heartache and produce a masterful display.  However we have gone for his half-back partner Harry Ellis.  Ellis was in sensational form, sniping around the fringes and making breaks at will.  He bossed his forwards to great effect and turned in a superb performance in general.

Moment of the Match:  Rather than a single moment we have gone for a collective group.  In his first game back in an England shirt for almost four years Jonny Wilkinson provided a superb kicking display to keep England ticking over all afternoon.

Villain of the Match:  With both teams intent on playing rugby there was nothing of note from the players.  Instead it was Donal Courtney, the TMO, who scooped this award when he mysteriously awarded Jonny Wilkinson a try.  Everyone could see his foot was clearly in touch before the ball was grounded.  Yet despite seeing replays from several angles on more than one occasion he somehow awarded the try.

The scorers:

For England:
Tries:  Robinson 2, Wilkinson, Lund
Cons:  Wilkinson 2
Pens:  Wilkinson 5
Drop goal:  Wilkinson

For Scotland:
Tries:  Taylor, Dewey
Cons:  Paterson 2
Pens:  Paterson 2

The teams:

England:  15 Olly Morgan, 14 Josh Lewsey, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Andy Farrell, 11 Jason Robinson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Martin Corry, 7 Magnus Lund, 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Phil Vickery (c), 2 George Chuter, 1 Perry Freshwater.
Replacements:  16 Lee Mears, 17 Julian White, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 Tom Rees, 20 Peter Richards, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Mathew Tait.

Scotland:  15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Andrew Henderson, 11 Chris Paterson (c), 10 Dan Parks, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 David Callam, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 James Hamilton, 4 Alastair Kellock, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements:  16 Ross Ford, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 Scott Murray, 19 Allister Hogg, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Rob Dewey, 22 Rory Lamont.

Referee:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Alain Rolland (Ireland), Federico Cuesta (Argentina)
Television match official:  Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Assessor:  Paul Bridgman (England)

"Sea-bass" stars as Italy flounder

France started their 2007 Six Nations campaign in perfect style with a convincing 3-39 victory over Italy at Stadio Flaminio on Saturday.  Having looked rusty in the opening quarter France finally found their straps and dominated for the remainder of a one-sided affair.

We thought Italy might give France a scare, maybe even a nasty surprise.  In the event, the mental fragility under pressure that has gnawed away at Italy's progress in other areas once again undermined their efforts.

Pierre Berbizier accused his counterpart Bernard Laporte of wasting playing resources this week, but the majority of the wastage came from his own team, who enjoyed stacks of possession yet barely crossed the gain-line most of the time, never mind the French defensive line.

The Azzurri were not short of opportunity, but the execution was shocking -- never better exemplified than just before half-time, when Fabio Ongaro butchered a two-man overlap and instead lost possession in the tackle.

Italy also had two penalty kicks in the first five minutes, both eminently kickable, but Andrea Scannavacca missed the first when he slipped on the threadbare, sandy turf, and Roland de Marigny's attempt looked as though he had booted a set of bagpipes.  It barely made the try-line.

Thus did a lot of good Italian build-up play, particularly from both Bergamasci and Sergio Parisse, go to waste, and thus did the confidence wane.  For much of the second half, they rarely rose beyond three-quarters pace, with the backs standing flat and the forwards not producing clean enough ball.

France, on the other hand, look to have made significant steps forward since November.  Pierre Mignoni's brisk service and acceleration at scrum-half added some zip to the play around the pack fringes, which was France's main avenue of attack.

Sébastian Chabal finally brought shades of his Sale form to the blue shirt around those fringes, and David Skréla looked comfortable at fly-half, although he was provided with plenty of space by his pack and by Mignoni.  Stiffer tests might exploit a slight slowness of service, but experience might speed it up too.

The French pack as a whole proved more than equal to the Italian pack, and the first score of the game came as a direct result, when Olivier Milloud scrummed Carlos Nieto to pieces on the Italian 22.  Skréla kicked the penalty to make it 0-3 after eight minutes.

The next score came as a direct result of that poor Italian execution.  After Parisse and Mirco Bergamsco had made good ground, out the ball came left to De Marigny, but his pass for Ongaro went to ground and Dominici hacked on, and on again, before picking up on the bounce and sauntering under the posts.

That score -- Skréla made it 0-10 with the conversion -- was after 24 minutes, and it was a lone bright spark in some pretty grim stuff.  Any Italian breaks got bogged down by slow support, and France were conservative in approach, and effective in their conservatism.

Only once did the backs stitch some passes together, with Clément Poitrenaud, Mignoni, Skréla and Florian Fritz all involved, but the latter chipped when an offload would have been more appropriate and gave the ball away.

France extended the lead on the half-hour mark with a try that owed everything to Mignoni's will to attack.  When the scrum-half sucked in two defenders on the blind side, his flat pass was expertly flicked on by Skréla to Cédric Heymans, who was clean down the left and also went under the posts, Skréla making it 0-17.

Sébastian Chabal scored his first try for France right on half-time, with Mignoni once again making some yards around the fringe, and Raphaël Ibañez driving on to 2m from the line before the number eight's enormous hirsute figure ploughed over the line.  Skréla hit the post with the conversion, and at 3-22, that was the end of a disappoiting first half.

The second half barely rose above the pedestrian.  France were quite content to close proceedings out away from their own half, and even more so after Chabal had taken Mignoni's clever flat pop for his second try after 44 minutes, with Skréla's conversion making it 3-29.

Bar a brief flurry from the backs early on, Italy offered nothing, and worryingly for them, the substitutes didn't make any difference either.  France, as a whole, shut up shop magnificently, but there was nothing Italy could find to pick the locks open.

From another Italian handling error, Skréla nearly claimed his first try in French colours when he hacked through another dropped Italian pass, but was denied in the corner by Mirco Bergamasco.

Then on the hour mark Jauzion did claim the sixth try, after Poitrenaud and Heymans had won back a high Skréla kick and drawn the covering defence.

Substitute Lionel Beauxis claimed his first points in French senior colours, landing a late penalty judiciously kicked while Chabal was treated after a heavy collision, and rounding off the scoring.

So plenty of firsts for the French, and a new dawn of sorts after November's dark patch, but precious little light for Italy, who have seven days to forget this performance before stepping into England's HQ.

Man of the match:  Has to be French.  Mauro Bergamasco and Gonzalo Canale played well for Italy in parts, and Pierre Mignoni has confirmed his presence on France's healthy list of top-notch scrum-halves.  But today's excellence was France number eight Sébastian Chabal, whose running and strength, as well as his two tries, gave France the perfect platform to go forward.

Moment of the match:  Cédric Heymans' try, or more specifically, David Skréla's sleight of hand that set the Toulouse winger on his way.

Villain of the match:  Nothing to report.  Italy were too submissive and France too focussed for any villainy.

The Scorers:

For Italy:
Pen:  Pez

For France:
Tries:  Dominici, Heymans, Chabal 2, Jauzion
Cons:  Skréla 4
Pens:  Skréla, Beauxis

The Teams:

Italy:  15 Roland de Marigny, 14 Denis Dallan, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Andrea Masi, 10 Andrea Scanavacca, 9 Paul Griffen, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami (c), 4 Santiago Dellapè, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini
Replacements:  16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Martín Leandro Castrogiovanni, 19 Roberto Mandelli, 20 Alessandro Troncon, 21 Ramiro Pez, 22 Kaine Robertson

France:  15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Christophe Dominici, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 David Skréla, 9 Pierre Mignoni, 8 Sebastian Chabal, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Jérôme Thion, 3 Pieter de Villiers, 2 Raphaël Ibañez (c), 1 Olivier Milloud.
Replacements:  16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Pascal Papé, 19 Imañol Harinordoquy, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Vincent Clerc.

Referee:  Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges:  Dave Pearson (England), Rob Debney (England)
Television match official:  Tim Hayes (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

Portugal now one step away

The Lobos of Portugal beat Morocco's Lions of the Atlas 16-15 in Lisbon to win the second leg of their World Cup qualifier and thus move a step closer to winning the final spot in France.

What a match!  Morocco arrived in Lisbon needing victory by six points or more.  It looked as if Portugal were home and dry but with a quarter of an hour to go Morocco got a converted try to pull back to a deficit of just one point.  One more converted try would see them on to the next round -- to play Uruguay.  It was not to be in those agonising last 15 minutes.

Morocco scored first.  After Portugal had missed a penalty attempt they goaled one to lead 3-0.  The Portuguese attacked, the Lions of the Atlas defended but were penalised and flyhalf Cardoso Pinto, who had scored all ten Portuguese points in their 10-5 first-leg victory, levelled the scores.

Captain and number eight Vasco Uva scored the try which put Portugal ahead -- 10-3 after Pinto's conversion.

That was the score at half-time.

Right from the kick-off for the second half the Moroccans attacked and made the most of a Portuguese attack to score a try.  10-8.

Penalties by Pinto made the score 16-8, and then Morocco's powerful pack drove a maul over the line for a try which Hicham Eziyar converted.  16-15 with a thrilling 15 minutes to play.

Portugal hung on and in fact had the chance to extend their lead but replacement Gonçalo Malheiro missed a penalty kick in injury time.  The final whistle sounded soon afterwards.

Portugal now play, home and away, against Uruguay in March.  The winner of that encounter will go to the 2007 World Cup and join a pool with New Zealand, Scotland, Italy and Romania.  Portugal have not before been to a World Cup.

For Portugal the Argentinian prop Cristian Spachuck was back from his neck injury but David Mateus was out with an injured thigh and veteran Antonio Aguilar, who plays for Mont-de-Marsan in France's Pro D2 was still out injured.

Morocco's Nassim Arif was unconvincing in the first leg and was replaced by Hicham Eziyar.  The forwards were reinforced by the return of Pau prop Mohamed Ben Bouhout.  Jalil Narjissi, the hooker and usual prop, was not down to play last week also but he played.  This week he is not down again as Agen have hooker problems -- not that the clubs prevent the players from playing in World Cup matches!

It was a great day of rugby at Estádio Universitário in Lisbon.  It started at 11 in the morning with the little ones before the climactic répechage match.

The scorers:

For Portugal:
Try:  Uva
Con:  Pinto
Pens:  Pinto 3

For Morocco:
Tries:  A.N Other, A.N Other
Con:  Eziyar
Pen:  Eziyar

The teams:

Portugal:  15 Pedro Leal, 14 Pedro Carvalho, 13 Diogo Gama, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 Miguel Portela, 10 Cardoso Pinto, 9 Luís Pissarra, 8 Vasco Uva (captain), 7 Juan Severino, 6 Paulo Murinello, 5 Marcello D'Orey, 4 Gonçalo Uva, 3 Rui Cordeiro, 2 João Correia, 1 Cristian Spachuk.

Morocco:  15 Ouajdi Mouhcine, 14 Tallavi, 13 Mihadji Tidjini, 12 Mouad Labbi, 11 Gharib Chahid, 10 Hicham Eziyar, 9 Kamal Essaoui, 8 Abdellatif Boutati (captain), 7 Faycal Boukhanoussa, 6 Housni Hicham, 5 Younes Ho, 4 Hamid Arif, 3 Mohamed Ben Bouhout, 2 Abdelkafi Abachri, 1 Mohamed Gouasmia.

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges:  Richard Hughes, Huw F Lewis (both Wales)

Irish leave the Islanders adrift

The Old Lady of Dublin bid a fine farewell

Ireland gave the crumbling stands of Lansdowne Road a fitting send-off on Sunday afternoon, punctuating a glorious chapter of the stadium's history with a handsome 61-17 victory over the Pacific Islanders.

The famous ground may be on its last legs but Irish rugby appeared to be in rude health.  This win, forged by a side containing plenty of fresh faces, completes Ireland's clean-sweep of November Tests that included thumping wins over South Africa and Australia.

The wreaking-balls will swing in the new year as order is imposed on this higglety-pigglety old pile, but today it was the Pacific Islanders who played the part of the bulldozers, imposing chaos on Ireland's well-ordered lines.

But the locals eventually subdued the Islanders' fires, running in eight tries;  Paddy Wallace, in his first start for Ireland, pocketed a full 26 points.

The Ulsterman's near-flawless kicking was matched by his composure in attack, touching down for a deserved try.

Denis Hickie, Malcolm O'Kelly, Simon Easterby (two), Shane Horgan, Rory Best and Paul O'Connell also crossed as Ireland overcame an impressive start from the tourists to run riot.

O'Connell was prominent as Ireland made early inroads into the Islanders' defence, and there were just two minutes on the clock when the first try was scored.

Wallace created the score, the Ulster fly-half dummying to Hickie before actually feeding the veteran Leinster winger who finished well.

Wallace landed the conversion and then added a penalty as Ireland continued to find gaps -- until they were opened up by a sweet kick from Tusi Pisi in the 10th minute.

The Samoan outside-half spotted Lome Fa'atau unmarked on the right wing and expertly dropped the ball into his arms only for the winger, who had a clear run to the line, to knock on.

More dynamic play resulted in the Islanders' first try, Kameli Ratuvou chipping ahead and gathering before riding Wallace's tackle and supplying the scoring pass to Rabeni.

The dazzling try served a timely warning of the threat posed by the Islanders -- so it came as little surprise when Wallace took the points on offer from a penalty in front of the posts.

Pisi missed a long-range penalty, and O'Driscoll then sent Fitzgerald a hospital pass to give the debutant a bone-shaking welcome to Test rugby -- courtesy of Elvis Seveali'i's shuddering hit.

But the scoreboard was ticking over, with Wallace punishing the Islanders' terrible discipline by adding his third penalty.

Wallace nearly crossed on two occasions after being put into space by two offloads from Shane Horgan, and Ireland were assisted by the sin-binning of prop Justin Va'a following a string of offences from the Islanders.

O'Driscoll brushed off two tackles to slice the tourists' defence open.  But Ulster prop Bryan Young tried to go it alone, and a likely try went begging.

The mistake was ruthlessly punished by the Islanders, who saw substitute prop Taufa'ao Felise burst into space and feed winger Lome Fa'atau to gallop home.

Ireland's response was emphatic, but they were helped by wayward defending which allowed Wallace to skip home following a flat pass from Peter Stringer.

He converted his own try and then added the extras when a mix-up in the Islanders line-out let Malcolm O'Kelly in for Ireland's second try of first-half injury time to leave the score poised at 30-12 in Ireland's favour at the break.

It took just five minutes of the second half for Ireland to stretch their lead, with O'Driscoll charging through and offloading to Easterby who was driven over by his team-mates.

Wallace landed the conversion, and 10 minutes later Ireland ran in their fifth try -- with Stringer kicking to the right where Horgan was able to gather.

The Leinster star, who has been in magnificent form during the autumn, easily beat Fa'atau and Rabeni in open space and raced in -- with Wallace slotting the conversion.

There was a worrying moment in the 59th minute when O'Driscoll limped off, with Isaac Boss coming on as his replacement.

Easterby barged over for his second try but the Islanders replied through Pisi who was in support following a bulldozing charge from Alesana Tuilagi.

Boss set off on a run that swept him 30 yards and substitute hooker Best was on hand to finish the move.  Wallace missed the conversion for the first time in the match.

But there was still time for O'Connell to barge over in injury time as Ireland completed the rout.

No one doubts that Lansdowne Road is in need of renovations, but tears were still shed as "Fields of Athenry" echoed over the terraces for the very last time.

But there is no need for sadness.  Never before has such a fine set of players called Lansdowne Road their home, and they deserve a fitting moment to their proud past and bright future.

Man of the match:  As usual, the Islanders had their moments of individual brilliance, but we feel we must hand this gong to a local.  There were plenty of fine performances from the men in green, but one man stood out.  All thoughts that Ireland lacked depth at fly-half were kicked into touch by an authoritative performance by Paddy Wallace who ended his first Ireland start with 26 points to his name.  Ronan O'Gara might not sleep that soundly tonight.

Moment of the match:  Lome Fa'atau's try was a cracker -- a moment when a little magic from Brian O'Driscoll rubbed off on the wrong side.  But we feel the sense of occasion must prevail here.  Ireland completed a nostalgic lap-of-honour after the game, not to receive praise for their performance but to pay tribute to the many ghosts that inhabit the green and grey surrounds of Landsdowne Road.  She's an ugly old bird, but she knows -- knew -- how to entertain.  Thanks for the memories.

Villain of the match:  Quite a few swinging arms around, but nothing that looked premeditated.  No award.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Tries:  O'Kelly, Wallace, Hickie, R Best, O'Connell, Easterby 2, Horgan
Cons:  Wallace 6
Pen:  Wallace

For the Pacific Islanders:
Tries:  Rabeni, Pisi, Fa'atau
Con:  Pisi

Yellow card(s):  Va'a (Pacific Islanders) -- collapsing the maul, 29

The teams:

Ireland:  15 Girvan Dempsey, 14 Luke Fitzgerald, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (c), 12 Shane Horgan, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Paddy Wallace, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Stephen Ferris, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Malcolm O’Kelly, 3 John Hayes, 2 Frankie Sheahan, 1 Bryan Young
Replacements:  16 Rory Best, 17 Simon Best, 18 Donncha O’Callaghan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Isaac Boss, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Gordon D’Arcy

Pacific Islanders:  15 Norman Ligairi, 14 Lome Fa'atau, 13 Seru Rabeni, 12 Elvis Seveali'i, 11 Kameli Ratuvou, 10 Tusi Pisi, 11 Moses Rauluni, 8 Hale T-Pole, 7 Nili Latu, 6 Ma'ama Molitika, 5 Daniel Leo, 4 Simon Raiwalui (captain), 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Justin Va'a.
Replacements:  16 Mahonri Schwalger, 17 Taufa'ao Felise, 18 Epi Taione, 19 Aca Ratuva, 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Seilala Mapasua , 22 Alexi Tuilagi.

Referee:  Christophe Berdos (France)
Touch judges:  Joël Jutge (France), Taizo Hirabayashi (Japan)
Television match official:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Assessor:  Steve Hilditch (Ireland)

Boks put England to the sword

Robinson pulls level in "sack race" against White

South Africa bought their beleaguered coach some breathing space by securing a gritty 25-14 victory over England on Saturday, with four drop-goals from Andre Pretorius handing the visitors their first win at Twickenham since 1997.

Jake White will enjoy the beers tonight -- and he will even be happy to foot the bill.  His troops showed the tenacity to fight back to win after being 14-3 down after just 30 minutes.

White's counterpart, Andy Robinson, will be drinking for different reasons.  A bright start from the home side descended into pitiful pap -- there was no inspiration, direction or vision from a side that conquered the world just three years ago.  Heads are sure to roll.

The sight of England players looking on helplessly as drop-goal after drop-goal sailed over their heads will be the defining image of Robinson's woeful month.  The defining sound will be the boos that reverberated around Twickenham in the wake of defeat to Argentina and, again, today.

Robinson said his side had lost to "a great team", but that's also pretty misdirected.  South Africa did play with a great deal of heart, keeping their hosts off the scoresheet for a full 51 minutes, but the truth is that their execution and basic skills were as poor as England's.

White now has a little ammunition when he faces the music at next week's President's Council meeting, but the "sack race" between White and Robinson looks to be heading for a dead-heat.  South Africa's gameplan appeared to centre, in its entirety, on dropping for goal whenever possible.  Sometimes they dropped for goal when it was nigh on impossible.  That is not a hallmark of "a great team".

Still, there was something morbidly fascinating about this game.  Whilst other recent Tests have been diluted by player rotation and "RWC development", this was a primal, bare-knuckled encounter between two teams that needed to win at all costs.

After last week's loss, the pressure was squarely on South Africa's shoulders at the start of this game and they duly made a nervous start.

They proved to be perfect guests, gifting their hosts plenty of ball by conceding five penalties in the first ten minutes.

South African mistakes buoyed English spirits and they began the game with a confidence beyond their woeful track record.

Andy Goode opened the scoring with a goal after Bryan Habana conceded a penalty for holding back a support runner.

The heavyweight fly-half soon added another after Peter Richards put the Boks on the back-foot with a fine break around the ragged edge of a ruck on the green 22.

So far so good for the locals, but Wynand Olivier then responded with a fine break of his own, putting Pretorius within range of the sticks and the fly-half duly cocked an impromptu hoof to open South Africa's account with his first drop-goal.

The tourists then drew another lungful of air through the whistle of referee Alan Lewis -- this time for killing the ball -- and Goode slotted a long-distance goal.

England were now warming to the task at hand and each Englishman seemed to grow an inch or two after Tom Palmer stole a line-out in South Africa's half.

A skew drop-goal attempt from Goode was all England managed from the ensuing attack, but the locals began to sense that opportunities were knocking in two areas:  in the tight and on South Africa's left wing where Habana was having trouble with England's big men.

Last week England failed to poke at South Africa's weaker areas but they showed more intelligence this week -- if only for the first 30 minutes.

And so it was that the diminutive Habana was soon staring skyward, trying to pick out Goode's crossfield kick from against the clear sky above Twickenham.

Josh Lewsey and Ben Cohen both climbed above the startled speedster and the ball was knocked back into the path of the energetic Mathew Tait.  The centre was brought down short but Mark Cueto was on hand to poach another short-range try.

The grounding looked suspect but Lewis was confident enough to award the try without help from the video room;  Goode missed the acutely angled conversion.

Pat Sanderson then undid some good work by spilling his catch at the restart and conceding a penalty as he tried to right his wrongs.  Pretorius goaled.

The error heralded a shaky ten minutes for England, ten minutes that saw them cough up their comfortable lead and ultimately the game.

South Africa sensed England's sudden insecurity and they soon had Habana over the line, only to be denied by some good crisis management from Cohen.

Phil Vickery then showed remarkable suppleness for a big man, wriggling under Jean de Villiers to prevent a try.

But there was no stopping CJ van der Linde when he joined the line moments later, crashing through Lewsey to score in the dying moments of the half.  Pretorius secured the improbable lead by landing the conversion as South African flags began to flutter around the ground.

Robinson would have tried to rouse his troops during the break but symptoms of their sudden attack of sleeping sickness were still evident as they took to the pitch for the second half.

A bullocking run from Danie Rossouw soon put Pretorius within sight of the sticks and he duly landed his second drop-goal.

The tsetse flies then bit the Boks and they began coughing up penalties with abandon.  But Goode was unable to unwrap the gifts as three long-range shots at goal fell short.

Robinson turned to his bench and the introduction of the likes of Lewis Moody and Shaun Perry added a little momentum to England's flagging game, but simply not enough.

Another crossfield kick picked out Cueto but he failed to hang on to the ball.  It was not the only attacking chance to go a begging -- England now had the lion's share of possession but were let down by poor passing and a lack of a coherent plan.

South Africa were happy to absorb the pressure and prospered from English mistakes, of which there were many, and Pretorius sealed the deal with his pinpoint kicking to leave England defeated and deflated.

Man of the match:  Francois Steyn showed poise beyond his tender years, Peter Richards kept South Africa's defence guessing and Joe Worsley got through heaps of defensive work.  CJ van der Linde deserves a pat on the back for his many contributions, as does Ricky Januarie who directed operations with aplomb.  But our man of the match is Juan Smith who presented a constant threat in attack and was immovable in defence.  He found more gaps in this game than the England's backline did during the whole month of November.

Moment of the match:  Andre Pretorius's four drop-goals will live long in the memory, but this game will be remembered as the day that England's fans literally abandoned their team, trudging out before the final whistle had sounded.  Will they ever come back?  Not unless radical steps are taken to fix their team.

Villain of the match:  No real argy-bargy, so we'll pass this hideous gong to referee Alan Lewis.  The famously dapper ref requested a towel when he lost his boot.  Why?  He needed to keep his bottom off the soggy tuff!

The scorers:

England:
Tries:  Cueto
Pens:  Goode 3

South Africa:
Tries:  Van der Linde
Con:  Pretorius
Pens:  Pretorius 2
Drop:  Pretorius 4

The teams:

England:  15 Josh Lewsey, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Jamie Noon, 11 Ben Cohen, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Peter Richards, 8 Martin Corry (captain), 7 Pat Sanderson, 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Chris Jones, 4 Tom Palmer, 3 Julian White, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Phil Vickery
Replacements:  16 George Chuter, 17 Tim Payne, 18 Ben Kay, 19 Lewis Moody, 20 Shaun Perry, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Mark van Gisbergen.

South Africa:  15 Francois Steyn, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Wynand Olivier, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10, Andre Pretorius, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Danie Rossouw, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Kabamba Floors, 5 Johann Muller, 4 Johan Ackermann, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 CJ van der Linde.
Replacements:  16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17, Deon Carstens, 18, Albert van den Berg, 19 Gerrie Britz, 20 Ruan Pienaar, 21 Jaco Pretorius, 22 Bevin Fortuin.

Referee:  Alan Lewis (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Nigel Owen (Wales), Federico Cuesta (Argentina)
Television match official:  Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Assessor:  Jim Bailey (Wales)

France hold off Puma fightback

French breathe sigh of relief after uncomfortable final half-hour

France recorded their first win of the November series on Saturday, beating Argentina 27-26 in Paris, but it was a close-run match, in which the visitors clawed their way back from 27-9 down in the final half-hour, and nearly pinched a famous victory.

The next time these two sides meet it will be the opening of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.  If it again produces a close encounter with a thrilling finish, that will be a great way to set the World Cup in motion.

It is interesting that this is France's first victory over the Pumas in five outings and then it was by just one point.

Yet it was not all that polished a match, but it did have the electric genius of Christophe Dominici and those thrilling last 20 minutes as the Pumas took control in their search for another famous victory.  They are not suave but they have made an effective art of being artisans.  Traditionally the French are rugby's romantic artists but, Dominici apart and at time Pépito Elhorga, there was precious little of it at Stade de France and in fact may never be as they put their faith in a big flyhalf with two big centres outside of him.  They created precious little.

But back to those thrilling last minutes that gave the match life -- other than what Dominici gave it.  It started with a penalty against Pépito Elhorga for holding on when France were sitting on a comfortable 27-9 lead.  That became a penalty and a maul which the Pumas pushed at the try-line.  Gonzalo Longo broke free and scored far out.  Felipe Contepomi converted from far out.  That took the score to 27-16 with 19 minutes to play.

At this stage France changes its front row and brought on Sylvain Marconnet and Dimitri Szarzewski, the glamorous hooker.  Szarzewski did not last long.  A double tackle -- one of them high -- did for him, and Raphaël Ibañez was brought back from retirement.  He was not long on the field when he gave away a penalty for not rolling away at a tackle, and from a long way out Felipe Contepomi goaled a penalty.  27-19 with 11 minutes left.

Those 11 minutes belonged to the Pumas as the French were forced to defend for all their worth.

First Longo had a run, Hernán Senillosa broke and Manuel Contepomi chipped, but in desperation Marconnet got back to save.

Back came the Pumas on attack after attack through many phases till Felipe Contepomi chipped.  The ball hit Florian Fritz's hand and went into the grateful arms of tall, striding fullback Juan Martín Hernández, who cut past Elhorga to score at the posts.  Felipe Contepomi converted, and suddenly it was 27-26 and somewhere in that great stadium a trumpet played Amazing Grace.

It was an amazing score in a match which France so had in hand.

The Pumas attacked again but France won their line-out after a penalty and Traille was able to clear.  The Pumas drove a maul ahead and got the ball back to Felipe Contepomi who dropped for goal but there was brave Serge Betsen to charge the kick down.(Betsen was on because Rémy Martín had left the field with a hand injury.)

The Pumas stayed attacking but Elvis Vermeulen won a vital turn-over and with just seconds left Juan Fernández Lobbe was penalised for going in the side.  France kicked the penalty out, Lionel Nallet won the line-out at the front and passed the ball a long way back to Traille who knew that the time was up and hoofed the ball into the stand.

It was an absorbing end to a match which had not always been absorbing.

The Pumas scored first when dapper Federico Todeschini's metronomic boot kicked a penalty goal.  Kicking penalty goals would play an important part in the match.  The Pumas kicked four, the French two, but the French missed three -- three that Yachvili should really have goaled.

Todeschini nudged over another before leaving the field in pain.  Then Felipe Contepomi moved from inside centre to flyhalf.

But between the Todeschini nudges, Dominici scored a try.  Play seemed to be going nowhere in particular, stuck somewhere on the Puma 10-metre line when Traille played back to Dominici who sped clean through and then skated on a bow past Hernández and over for a try, which made the score 7-3

Elhorga set up France's second try when he took a short pass and sliced through.  A covering tackle by Ignacio Corleto mowed the Agen fullback down but France stayed attacking till Fritz barged over from close quarters.  That made it 17-6.  A penalty by Felipe Contepomi when Vermeulen collapsed a maul made the half-time score 17-9.

The third French try had a rare start.  France won a tighthead at a scrum.  That really is rare in the modern game.  Vermeulen picked up and broke with Dominici close behind.  The ball fell loose and Dominic snapped it up, burst clear and raced away for his second try.  24-9 just five minutes into the second half.  Imagine Puma humiliation that they of all people, the gauchos of the bajada scrum, had yielded a tighthead.

When Martín Scelzo was penalised for a pretty bucolic late tackle, Yachvili goaled a penalty to make it 27-9 after 49 minutes.  For the next half an hour France did not score a single point.

Sadly just before the end Felipe Contepomi was take off on a stretcher with, it seemed, serious damage to the ligaments of his left knee.

Man of the Match:  Christophe Dominici.  He was playing violins when the others were banging at guitars.  Well, not quite all, for Felipe Contepomi had a splendid match.

Moment of the Match:  Take your pick of three tries -- two by Christophe Dominici and one by Juan Martín Hernández and probably the first one by Christophe Dominici deserves the award.

Villain:  There were wonderful scenes after the whistle had gone to end each half.  There were those little geniuses Agustín Pichot and Christophe Dominici walking off to the changing rooms with their arms around each other.  After all they are club matches.  Then at the end there were smiles all round and hugs and swapping jerseys.  After all many of them are club matches.  This match had something of brother against brother, team-mate against team-mate.  But then 11 Pumas play in France.

That said there was an unpleasant sight as the owner of a hand found its way to the face of Julien Bonnaire and removed a contact lens.  That was unwholesome.

The scorers:

For France:
Tries:  Dominici 2, Fritz
Cons:  Yachvili 3
Pens:  Yachvili 2

For Argentina:
Tries:  Longo, Hernandez
Cons:  Contempomi 2
Pens:  Todeschini 2, Contempomi 2

Teams:

France:  15 Pépito Elhorga, 14 Cédric Heymans, Christophe Dominici, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Christophe Dominici, 10 Damien Traille, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Elvis Vermeulen, 7 Rémy Martín, 6 Julien Bonnaire, 5 Loïc Jacquet, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Pieter de Villiers, 2 Raphaël Ibañez (captain), 1 Olivier Milloud.
Replacements:  16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Thibault Privat, 19 Serge Betsen, 20 Pierre Mignoni, 21 David Marty, 22 Aurélien Rougerie.

Argentina:  15 Juan Martín Hernández, 14 José Maria Núñez Piossek, 13  Manuel Contepomi, 12 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Ignacio Corleto, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Agustín Pichot (captain), 8 Gonzalo Longo, 7 Juan Fernández Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Martín Scelzo.
Replacements:  16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Esteban Lozada, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 20 Nicolás Fernández Miranda, 21 Hernán Senillosa, 22 Horacio Agulla.

Referee:  Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges:  Wayne Barnes (England), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Television match official:  David McHugh (Ireland)
Assessor:  Dougie Kerr (Scotland)

Wallabies silence Scotland bagpipes

Australia too good for brave Scots

Australia pulled out a superb second-half performance to sink Scotland 42-15 in Edinburgh on Saturday to end their tour of Europe on a high note.

The scene was set for a spectacle of a match with fireworks welcoming the Scotland team out onto the Murrayfield pitch as the sounds of the traditional bagpipes were heard blowing from the stands.

It was a scene guaranteed to get any home team pumped with adrenalin, and it did for the most part of the first half, but as the game unfolded it would be the visiting team that put on a better fireworks display.

Scotland had given themselves the benefit of the doubt to end their 24 year losing run against Australia in the build up to the Edinburgh clash.

And why not?

The home team have had a sublime year thus far under the watchful eye of Scotland coach Frank Hadden, earning themselves a 100 per cent home-winning record in the process.

Australia were heading into a Murrayfield fortress with a less then impressive tour under their belts, and an angry media back home asking questions Wallaby coach John Connolly couldn't answer.

It seemed Connolly would have plenty more daggers waiting for him on his arrival back to Australia through a resounding display of attacking rugby from Scotland in the opening exchanges of the match.

Wallaby fly-half Stephen Larkham got the match underway and immediately the Scots showed what their intentions were with ball in hand.

Twice Scotland wing Simon Webster looked dangerous on attack and twice the game had to be stopped to see to an injury on the speedster.

The second occasion corresponded with a Scotland penalty from Australia being caught wandering offside after Webster did well to stretch the Wallaby defence.

Chris Paterson, Scotland skipper and fullback, had no trouble slotting a monster 40 meter kick to give his team an early lead with less than three minutes gone in the match.

It wouldn't stop there as Paterson handled another penalty to good affect, this time finding a huge touch after Nathan Sharpe was penalised in the line-out.

The winning line-out from the Scots resulted in fly-half Dan Parks putting in a huge up-and-under on the Wallaby back three.

With Chris Latham leaping for the ball at the full-back position, it would normally be assumed the Wallaby veteran had everything under control -- it wasn't to be this time round.

After some brilliant pressure from centre Marcus Di Rollo, Latham knocked the ball forward only for Parks to pick up from where he left off and send the ball out wide.

Webster took a well taken pass at immense pace, only to step inside two Australia defenders and touchdown for Scotland.

Paterson added the extras that was welcomed by a thundering round of applause from the Murrayfield locals.

Australia looked shell-shocked running back to the restart at 10-0 down after seven minutes.

They had already lost two line-outs to the big Scottish forwards, a feat that the visitors were trying to avoid leading up to the game.

Larkham's precision kicking made sure the Wallabies wouldn't be camped in their own half for much longer.

The visitors finally got some points on the board thanks to a high tackle on scrum-half Matt Giteau.

It was now the Wallaby skipper's turn to put his boot to good use as he slotted his first penalty of the match and hand his team three easy points.

As Australia's line-out woes continued, so did the Scotland scrum.

The Scot's gave up a handy attacking platform in the middle of the pitch from a Rocky Elsom forward pass.

However, the brute strength of the home team amounted to nothing as the Wallaby pack wielded the scrum 180 degrees and earn themselves the feed.

If the first scrum wasn't bad enough, Euan Murray made it even worse for his forwards by collapsing the scrum -- resulting in a huge Latham kick towards the Scotland try-line.

A decent line-out and 12 phases later found Stephen Larkham shouting for the ball after the forwards failed to bash their way over.

The Australia pivot took the responsibility on his own shoulders, brushed off a sorry excuse for a tackle by Di Rollo, and dived over by the posts.

Mortlock was able to block out the uncalled for booing by the Scotland supporters and add the simple conversion.

With the scores all tied up at 10-10, it didn't take long for the visitors to start pulling away.

A further two simple penalty kicks from the Wallaby skipper not only stretched their lead to six points, but also kept their late authority on the match in tow.

Scotland's early dominance was already starting to fizzle out before the half time whistle was even blown.

Though whilst their attacking abilities were laid to rest as the match wore on, Scotland's defence was solid as a rock.

Both Giteau and Mortlock were denied certain tries from some brilliant hard hits from the whole Scottish XV.

Any time the home team took a sniff at the Australia half, Latham would make he made up for his earlier blunder throughout the match and keep the Scottish out of his territory.

The Scotland highlight of the first half came with full-time approaching and the Wallabies camped on the Scotland tryline.

After countless attempts to hammer their way over the line, a fine display of commitment and a fine team effort saw the home team keep the visitors out and win a penalty in the process -- much to the delight of the home crowd.

Paterson put the first half to rest and left the field with everybody still stumped as to who would take top honours.

The second half started off a lot worse than the first for the Scots with Hugo Southwell involved in two silly misdemeanours.

The first was a kick that rolled over the dead ball line, resulting in a scrum all the way back in the Scotland 22.

While the second could possibly have caused his team a definite score had he not taken off so early from a Parks kick ahead, thus ruling him offside.

That penalty resulted in a huge Latham punt towards the half-way line.

The full-back was on hand once more to make a superb break up the middle of the field, Giteau took the ball up further who in turn passed inside to Larkham.  The Australia No.10 did well to get his pass away to a flying Mark Gerrard who sprinted towards the right hand corner to score.

Mortlock put in a fine kick from the right hand touchline to add the extra two points.

Gerrard couldn't believe his luck when only after a few minutes had passed, the winger found himself celebrating in the same corner.

Once again it was a great piece of midfield play that saw Mortlock this time racing up the middle of the field.  Larkham, who was having a stormer of a game, was in good support to take the ball on further before throwing a dummy to Southwell and putting Gerrard over for the wingers second try.

Mortlock must have polished his boots twice that day as the centre pulled off another faultless kick from the touchline.

The conversion put the score at 30-10 and gave the home team a big mountain to climb.

Scotland showed that they still had some fight left in them after Sean Lamont crossed over soon afterwards.

The home team had got themselves in the best position territorially wise in the second half before some great vision from Parks saw the fly-half send a cross kick towards the left touchline.

Wallaby wing Lote Tuqiri was on hand to field the ball, but slipped, resulting in Lamont picking up and strolling over untouched.

It was the last time Murrayfield were given something to cheers about as Paterson missed his conversion.

It was also the last time Australia would give Scotland any attacking opportunities as the floodgate opened up for the visitors from then on.

Their first run assault at the Scotland goal-line resulted in ref Donal Courtney going upstairs to adjudge an Al Campbell touchdown underneath a pile of bodies.

The TMO got it right saying the Test debutant had knocked on.

Campbell was denied his first try on debut, but wasn't denied a yellow card in his first Test match for the Wallabies after continues warnings from the ref.

Perhaps Campbell can feel a bit hard done by seeing as though it was his lock partner Sharpe who had copped all the previous warnings for killing the ball.

The sending off gave Scotland a glimmer of hope for a comeback with the Australia defence stretched to 14 men.

A try was on for the home team had it not been for another unforgivable mistake by Di Rollo that saw the centre fluff a pass with an overlap shouting for the ball.

Australia replied back as they know best with decisive breaks that were now becoming second hand for the visitors.

This time it was Waugh that took the ball up, tripped, got up again, ran a bit further, got tackled one meter out only for hooker Stephen Moore to stretch out and plonk the ball down next to the poles.

Mortlock continued his flawless kicking display as the clock began to wind down, as did the Scots.

At 37-15, the game was well dead and buried -- replacements came on for Australia by the minute as Connolly kindly gave his bench a final run on tour.

The frustration started to show amongst the home team as replacement prop Allan Jacobsen was given an early shower for a professional foul on his own line.

Latham rubbed further salt into Scotland's wounds by touching down on the stroke of full time.

Australia end their tour on a high while the Scots were left scratching their heads as to where it all went wrong.

Man of the match:  Simon Webster was superb on attack before he was forced off the field with an ankle injury.  Dan Parks did what he could with the small amount of ball he did get from his forwards.  For Australia, Chris Latham again put in a fine all round performance, minus his earlier blunder, of course!  Stirling Mortlock had a flawless day with the boot and was a menace in the midfield.  But after a long hard debate, we felt the award deserves to be handed to Stephen Larkham.  The Wallaby veteran put on his best performance on tour so far at fly-half by setting up countless tries whilst scoring one himself in the process.  His territorial play with the boot saved his team when they were put to the sword by a strong first half onslaught by the home team.

Moment of the match:  Scotland's early try in the opening 10 minutes would have raised a few eyebrows.  With Australia's countless breaks, it's hard to pinpoint one that stood out the most.  Perhaps the one by Stirling Mortlock that led to Mark Gerrard's second try?  In the end, the vote goes to the spirited losing team who held off a barage of attacks on their line, twelve phases in total, from the Wallaby forwards at the close of the first half.  The score was still reachable by all means at that point, and the Scots weren't going to let anyone through for all the haggis in the world.

Villain of the match:  Australia's Al Campbell didn't learn his lesson from Nathan Sharpe's hand slap and paid the price, while Scotland replacement prop Allan Jacobsen spent more time off the field than on it.  There were a few pushing and shoving moments from both teams as the frustration slowly got the better of the Scots, but no tears were shed in the process.

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Tries:  Webster, Lamont
Cons:  Paterson
Pens:  Paterson

For Australia:
Tries:  Larkham, Gerrard 2, Moore, Latham
Cons:  Mortlock 5
Pens:  Mortlock  3

Yellow cards:  Al Campbell (Australia), Allan Jacobsen (Scotland)

The teams:

Scotland:  15 Chris Paterson (captain), 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Andy Henderson, 11 Simon Webster, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Callam, 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 Scott Murray, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements:  16 Ross Ford, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 Alasdair Strokosch, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Phil Godman, 22 Hugo Southwell.

Australia:  15 Chris Latham, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Stirling Mortlock (captain), 12 Scott Staniforth, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 Matt Giteau, 8 David Lyons, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Al Campbell, 4 Nathan Sharpe, 3 Guy Shepherdson, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Wycliff Palu/Stephen Hoiles, 21 Josh Valentine, 22 Mat Rogers.

Referee:  Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa), Hugh Watkins (Wales),
Television match official:  Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

New Zealand magic slays Dragons

Sivivatu triple leads the way in Cardiff

New Zealand completed their Northern Hemisphere tour with another comprehensive victory, beating Wales 45-10 in front of a sold-out Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.

Not happy with accusing New Zealand of being "honest cheats" in the week Wales opted to antagonise their formidable opponents further with a tradition changing request over the Haka.  The result being that the Haka was performed in private in front of a solitary television camera, a travesty for the paying public and a grave error from the Welsh management and committee.

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said the team acted to protect the tradition of Haka that is integral to New Zealand culture and the All Blacks’ heritage.

"The tradition needs to be honoured properly if we're going to do it," said McCaw.

"If the other team wants to mess around, we'll just do the Haka in the shed.  At the end of the day, Haka is about spiritual preparation and we do it for ourselves.  Traditionally fans can share the experience too and it’s sad that they couldn't see it today," he said.

Jerry Collins and New Zealand spoke in the week of ending the season with a taste of victory, as for many of the squad this will be their last game for four months.  Not a bad way to finish up before an intense conditioning period in preparation for next years World Cup, which on recent form could well be a foregone conclusion.  If anybody can match New Zealand could they please let themselves be know now.

There are few superlatives left to describe this New Zealand side, who have swept aside all that has stood before them in the last month.  Today they were ultra effective when it came to the basics, none more so than Dan Carter, and at times when the occasion required they were outstanding and sublimely clinical.

It was not that Wales were inadequate or lacking in basic skills, rather that New Zealand were far more effective with the ball when they had it.  The half time statistics were, give or take a few percentage, even, suggesting Wales were well in the game, this however was never the case.  With ten minutes gone New Zealand were ten points to the good and even the most ardent Welshman would have admitted Wales were all but beaten.

Wales did have one major downfall -- they kicked far too loosely out of hand, a cardinal sin when you look at the New Zealand back three and how dangerous they were on the counter attack.  Wales are not alone here, as both France and England were guilty of the same offence, it is just a wonder Wales did not learn from their counterparts.

The game was one of contrasts for many periods of play, and it only changed for Wales when they introduced James Hook to proceedings.  The first half in particular highlighted the gulf in class, not just between New Zealand and Wales but the rest of the rugby world.

With ball in hand there were relentless waves of All Black attack crossing the gain line with unerring consistency, and when kicking Carter rarely strayed form the touchline and when he did the chase was good enough to spare his blushes.

The contrasting side of the story was how Wales on three occasions went past six phases for a total gain of zero meters.  The lack of direction with the boot ultimately cost the Welsh three tries and countless meters in field position.

What made this display even more impressive was the fact New Zealand did it with fourteen players for twenty minutes, both McCaw and Hore falling foul of "cheating honestly" and spending time in the sin bin.  In that time the All Blacks conceded seven points, which is the average for one yellow card let alone two, but more importantly added fourteen to their total.

The introduction of Hook in the second half gave Wales an added impetus they desperately needed.  He was the one player who managed to find a gap in the otherwise solid All Black defence.  Had he started Wales may have found themselves in a position to challenge for longer than three minutes.

We have become used to the attacking flair the All Blacks posses in abundance, but what has been so impressive this month and again today is their defence.  The aggression and power the Black wall tackles with is sometimes frightening, and none more so than when the blonde topped Jerry Collins puts in a bone crunching hit.  Today he was at his brilliant best epitomised with three tackles in a forty second period in the second half.

When Luke McAlister cantered over in the third minute one sensed it was not a case of if New Zealand win, but by how many.  The try was a result of Kevin Morgan's poor kick, and resulted in Sivivatu being spoilt for choice as to who to pass to, in the end he opted for McAlister on the inside who had a clear run under the posts.

Dan Carter then took centre stage with the boot, adding three long range penalties in fifteen minutes,  before Wales finally got on the scoreboard with a Stephen Jones penalty.  This seemed to spark New Zealand a little as all of a sudden there was more urgency and fluency to their game resulting in a try double for Sitiveni Sivivatu.

The first stemmed from a rather fortuitous bounce of the ball, but the rest of the move was total rugby at its best.  The interplay between forwards and backs was nothing short of sensational and was rounded off seven phases later with second row Keith Robinson filling in at scrum half to spin a wide pass out to Sivivatu who scored in the corner.

Wales can only blame themselves for conceding a try on the stroke of half time, committing the sin of gifting New Zealand turnover ball, the very possession they thrive off.  Carter started the counter but it was Conrad Smith holding three defenders that gave Sivivatu the space to cut back in to as he raced in under the posts.

Half time and Wales were already a beaten team.

The second half was much the same as the first only this time Wales found some room to play in, mainly through the ever impressive James Hook, but it was too little too late.  They will be able to take various positives from the game, reiterating the fact they did not play that badly they were simply outclassed.

Carter slotted his fourth penalty before Wales scored a scant consolation try.  With McCaw in the bin, for what can only be called a dubious decision, and three catch and drives before all resulting in penalties, Wales finally got over through Martyn Williams.  Hook added the extras and that was it as for as Wales were concerned.

As if offended by Wales scoring New Zealand took less than two minutes to reply and it all came from Nick Evan's first touch of the game and in honesty all looked far too easy for the All Blacks.  Quick ball from the line out allowed Evans to accelerate onto the ball, slicing between Shanklin and Popham, and then execute the easiest of passes to Sivivatu who completed his hat-trick.

With New Zealand heading for a comfortable victory Dave Pearson added the gloss to their victory awarding a penalty try.  Someone may like to point out to Mr Pearson that the All Blacks do not need any help in scoring tries, nevertheless by law it was a penalty try, but in the end was merely academic.

The All Blacks tour comes to a triumphant end after four convincing wins, all impressive in their different ways, and none more so than the another.  Carter seems to have ironed out the mysterious flaws he found in his game and Jerry Collins has announced himself as a defender of the highest order, and he also has the attack to back it up.  If they continue this form onto next September there is only one outcome, not that they need a world cup to prove their greatness, they do that just fine with their rugby now.

Man of the Match:  For Wales everyone tried but eventually it was all in vein.  Stephen Jones tried to find the inspiration to spark his team to greater things but was met with a Black wall time and again.  Dwayne Peel was always busy and James Hook added an extra dimension but all too late.  In the forwards Jonathan Thomas gave his all and more but lacked the support he needed, in particular from the front five.

For New Zealand it is becoming standard to say you could pick any one of the side, but that is the stark reality of how could this squad really is.  Carter seemed to dictate play without ever hitting his prime, not that he needed to with the likes of Luke McAlister and Conrad Smith outside him.  Sitiveni Sivivatu scored a hat-trick and it is not often you do that at international level without taking the man of the match prize.  But for us today there was one unstoppable force on the field and that was Jerry Collins.  In attack he was direct and hugely effective.  Gone are the days he would tuck the ball under his arm and plough on, now he is aware of his options as he eats up the yards.  Then there is his defence which is simply awesome.  He is aggressive, powerful, and focused and when he hits he doesn't just stop players he sends them back.  His three tackles in forty seconds summed up his attitude to defence, an aspect of his game he has become known for.

Moment of the Match:  New Zealand gave us plenty of these, and Wales to their credit contributed a few late on but we eventually decided on Nick Evan's first touch.  Wales had applied concentrated pressure and were rewarded with a deserved try, but less than 120 seconds later had that score wiped out.  Nick Evans on for Carter, took the ball, his first touch, sliced the Welsh defence open and sent Sitiveni Sivivatu in for his hat-trick.  For a player who had only played seven minutes in the last month he showed that he can be a more than capable deputy to Carter.

Villain of the Match:  There may have been two yellow cards, albeit for technical infringements, and a few rowdy arguments but without doubt this award goes to the WRU Officials who deprived the crowd of the Haka.  The Haka is a tradition the Kiwi's are proud of and crowds the world over yearn to see live.  So for the WRU to try and change this tradition was ludicrous and unjustified.  Take note WRU, nobody benefited from your actions but instead were deprived of one of rugby's greatest sights.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Tries:  M.Williams
Conversions:  Hook
Penalties:  S.Jones

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Sivivatu 3, McAlister, Penalty
Conversions:  Carter 2, Evans 2
Penalties:  Carter 4

Yellow Cards:  McCaw (New Zealand), Hore (New Zealand)

The teams:

Wales:  15 Kevin Morgan, 14 Mark Jones, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Sonny Parker, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones (c), 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Jonathan Thomas, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Rhys Thomas, 1 Duncan Jones.
Replacements:  16 Matthew Rees, 17 Gethin Jenkins, 18 Alun Wyn Jones, 19 Alix Popham, 20 Michael Phillips, 21 James Hook, 22 Gavin Henson.

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Luke McAlister, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Keith Robinson, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Anton Oliver, 1 Neemia Tialata.
Replacements:  16 Andrew Hore, 17 Tony Woodcock, 18 James Ryan, 19 Reuben Thorne, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Nick Evans, 22 Ma'a Nonu.

Referee:  Dave Pearson (England)
Touch judges:  Chris White (England), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official:  Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)
Assessor:  Steve Hilditch (Ireland)