Ireland turn the tide

Ireland got their 2009 Six Nations campaign off to a winning start on Saturday with a 30-21 victory over France in an enthralling, high-paced encounter at Croke Park.

Despite playing entertaining rugby and having the lion's share of possession, France were unable to repeat their last-minute victory of two years ago at the same venue as Ireland triumphed over Les Bleus for the first time in six years.

Declan Kidney's team cashed in on every opportunity that came their way to outscore their visitors three tries to two.

In stark contrast to England's dour display at Twickenham earlier in the day, no one could complain that the teams didn't entertain.  France came good on their promise of playing enterprising rugby and Ireland's backs finally came up with the spark that has been missing for so long.

As expected, Ireland's win was built on the hard graft of their ever-efficient pack, but a few flashes of class from the likes of Brian O'Driscoll, Rob Kearney and Gordon D'Arcy kept the scoreboard ticking over.

But it was the Irish loose trio that stood out.  A try for Jamie Heaslip was just reward for a tireless effort.  On numerous occasions, possession was ripped from French hands at vital times.

Ronan O'Gara opened the scoring for the home side after just two minutes with a penalty from 35 metres out after Lionel Faure was penalised for not rolling away.

France had not yet touched the ball and were three points down but dominated possession for the rest of the half.

The visitors scored the first try on the quarter-hour mark with a piece of flowing rugby.

Maxime Médard had the Irish defence scrambling with a chip down the left touch line and Sébastien Tillous-Borde had the presence of mind to send a long cross-field pass out to Sebastien Chabal.  The big lock rumbled forward before finding Julien Malzieu, who did well while skirting the touchline to offload to Imanol Harinordoquy and the French number eight charged over to put his side ahead.

Lionel Beauxis' conversion was almost immediately countered by a second penalty from O'Gara, when Dimitri Szarzewski was adjudged off-side.

Apart from the opening foray, it had been all France for twenty minutes, but the home side were just one point adrift.

Five minutes from the half-time a break from Kearney turned the game on its head.  The full-back beat a couple of tackles as the Irish back-line produced it's most fluid move in many moons.

Kearney's break led to the supporting Tommy Bowe carrying on the charge.  The recycled ball found Jamie Heaslip, and a big step from the number eight wrong footed the defence before he sprinted over for a vital score.

Being behind didn't put France off their enterprising game as Chabal made a barnstorming run to put his team back on the attack.  With the referee playing advantage for an Irish offside, Beauxis struck one of his trademark drop goals from 40 metres out to make the score 13-10 to the hosts as the teams trotted off at half time.

Ireland started the second period in perfect fashion to move further ahead as skipper O'Driscoll scored a fantastic try.  It was classic BOD -- straight running to beat his man -- Beauxis -- followed by a clean step to get around the last line of defence- Julien Malzieu.

France struck right back as Maxime Médard scored thanks to an inch-perfect cross-field kick-pass from Beauxis after Harinordoquy had grabbed a loose ball.

Beauxis followed up with his second drop goal.  Three points it might have added, but one could not help feel that it was a waste of quality possession at that moment.  What exactly the fascination with drops is in French rugby is beyond me, overkill is the word that springs to mind.

At 20-18 it was anyone's game but Ireland once again nicked the advantage.  A clever chip ahead from O'Driscoll put the blue line-out jumpers and their fly-half under pressure, setting up an attacking line-out for the home side.

D'Arcy rounded off a few phases from the heavies by twisting himself over the line for a well deserved try.

A penalty from Beauxis with four minutes to play made the scores 27-21, setting up a tense finale.  But O'Gara's sixth successful place-kick a minute later put the game out of the visitors' reach.

France will head home obviously disappointed with the result, but showed enough to maintain hopes of victory in this year's tournament.

For Ireland, their first victory in eight games against France has confirmed their status as genuine title contenders.  A fascinating month awaits us -- as does that game in Cardiff on March 21!

Man of the match:  Imanol Harinordoquy was the stand-out player for the visitors with an excellent display in both the line-outs and loose play.  Sebastien Chabal deserves a mention, as does Beauxis in his first game in Blue since the World Cup.  For Ireland Brian O'Driscoll silenced his critics with his best display in a long time and Rob Kearney was exciting on attack.  But Jamie Heaslip gets our vote.  His try was awesome but his night was summed up by winning a penalty for O'Gara to slot in the dying minutes by wrapping up Cedric Heymans, who was forced to hold on in the tackle.

Moment of the match:  Both O'Driscoll and Heaslip's tries were gems, but Gordon D'Arcy's try on 66 minutes put the Irish ahead at a vital time and forced the French to loose their composure a little.

Villain of the match:  No serious mischief to report.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Tries:  Heaslip, O'Driscoll, D'Arcy
Cons:  O'Gara 3
Pens:  O'Gara 3

For France:
Tries:  Harinordoquy, Medard
Con:  Beauxis
Drops:  Beauxis 2

Ireland:  15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements:  16 Rory Best, 17 Tom Court, 18 Mal O'Kelly, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Gordon D'Arcy, 22 Geordan Murphy.

France:  15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Julien Malzieu, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Maxime Medard, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Lionel Nallet (c), 4 Sebastien Chabal, 3 Benoit Lecouls, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Lionel Faure.
Replacements:  16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Nicolas Mas, 18 Romain Millo-Chluski, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 Benoit Baby, 22 Cedric Heymans.

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges:  Dave Pearson (England), David Changleng (Scotland)
TMO:  Giulio de Santis (Italy)

England stumble to lifeless win

England got their Six Nations off to the anticipated winning start on Saturday, with a 36-11 win over an Italian side hamstrung by both injuries and backfiring tactical ploys.

But make no mistake, this was not the dawn of a new England era.  It was not even bright enough for a false dawn.  It was, in fact, dull enough to make a chink of light seem rabbit-paralysingly bright.

England's shape and structure was as robust as damp flint:  often crumbly, threatening to be sharp but never dangerously so, and with very few bright sparks.  What gave the score its imbalance was the sheer awfulness of Italy, exacerbated by the misery endured by Mauro Bergamasco in the number nine jersey.

Bergamasco was not just thrown into the deep end, he was thrown into a hurricane-whipped Atlantic.  He never had a chance.  He was culpable for all three of England's first three tries, a number which could have been five if England had not been so rubbish.  I won't go on, for he's a terrific player, but playing him at nine is an experiment that should be consigned to camera 101.

The first gave Andy Goode roughly four minutes of redemption, four minutes in which English fans dared to think that he might yet be able to transpose his undisguiseable talent onto the international stage.  Goode took the ball three phases after Fabio Ongaro had overthrown his first line-out by a mile, grubbered through, sprinted on and scored, converting for good measure.  Had Bergamasco been running a usual scrum-half defensive line, Goode would never have been near a try, but fair play for seeing the gap.  Goode had an excellent first four minutes back;  he spent the next 76 minutes lumbering some way below that benchmark.

The second try came because -- not for the first time -- Bergamasco had obeyed his rucking instincts and joined into the breakdown contest.  the ball squirted out the side, and with no scrum-half there to mop it up, James Haskell nicked it and popped it up for Harry Ellis who stormed home.

The third was the coup de grace for Bergamasco's scrum-half career, a long looping floating pass to his fly-half which found the gap between ten and twelve and was hacked ahead and dotted down by Riki Flutey.  That -- plus two Goode conversions -- made the score 19-0 after half an hour and was the end of the game as a contest.

The other area of worry for Italy was the line-out, where Ongaro often seemed to be aiming for a jumper on the other side of the pitch, so far did he occasionally throw it.  It would have been a problem in a close game.

Back to England, for they have much more to worry about.  Considering Italy's disarray, the white pack ought to have clambered in and set the bulldozers rolling.  It should have been attacking practice.  Instead, Italy won the last ten minutes of the first half 6-3 as England conceded penalty after penalty and kicked away possession after possession.

Typifying the disinterested arrogance was Haskell's trip on Andrea Marcato and subsequent ludicrous pantomime display of petulant arm and head-shaking as he was admonished and yellow-carded for his sin.  It was like watching an eight-year-old being denied his daily can of tartrazine, a playground bully being chastised by his own mother.  Pathetic on every level, not the actions of a man who would seek to be a British and Irish Lion.

The second half was no less turgid than the first.  Bergamasco was put out of his misery by the introduction of Giulio Toniolatti, whose debut was perfectly respectable and made you wonder why on earth he was not given a go in the first place.

Italy's scrum kept up its good work, the defence tackled with its usual tenacity.  England continued to kick heir way down into Italy's half and then attempt to break the Italian line with unwieldy mallets rather than surgical scalpels.

Goode aded to a catalogue of first-half misses -- two penalties and a conversion -- with a skied drop goal on 50 minutes, which was all England could muster until Italy gave away a try by attacking.  A terrific counter-attack led by Masi and continued by a sweeping move left where Mirco Bergamasco should have been given the ball to finish off, instead ended up being turned over in the middle by England's defence.  Ellis took it off the fringe and scampered home from 50m.

A catalyst for improvement?  An inspiration to bigger and better things?  The key that unlocked England's desire to play, crunch and run their ragged opponents silly?

Good grief.  Goode and Ellis continued to kick away ball after ball despite England's complete physical domination.  Shane Geraghty, on for barely five minutes, was sin-binned for a mid-air tackle that even superseded Haskell's trip for stupidity.  Not one of the matchday 22 stood up and took control.  Pub teams playing with ashtrays on the way home after closing time have communicated and handled better.

In the end, Italy finished stronger, snapping round the fringes well, the pack forging hard yards forward.  Parisse's cheeky pass nearly yielded a try for Alessandro Zanni, but for Zanni's ball-in-hand blinkers, it could have been a try for someone else.

With ten minutes to go, Luke McLean -- who was a much improved figure from the bedraggled young debutant in Cape Town last year -- made a terrific break to the left corner but just didn't have the gas to take Delon Armitage.  Out the ball went right to Gonzalo Canale, then Kane Robertson, and finally to Mirco Bergamasco who got a try that he most likely dedicated to his misused brother.

Mark Cueto finished off a late score that added some undeserved brasso to the scoreline.

Man of the match:  Tempting not to give one at all for such a poor game, but if forced, we'd probably say that Sergio Parisse was the one looking to get the most going.  A couple of cheeky bahind-the-back passes, one chip and regather, a couple of storming runs and steps all tallied up to a few bright moments on a gloomy afternoon.

Moment of the match:  Mirco Bergamasco's try finished off the best move of the match.

Villain of the match 1:  Take a slapped wrist/stand in the corner/go to your room/no pocket money for a week James Haskell.  For goodness' sake, grow up and act your age, and don't let us ever catch you tripping someone like that again.  And for crying out loud, stop sulking like that!

Villain of the match 2:  The idiot, the dribbling, cloth-brained, soccer-watching idiot, who feels it necessary, every time England score, to pump out music that would be dismissed in one of Tenerife's least reputable nightclubs as a monotonous caterwaul.  If we want to cheer, we will, and we will do it properly.  Don't you trust us to do so?  Are you worried people might not think England are good or something?

The scorers:

For England:
Tries:  Goode, Ellis 2, Flutey, Cueto
Cons:  Goode 2
Pen:  Goode

For Italy:
Try:  Mirco Bergamasco
Pens:  McLean 2

Yellow cards:  Haskell (37, tripping), Geraghty (64, dangerous tackle)

England:  15 Delon Armitage, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 James Haskell, 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Steve Borthwick (captain), 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements:  16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Julian White, 18 Tom Croft, 19 Joe Worsley, 20 Ben Foden, 21 Shane Geraghty, 22 Mathew Tait.

Italy:  15 Andrea Masi, 14 Kane Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Andrea Marcato, 9 Mauro Beragamasco, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Santiago Dellapé, 3 Martin Castrogiovani, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements:  16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Carlos Nieto, 18 Tommaso Reato, 19 Jean-Francois Montauriol, 20 Giulio Toniolatti, 21 Luke McLean, 22 Matteo Pratichetti.

Referee:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Joel Jutge (France), Peter Allan (Scotland)
TMO:  Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)

Wales finish November on a high

Wales finally got what they had been after, a Southern Hemisphere scalp, when they beat Australia 21-18 in a vintage game of rugby at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

The home side, desperate to be recognised as one of the world's top sides, came into the game on the back of morale-sapping defeats at the hands of South Africa and then New Zealand.  Australia knew a win would see them finish their European tour unbeaten -- as it was that eluded them, but what a game of rugby!

After a series of one-sided and kicking-orientated Test matches in November, both sides served up a fine Test match packed full of excitement and tension.  More than that it proved Wales have the ability, if not always the application, to mix it with the top dogs of world rugby.

The early omens favoured Wales, first Stirling Mortlock departed with barely two minutes on the board, and then two minutes later Wales scored with such ease from a well-constructed move.  Shane Williams started and finished the move by freeing Lee Byrne and Jamie Roberts before popping up on the wing to score his 44th Test try.

But any hopes of a bright start yielding anything more than Williams' try were dashed when Mark Chisholm raced over sixty metres for a try against the run of play, silencing the crowd in the process.  Moments later and Jamie Roberts, who had collided with Mortlock in the opening minutes, also left the field of play, and suddenly the pendulum had swung the way of Australia.

Matt Giteau added a clever drop goal, after Wales held firm under a barrage of attacks, and it seemed as if Australia were slowly taking control.  Despite defeats against South Africa and New Zealand, Wales retained a positive mindset and refused to let the Wallabies settle into a rhythm, attacking at every chance.

Wales' ability to offload in the tackle had Australia at sixes and sevens and following a barnstorming run from Andy Powell they were off and running again.  There was no try, but a yellow card to Stephen Moore and three points from the boot of Stephen Jones allowed the home side to retain their grip on the game, despite a few areas of concern.

An over-throw at the line-out allowed Chisholm to get Australia going, and continued problems for hooker Matthew Rees hampered Wales as they looked to maintain their tempo and intensity with ball in hand.

Despite problems at the line-out, and a lack of impact in the midfield without Roberts on the field, Wales found their attacking intent again and reaped the rewards with a fine try.  Powell started the move, jinking past several hapless Wallaby defenders, before charging forward to give Wales the impetus they so badly needed.

On the back of Powell's run Wales stretched Australia across the width of the pitch, before Byrne picked a sublime angle off Shane Williams' shoulder to slice through under the posts.  The belief was restored as Wales went into half-time with a five-point cushion, and they had only played in patches.

A fluffed Jones penalty in the opening minute of the second half denied Wales the chance to extend their lead, followed by a successful effort from Giteau to narrow the gap to two points.  Jones then proceeded to miss another relatively simple chance as Wales continued to pressure their opponents.

With the game hanging in the balance, both sides continued to chance their arm, adding to what was already a tremendous Test.  Powell, as superbly as he was playing with ball in hand, was beginning to haemorrhage penalties which slowly began to cost Wales valuable field position.  Warren Gatland, not wanting to take any risks, hauled Powell off to rousing applause as Wales looked to capitalise on a golden opportunity.

Finally, after two failed attempts in previous weeks, Wales showed the composure and discipline to close out a game, and in some style.  Jones kicked his second penalty, following another spell of solid defence from Wales, to give Gatland's troops a two-score margin -- a priceless commodity in Test rugby when the clock is ticking.

However, never ones to go quietly into the night, Australia rallied for one last attack and, finding Wales wanting in defence eventually, scored to set up a grandstand finish.  Giteau missed his drop-kick conversion and despite the hooter sounding Alan Lewis insisted the restart was taken.

Cue three minutes of frantic rugby as Australia looked for an unlikely win, and Wales defended as if their lives depended on it.  Knowing the way Gatland reacted to defeat against South Africa you wouldn't blame them for thinking exactly that.

The tackles continued to fly in and eventually Wales forced the all-important error that sealed a memorable victory.  With the Six Nations looming on the horizon Gatland will be full of confidence that his side can defend their crown, and will want them to raise the standards once again -- at least if he wants to see them beating the world's best on a regular basis.

Man of the Match:  So many candidates from both sides after a superb game.  Matt Giteau was full of life, if not a little lost without Stirling Mortlock by his side, whilst Nathan Sharpe and Mark Chisholm got through a huge amount of work in defence and attack.  Wales too had their heroes, Stephen Jones was as strong as ever at fly-half, Gareth Cooper finally delivered a performance worthy of Test rugby and Andy Powell was back to his all-action best.  But Lee Byrne, full of running, tireless in defence and lethal with ball in hand wins this award.  A worthy mention to the rest of those who took part, for all played their part.

Moment of the Match:  With twenty minutes still to play Australia were pressing hard for a decisive score, with Wales hanging on for dear life.  As the phases mounted so did the pressure on Wales, until somehow Martyn Williams won a vital turnover that was greeted with a roar as if Wales had just won the game.

Villain of the Match:  Plenty of tension but nothing that detracted from this classic game of rugby.

The Scorers:

For Wales:
Tries:  S.Williams, Byrne
Con:  S.Jones
Pens:  S.Jones 2
Drop goal:  S.Jones

For Australia:
Tries:  Chisholm, Ioane
Con:  Giteau
Pen:  Giteau
Drop goal:  Giteau

Yellow card:  Moore (Australia -- 28th minute;  deliberate killing of the ball)

The teams:

Wales:  15 Lee Byrne, 14 Mark Jones, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Andy Powell, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones (c), 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements:  16 Richard Hibbard, 17 John Yapp, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Dafydd Jones, 20 Martin Roberts, 21 James Hook, 22 Andrew Bishop.

Australia:  15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 Stirling Mortlock (c), 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Richard Brown, 7 Phil Waugh, 6 Hugh McMeniman, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Mark Chisholm, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Adam Freier, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 George Smith, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Quade Cooper, 22 Lote Tuqiri/Adam Ashley-Cooper.

Referee:  Alan Lewis (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Dave Pearson (England), Romain Poite (France)
Television match official:  Peter Allan (Scotland)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

England sink in a mire of indiscipline

They came, they saw, they conquered.  Even when New Zealand were bad, England made them look good, as the All Blacks cantered to a 32-6 win at Twickenham on Saturday, handing them their second Grand Slam within four years.

The All Blacks were not at their polished best, nothing like the level they were at in Dublin and Cardiff.  Yet once again, their mastery of the basics carried them through.  Their killer try came as a result of a wonderful scrum which humped England's pack of its own put-in, a textbook straightening of the line in the centres, followed by a raw pace finish.  The other points came mostly as a result of the continued indiscretions committed by England that New Zealand just would not commit.  Then came the finishing-off tries that have been trademark for the tourists in general this November.  Who says fitness is not an issue up north?

It could have been much worse for England;  the danger in saying that it was only 12-6 with 20 minutes to go looms large.  Dan Carter landed only five from ten kicks in total, three of them penalties he would normally bang over blindfold.  A far more realistic assessment of England's display comes from the penalty count:  after 20 minutes it was 5-5, after 65, England had conceded fifteen penalties to the All Blacks' seven -- lest we forget, England also had four men sent to the sin-bin.  England clung on to an improbable dream, but reality nabbed them in the end.

Other pertinent stats arising from this game:  England scored only 26 points in three matches against the Tri-Nations and only one try.  New Zealand did not concede a single try against any one of the home nations, and did not concede a single second-half point all tour.  The gap has never been wider.

James Haskell said determinedly in the immediate aftermath that any England fan should know that English rugby is building something and will bounce back from this.  How?

You build upon foundations, and England do have a couple of bits and bobs of raw material hanging about.  Nick Kennedy did enough to earn himself an extended run at lock in the coming Six Nations, nicking a couple of opposition line-out balls and making a nuisance of himself in the loose.  Toby Flood might not have covered himself in glory at fly-half, but his strong running ought to put him in the frame for a second five-eighth role outside Danny Cipriani.  Danny Care is the future but revealed his greenness at two crucial moments, Delon Armitage continued to shine, and Haskell and Tom Croft did noticeable things.  It's not all bad.

It's all good for New Zealand.  Bar Brad Thorn, not a one of the 2008 Grand Slammers will be beyond active service come 2011.  One or two might be a bit long in the tooth by then but they said that about England's squad in 2003.  The biggest problem this All Black team faces is striving not to go stale in the next three years.  Given the way they toy with teams for fun at times before finishing them off, that's not likely soon.  Plans A, B, C, and D have all been on display this series;  each time the All Blacks are challenged they seem to find a new rise within themselves.  Even now, World Cup 2011 has the look of being New Zealand's for the losing.

The English both on and off the field did not lack enthusiasm for this.  The haka was neither faced up to nor scorned on the pitch, it was drowned out by a fervent bout of swinging low and sweet charioting from the stands.

On the pitch, the English made a terrible nuisance of themselves around the contact area, and the defence was admirably organised.  New Zealand could not garner any sort of continuity during the first quarter and the result was a scrappy affair, punctuated by authoritative blasts from Alain Rolland's whistle.

Toby Flood missed an early penalty, Riki Flutey marred England's one clean break by holding on in the tackle, Danny Care betrayed his youthful over-exuberance by diving through a ruck and handing Carter a pop at goal for a 3-0 lead, Flood replied when New Zealand were caught collapsing a scrum.  New Zealand were slow out of the blocks and rattled by England's aggression, never more apparent than when Thorn gave Steve Borthwick a slap to the chops while Rolland was admonishing the pair.

Unfortunately, England -- and more specifically Borthwick -- followed Thorn's example.  Lee Mears was sent to the bin for killing the ball, Care once again strayed offside and enabled Carter to make it 6-3.  Borthwick should have set the example, instead he opted to try and push Richie McCaw away from Rolland when the Irishman wanted to speak to both of them, inflaming the volatile situation further.  A tiny detail, which everybody noticed.

Haskell followed Mears to the bin for a stupid forearm charge on So'oialo, Carter landed further penalties for standing up in the scrum and handling in the ruck and the curtain came down on the half, in the second part of which England conceded six penalties and nine points.

The second half started with England's finest moment:  a bullocking break by Nick Easter towards the line.  Here we saw the worst of old England:  Easter should have been looking for support but instead his head stayed firmly down.  Here we saw the worst of new England too, when Care took the ball off the quick ruck after Easter had been brought down, but dithered over the pass while crabbing out to the right and gave New Zealand's defence the crucial moments to regroup.  The All Blacks turned the ball over, Cowan broke, and was halted in mid-stride by a plain stupid high tackle from Toby Flood, who became the third yellow card recipient.

New Zealand re-asserted authority, then, once again, tore away in the final quarter.  The scrum shoved England off their own ball, Jimmy Cowan pinched it, Conrad Smith straightened and found Nonu on the loop, Nonu fed Muliaina on the sprint for the corner.  Simple.  17-6.

Five minutes later, after Carter had landed another, Muliaina was again the tryscorer, taking a deft chip from Carter on the fly and once again out-stripping the defence.  Then Keven Mealamu broke off the back of a ruck, linked with Rokocoko, and Nonu was away, flying in from 50m.  Carter made it 32-6 with the extras.  Five from ten for him on the day, but six out of six for his team.

Man of the match:  Honourable mentions in white shirts to Nick Kennedy and Delon Armitage.  Keven Mealamu excelled, as did Ma'a Nonu and Ali Williams once more.  A cut above them was Conrad Smith, who broke England's backs all day and tackled like a demon in defence.

Moment of the match:  Muliaina's first try.  Having struggled for so long, Smith's straight line, the loop and the finish was as perfect an execution as you will see, and dropped English heads.

Villain of the match:  A few bits and pieces here as tempers frequently simmered over, but James Haskell's elbow charge on Rodney So'oialo was a little too wanton to put down to mere over-aggression.

The scorers:

For England:
Pens:  Flood, Armitage

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Muliaina 2, Nonu
Con:  Carter
Pens:  Carter 5

Yellow cards:  Mears (24, killing the ball), Haskell (32, elbowing), Flood (44 high tackle), Rees (76, killing the ball) -- all England

England:  15 Delon Armitage, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 James Haskell, 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements:  16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Tom Croft, 19 Tom Rees, 20 Harry Ellis, 21 Danny Cipriani, 22 Dan Hipkiss.

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Hikawera Elliot, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Isaia Toeava.

Referee:  Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Nigel Owens (Wales), George Clancy (Ireland)
Television match official:  Tim Hayes (Wales)
Assessor:  Steve Hilditch (Ireland)

Japan double up against the Eagles

Having won the first Test last week Japan made it two from two against the USA Eagles on Saturday, beating them 32-17 at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Ground.

The two sides have played each other eighteen times before, and this was the first ever time the Cherry Blossoms have recorded successive victories over the Eagles.

However, the game didn't start well for Japan, as Chris Wyles opened the scoring with a try after just two minutes.  But the hosts were not to be outdone and soon hit back through Kensuke Hatakeyama's drive on the back of a powerful maul.

That was the tonic Japan needed and from there their backs took control with Koji Tomioka and Shaun Webb going over for tries.

If Japan thought they could relax they were sorely mistaken, and when Yusuke Aoki and Bryce Robins were sent to the sin-bin within two minutes of each other they let the Eagles back into it.

Zimbabwean born Takudzwa Ngwenya made the advantage tell as he sprinted in for a simple try to make it 19-10 at the break.

Ryan Nicholas continued the Japan scoring after the break, slotting a simple three points, before another historic moment -- the first try in Japan to be awarded by the television match official as Van Der Giessen won the race to touch down a charged down kick.

A final try came from captain Takashi Kikutani sealed the victory, leaving coach John Kirwan delighted.

"Kiku has really stood up and taken on the leadership role.  This has been a really positive month for us," he said.

"I am very, very proud of the players.  We talked about history and beating them in consecutive games.  That was a really tough physical and mental performance."

Eagles' coach Scott Johnson said:  "It was an entertaining game.  There were some good tries.  If I was a spectator I would have enjoyed it.  But I am a coach;  so I didn't."

Scorers:

For Japan:
Tries:  Hatakeyama, Tomioka, Webb, Kikutani
Cons:  Nicholas 3
Pens:  Nicholas 2

For USA:
Tries:  Wyles, Ngwenya, Van Der Giessen
Con:  Hercus

The Teams:

Japan:  15 Kaoru Matsushita, 14 Kosuke Endo, 13 Bryce Robins, 12 Ryan Nicholas, 11 Koji Tomioka, 10 Shaun Webb, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani, 7 Takashi Kikutani (captain), 6 Michael Leitch, 5 Toshizumi Kitagawa, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Yusuke Aoki, 1 Hisateru Hirashima.
Replacements:  16 Naonori Mizuyama, 17 Naoki Kawamata, 18 Luke Thompson, 19 Masato Toyoda, 20 Tomoki Yoshida, 21 Masakazu Irie, 22 Piei Mafileo.

USA:  15 Chris Wyles, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Paul Emerick, 12 Junior Sifa, 11 Gavin DeBartolo, 10 Mike Hercus, 9 Mike Petri, 8 Pat Quinn, 7 Todd Clever (captain), 6 Inaki Basauri, 5 Hayden Smith, 4 John VanderGiessen, 3 Brian Lemay, 2 Mark Crick, 1 Mike MacDonald.
Replacements:  16 Joe Welch, 17 Matekitonga Moeakiola, 18 Courtney Mackay, 19 JJ Gagiano, 20 Chad Erskine, 21 Thretton Palamo, 22 Valenese Malifa.

Referee:  Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)

Ruthless Boks end tour unbeaten

It was a case of mission accomplished for South Africa as the world champions ended their end-of-year tour undefeated after posting an emphatic 42-6 victory over hosts England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Never before have the touring Springboks recorded a winning margin as big as this in London, as the visitors ran in five tries to nil, keeping the home side scoreless in the second half.

Likewise, never before have the English conceded a losing margin as big as this in their own back yard.  Fly-half Danny Cipriani's two penalties were their only reward for a humiliating day at the office.

It was billed as England's chance for revenge on the South African side that beat them in the World Cup final, but just as in Paris last year the outcome was the same.

For England manager Martin Johnson, who now has two defeats from his three matches in charge, the most disappointing aspect may not only be the comprehensive defeat but also how easily the South Africans achieved it.

The Springboks, who had already beaten Wales and Scotland, made pre-match suggestions that they were too tired look laughable with a performance of classy opportunism in attack and dogged determination in defence.

South Africa had previously stuttered to victories over Wales and Scotland before this match, and coach Peter de Villiers claimed during the week his side were mentally fatigued and struggling for motivation.

It proved to be the smokescreen many expected, as South Africa produced a ruthless attacking performance.

Tries by Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adrian Jacobs, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana followed up by assured goal-kicking by Pienaar after the break, completed a hugely satisfying European tour with South Africa's sixth win in a row against England.

On a day that marked the fifth anniversary of England's 2003 World Cup triumph, the home side were given a stark reminder of how far they have fallen since their glorious night in Sydney and the heady days of seven successive wins over the Springboks.

Disorganised was one word for England's contribution to vast swathes of this repeat of last year's World Cup final.  Shambolic perhaps summed it up better.  England were out-passed, out-kicked, out-thought and out-manoeuvred.

South Africa broke the England gain line swiftly and easily.  Even when prop Tendai Mtawarira and then full-back Conrad Jantjes were sin-binned for cynical infringements, England could not find a way through the green and gold jerseys.

England did manage to disrupt South Africa at the set pieces with the absence of Andrew Sheridan detracting very little from the home effort at scrum time.  They stole a few off the Springbok throw at the line-out, and managed several turnovers on the deck.  But the difference between England and South Africa was the hosts could produce little when presented with a scoring chance.

England opened brightly enough, Cipriani drilling over an early penalty when South Africa impeded off the game's first movement.  Pienaar equalised after six minutes, but the Springboks battled to get their hands on the ball.

An unforced error by England skipper Steve Borthwick forced a five-metre scrum for the visitors which then resulted in the game's first try.  Rossouw bashed his way past several would-be tacklers from close range to give his team the lead, an advantage Pienaar extended with his accurate boot.

Just minutes earlier, it was South Africa defending their chalkdust from an England put-in from five metres out, but John Smit and his men dug their boots in deep to ward off any English threat.

Pienaar was on hand -- literally -- to post more points on the board for the tourists, snatching South Africa's second try after 18 minutes when he collected and scored a charged-down Cipiani clearance.

It was the third time in six Tests Cipriani has conceded a try from a charge-down.  The same happened against Italy in the Six Nations and the Pacific Islanders a fortnight ago.  Needless to say, it was another poor showing by the celebrity pivot, who kicked poorly and failed to generate any penetration on the part of the hosts.

The Springboks protected their 17-3 lead gallantly when Danny Care's quick-tap penalty unleashed Delon Armitage down the right-hand touchline, only for lock Bakkies Botha to steam across and make the try-saving tackle.

Pienaar's second penalty followed shortly afterwards and although Cipriani replied ten minutes before the interval, England could not make any more progress despite South Africa losing their "Beast" to the sin-bin for impeding at the ruck after 29 minutes.

The magic moment that broke the back of England arrived in the 51st minute with Adrian Jacobs jetting in for a spectacular try.  A solid line-out laid the platform for Pienaar to run, and a great back-line move saw the space opening up for winger JP Pietersen in midfield.

Jacobs ran a great supporting line and stepped the last man for a climatic finish.  It was the kind of move South African supporters have been waiting for all year, as it was born from structure and finished by flair.

Pienaar's conversion left England 27-6 down with nearly half-an-hour remaining and a further penalty thirteen minutes later put the visitors out of sight.

South Africa then lost full-back Jantjes to another yellow card for blocking Armitage as he chased his own chip ahead, but the English still couldn't find a way through against some determined defending with Botha once again outstanding.

The Springboks added two late tries through a length of the field finish by replacement centre Jaque Fourie, followed by a patient build-up that ended with the out-of-sorts Habana hammering the final nail in England's coffin.

Man of the match: Not many contenders from the English camp, so we'll move swiftly along to the conquerers of Twickenham.  Once again, flanker Schalk Burger was superb in the loose, lock Victor Matfield assured his presence was felt all over the park, while Pienaar orchestrated matters quite delightfully at fly-half.  Adrian Jacobs capped a fine year with another flawless -- if not spectacular -- display, particularly on defence.  But after much consideration, our vote goes to Bakkie Botha, the giant in a Test that suited his in-your-face style of play.  Botha's tackling and ruck cleaning ensured some England players won't get out of bed easily on Sunday morning.  And let's not forget his two try-saving tackles that, had he missed, may have given the England scoreline a bit more respect.

Moment of the match: All of South Africa's tries had their own appeal, but for us, a counter-attack-ending try from a side's own line, albeit through a hack ahead, takes the cake.  Jaque Fourie's 90-metre sprint emphasised the Springboks' determination to end this tour on the highest note possible.

Villain of the match: Two yellow cards, both in the direction of South Africa's ill-discipline at the breakdown and in defence.  Whilst Mtawarira was on the receiving end of mutiple warnings to the Bok forwards, Conrad Jantjes' shoulder charge (if you could call it that) on Delon Armitage could have -- and should have -- been avoided.

The scorers:

For England:
Pens: Cipriani 2

For South Africa:
Tries: Rossouw, Pienaar, Jacobs, Fourie, Habana
Cons: Pienaar 3, Steyn
Pens: Pienaar 3

Yellow cards: Mtawarira (South Africa, diving in the ruck), Jantjes (South Africa, blocking)

England: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Tom Rees, 6 James Haskell, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 Tom Croft, 20 Jordan Crane, 21 Harry Ellis, 22 Toby Flood.

South Africa: 15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Danie Rossouw, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Beast Mtawarira,
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Brian Mujati/CJ van der Linde, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Ryan Kankowski, 20 Heinrich Brussow, 21 Francois Steyn, 22 Jaque Fourie.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges: Alan Rolland (Ireland), Romain Poite (France)
Television match official: Peter Allan (Scotland)
Assessor: Tappe Henning (South Africa)

Ireland control heat to stay in pot two

Ireland shrugged off both factors of a tournament three years away and also the grunt of Argentina to seal their spot in rugby's second tier as they prevailed 17-3 at Croke Park on Saturday.

It was a low-scoring affair that had very little excitement and panache, but what it lacked in tries this clash made up for in nail-biting subplots and heat between these tempestuous rivals.

Wanted or not, the International Rugby Board's new qualification points system for Rugby World Cup 2011 was simmering under the surface.  Add to that pot a dash of Pool history and regularity of fixtures between these two and the Test promised and delivered plenty of spice.

However, in a low-scoring affair it was the boot of Ronan O'Gara and a late try from wing Tommy Bowe which claimed victory for Declan Kidney's side in Dublin.

The Pumas, who were without the experience of injured goal-kicking centre Felipe Contepomi, suffered further woe just minutes before kick-off as talisman Juan Martín Hernández pulled out with a groin problem -- excuse the cliché but was the luck with Ireland?

Replaced by the similarly named Santiago Fernandez, the 22-year-old fly-half seemed desperate to grab his opportunity with both hands as he scooped a nervous looking drop-goal high, but not handsome, short of the posts before a scuffle developed on eight minutes.

That attempt was as good as it got for the spectators as Argentina continued with their fractured autumn kicking show, which ultimately hurt their general attacking effort.  That is not to say Ireland weren't following a similar style with the boot as the early stadium atmosphere that had set alight the All Blacks' visit seven days ago seemed so far away.

Of course, the game was always going to be played out in a knockout manner as both had RWC fate in their own hands.  So it was no surprise that any form of score was going to be hard to come by with O'Gara's missed penalty goal on 24 minutes the only highlight as Ireland enjoyed the lion's share of possession.

Talking of Lions and the return to the green jersey of full-back Geordan Murphy was one major plus for Ireland in the opening stages as he was faultless under the high ball and with clearing efforts.

However, as the game moved over half-an-hour there still remained very little intent from either side until Fernandez, who plays his rugby for the Hindu club, managed to send over a penalty to finally trouble the scorers.

That mini joy was short-lived for the Pumas though, as O'Gara also found his range just a minute before the interval with Ireland going in with slightly the upper hand -- a welcome ten-minute break as one sensed both countries were somewhat paralysed by the IRB pressure.

Upon their return and Santiago Phelan's men stumbled across an immediate opportunity to edge themselves ahead again from the tee, but Fernandez was off-target.  And as in the first half, Munster general O'Gara responded with three points of his own to push the Irish 6-3 in front, keeping them in the vital top eight.

Elsewhere, second tier rivals to Ireland, Scotland, were enjoying a stroll against Canada that added further cement to the hosts being in control of their own destiny.

But still there remained a lack of risk or intent from either side.

That was until a period of sustained Irish pressure and territory seemed to have lifted the cloud of off-the-field subplots.  A further O'Gara drop-goal put some daylight between the two sides and although only a six-point cushion, it was to prove hefty in such a game.  And when the fly-half added a further three points before finding Bowe on the wing for the game's only try, the game was sealed.

In typical fashion, however, there were fireworks right up until the final whistle as the Pumas seemingly took turns in gauding a fired up O'Gara.  Prop Roncero was the man to pay the price though, as he led with an fist when taking contact before back-chat saw him sent from the field.

Man of the match:  No-one stood out in Dublin in what was a cagey affair but against a feared pack the strength and experience of John Hayes did not go unnoticed.

Moment of the match:  Nothing to note in the 80 minutes at all at Croke Park.  Therefore, the pre-game loss of Puma fly-half Juan Martín Hernández as his swagger and direction may have altered where the result eventually ended up.

Villain of the match:  The air under which this game was played maybe?  One could see and sense the nervousness on the faces of both sides during the contest and the ramifications of what could materialise ahead of a tournament that takes place three years into the future.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Tries:  Bowe
Pen:  O'Gara 3
Drop:  O'Gara

For Argentina:
Pen:  Fernandez

Yellow card:  Roncero (Argentina) -- verbal to assistant referee on 80 minutes

Ireland:  15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Luke Fitzgerald, 11 Robert Kearney, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements:  16 Rory Best, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Malcolm O'Kelly, 19 A.N. Other, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Paddy Wallace, 22 Keith Earls.

Argentina:  15 Horacio Agulla, 14 Francisco Leonelli, 13 Federico Martin Aramburu, 12 Miguel Avramovic, 11 Rafael Carballo, 10 Juan Martin Hernandez, 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe (c), 6 Martin Durand, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 3 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements:  16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Esteban Lozada, 19 Alvaro Galindo, 20 Agustin Figuerola, 21 Santiago Fernandez, 22 Bernardo Stortoni.

Referee:  Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa), Rob Debney (England)
Television match official:  Graham Hughes (England)
Assessor:  Steve Hilditch (Ireland)

Wallabies burgle Stade de France

Australia scraped home with a narrow and somewhat fortunate 18-13 victory over France on Saturday to remain unbeaten on their November tour of Europe.

France provided most of the playing but an absolutely disastrous display from the kicking tee by fly-half David Skrela, who missed five kickable goals, handed the visitors victory.

The Wallabies did produce the occasional flash a decent rugby, but generally fed off the hosts' mistakes.

Do France have a confidence problem?  Where is the flowing French flair that Marc Lièvremont has been promising?  Les Bleus seemed almost panicked from the first minute, and more often than not chose to kick ahead rather than back their themselves to attack the Australian line with ball in hand for most of the opening three quarters.

On a number of occasions an overlap went a-begging as the first receiver punted.  It seemed the only time les Bleus wanted to run it was when they were in deep trouble in their own 22, or when than had no other choice in the dying stages because it had become clear that Skrela wasn't going to do the business from the kicking tee.

As Yannick Jauzion hinted during the week France came out with the distinct intention over tackling their visitors back to Australia.  Sebastien "Caveman" Chabal was at his very bruising best, putting in loads of big hits and looking positively scary when charging forward in possession.

But for all their aggro on defence, Lièvremont's troops were masters of shooting themselves in the foot on attack.  Forgive me for harping on about what the French did, or did not, do but the truth of the matter is the hosts did more to hand the game to Australia than the tourists did to win it for themselves.

Time after time the blue-clad forwards would provide their backs with quality ball, and while a lot can be said for the merits of putting a defending back three under pressure, the way the home side squandered possession was criminal.

As for Australia, well they can take one line out of South Africa's phrase book and say "a win is a win".

After the rugby world sang their pack's praises for getting the better of England, the French scrum pulverised their opposition on a couple of occasions, as will be eluded to later.

The main talking point of this November Test series has been the interpretation of the laws at the breakdown and once again we saw the inconsistencies in world-wide refereeing as Craig Joubert was lenient to the point of indulgence compared to some of his colleagues this month and George Smith did not hesitate to take full advantage of the situation.

France's lack of belief in their own ability to beat a defensive curtain was clear as day inside the first ten minutes when Skrela attempted a drop goal rather than send the ball out wide, despite the fact that the French had laid siege to the Wallaby line and were generally going forward.

Skrela had already missed one penalty attempt and his failure was a sign of things to come.

Matt Giteau opened the scoring close to the half-an-hour mark with a three-pointer and hooker Stephen Moore would soon increase the lead.  From close range, Moore stayed low and bashed through two defenders to stretch and arm out over the whitewash.  Giteau added the extras to make gap ten points.

Skrela would miss two more penalties before his side got onto the scoreboard.

A shocking pass from Wallaby scrum-half Luke Burgess sailed over the dead-ball line to give the home side a five metre scrum.  A massive push from the French forwards earned their team a penalty try on the stroke on half-time as the blue pack went straight through the Wallaby heavies.  George Smith dived in, completely unbound and referee Joubert had no choice but to award five points to the home side.

Skrela couldn't have missed the conversion if he tried and France were still very much in the game as Australia led 10-7 when the teams headed for the sheds.

Lièvremont's side had mentioned before the game that the felt Giteau was the danger man and they heaped the pressure on the fly-half.  Three times he was charged down.

The opening stages of the second half belonged to France as Skrela hit the target for once and full-back Maxime Medard slotted an audacious drop from nearly 50 metres out to put side ahead.

The French defence let itself down soon afterwards though as they failed to number up and Peter Hynes raced down the touchline on the blindside to score Australia's second try.

Just two points behind, Skrela had the fans at the Stade de France whistling their disapproval as he missed two more kicks and then earned himself a yellow card for a clumsy high tackle.  He will go down as the villain of the night, which is a shame since he didn't have a bad game at all in general play.

Giteau had had no problems to kick his team into a five-point lead from in front of the posts a few minutes earlier in what turned out to be the last score of the game.

Man of the match:  It's not convention to name a player on the losing side, but Sébastien Chabal gets our nod.  He left a lot of Aussies with very sore bodies and broke through the gain line with brute force every time he had his hands on the ball.

Moment of the match:  Australia didn't have a lot of meaningful possession, but they made it count when they did.  Peter Hynes' try was pretty soft one, but it epitomised the fact that it just wasn't going to be France's night.

Villain of the match:  Whoever decided to schedule the kick-off time for 21h00 in the middle of November.  Brrrr....

The Scorers:

For France:
Try:  Penalty try
Con:  Skrela
Pen:  Skrela
Drop:  Medard

For Australia:
Tries:  Moore, Hynes
Con:  Giteau
Pens:  Giteau 2

Yellow card:  David Skrela (France - 75th minute - high tackle)

The teams:

France:  15 Maxime Medard, 14 Julien Malzieu, 13 Yannick Jauzion, 12 Benoit Baby, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 David Skrela, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Lionel Nallet (c), 4 Sébastien Chabal, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Lionel Faure.
Replacements:  16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Benoit Lecouls, 18 Romain Millo Chluski, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Julien Tomas, 21 Damien Traille, 22 Alexis Palisson.

Australia:  15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Stirling Mortlock (c), 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith, 6 Dean Mumm, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Hugh McMeniman, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Ben Alexander.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 David Pocock, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Quade Cooper, 22 Digby Ioane.

Venue:  Stade de France, Paris
Weather:  -2°C and clear, but with a strong north-westerly wind possibly bringing the odd flurry of snow later
Referee:  Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Chris White (England), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official:  Giulio De Santis (Italy)

Scotland freeze out Canada

Scotland did what they wanted and needed on Saturday, beating Canada 41-0 in an icy Pittodrie in Aberdeen.

Nikki Walker (2), Ben Cairns, John Barclay, Alasdair Strokosch and Rory Lamont also all crossed for tries as Scotland put behind them the disappointment of their meek surrender at the hands of New Zealand's second string and the missed opportunity against South Africa.

Coach Frank Hadden made four changes to the side defeated by South Africa last Saturday with two new wings in Walker and Simon Webster while Simon Taylor and Strokosch came into the back row.

Two of the incoming players were heavily involved as Scotland made a red-hot start on a freezing day at Pittodrie in Aberdeen.

Walker, who was born in Aberdeen, slid over in the left-hand corner on two minutes after being fed by Phil Godman following a succession of purposeful drives from the forwards.

Scotland were denied a second try in the 17th minute when Barclay put a foot into touch as he dived over under pressure from Canada's last defender, lock Tyler Hotson.

Although Scotland remained on the front foot, a combination of Canada's brave defence, some streetwise tactics from the visitors at the breakdown and an all too familiar lack of finishing power from Hadden's men kept the score at just 5-0.

Having earlier turned down two kickable penalties, captain Mike Blair decided to take a simple three points from the boot of Godman to make it 8-0 just after the half-hour mark.

And the first half closed in the same manner as it had begun, Nick De Luca's incisive break and offload to centre partner Cairns paving the way for a simple try.  Godman added the extras to put his side 15-0 at the break.

Scotland added a third try at the start of the second half when the forwards powered Barclay over for the score, referee George Clancy awarding it without reference to the TMO.

Godman converted to make it 22-0 after 42 minutes and Hadden, sensing the result was already secure, replaced Barclay and Allan Jacobsen -- both of whom had started all three November Tests -- with Scott Gray and Alasdair Dickinson.

It remained one-way traffic, the hosts' fourth try arriving on the hour mark when Strokosch plunged over from close range and Godman again landed the extra two points.

Hadden continued to introduce his bench, Dan Parks and Rory Lawson came on in the half-back berths in place of Godman and Blair, and as a result his side lost some of its earlier fluency.

It took a piece of individual brilliance from Walker to put the next score on the board when the former Borders winger scythed through the tiring Canada defence to touch down unopposed with 12 minutes remaining.

Canada, having defended stoutly for most of the game, were now falling off tackles regularly and more good work in midfield from Cairns and De Luca allowed Lamont to power over for his sixth Test try as Scotland reached the 40-point mark.

"We were able to right a few wrongs we have had in the previous weeks," Scotland captain Mike Blair told BBC Sport afterwards.

"We were clinical in patches.  We have not been scoring many and there were some cracking tries today.

"It is a good reward for the autumn Test series.  This capped it off nicely."

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Tries:  Walker 2, Cairns, Barclay, Strokosch, Lamont
Cons:  Godman 3, Parks
Pen:  Godman

Scotland:  15 Rory Lamont, 14 Simon Webster, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Nikki Walker, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair (c), 8 Simon Taylor, 7 John Barclay, 6 Al Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements:  16 Dougie Hall, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Matt Mustchin, 19 Scott Gray, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Dan Parks, 22 Max Evans.

Canada:  15 James Pritchard, 14 Sean Duke, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Ryan Smith, 11 Justin Mensah-Coker, 10 Matt Evans, 9 Ed Fairhurst (c), 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Adam Kleeberger, 6 Jebb Sinclair, 5 Josh Jackson, 4 Tyler Hotson, 3 Scott Franklin, 2 Mike Pletch, 1 Kevin Tkachuk.
Replacements:  16 Dan Pletch, 17 Frank Walsh, 18 Mike Burak, 19 Sean Michael Stephen, 20 Morgan Williams, 21 Nathan Hirayama, 22 Bryn Keys.

Referee:  George Clancy (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Alan Lewis (Ireland), Steve Terheege (England)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)

Pacific Islands end on a high

The Pacific Islanders claimed the first Test victory of their four-year existence with a 25-17 success over Italy in Reggio Emilia.

Vilimoni Delasau scored two tries in the first half to set the platform for the visitors' success.

The Fijian winger dived over in the corner in the third minute at the end of a turnover-rich opening exchange and added a second from close range after a series of rucks close to the half hour.

Kameli Ratuvou also touched down and fly-half Seremaia Bai kicked 10 points for the combined Tonga, Fiji and Samoa side, who had lost their previous eight Tests.

Italy mustered tries of their own from forwards Leonardo Ghiraldini and Mauro Bergamasco, supplemented by seven points from fly-half Andrea Marcato's boot.

The Azzurri responded swiftly to Delasau's opening try with Marcato kicking a penalty and slotting a conversion after Ghiraldini barged over the whitewash in the 13th minute.

But the Pacific Islanders soon regained the lead with a Bai penalty and Delasau's second try, which came despite Bai having been sent to the sin bin minutes earlier for a late and high tackle on Mirco Bergamasco.

And the visitors extended their advantage to 22-10 when full-back Ratuvou broke through a gap and went all the way to the line from close to half-way line.

After Bai extended the Islanders' lead with a penalty at the start of second period, Italy started to control of possession but they were frequently let down by the last touch.

They gained their reward for a sustained period of pressure in the 65th minute when flanker Bergamasco went over after captain Sergio Parisse's clever flick pass behind his back.

The result of Italy's first match in the northern city of Reggio Emilio leaves them without a win from the November Test programme, having lost 22-14 to Argentina and 30-20 to Australia.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Tries:  Ghiraldini, Bergamasco
Cons:  Marcato 2
Pen:  Marcato

For the Pacific Islands:
Tries:  Delasau 2, Ratuvou
Cons:  Bai 2
Pens:  Bai 2

Italy:  15 Andrea Masi, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Mirco Bergamasco, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Matteo Pratichetti, 10 Andrea Marcato, 9 Pietro Travagli, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Tommaso Reato, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements:  16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Salvatore Perugini, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Pablo Canavosio/Giulio Toniolatti, 21 Luke McLean, 22 Riccardo Pavan

Pacific Islands:  15 Kameli Ratuvou, 14 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 13 Seilala Mapusua, 12 Epi Taione, 11 Vilimoni Delasau, 10 Seremaia Bai, 9 Sililo Martens, 8 Sisa Koyamaibole, 7 Nili Latu (Tonga, captain), 6 Viliami Vaki, 5 Paino Hehe, 4 Filipo Levi, 3 Kisi Pulu, 2 Tanielu Fuga, 1 Justin Va'a.
Replacements:  16 Sunia Koto, 17 Tonga Lea'aetoa, 18 Semisi Naevo, 19 Hale T-Pole, 20 Mosese Rauluni, 21 Seru Rabeni, 22 Gavin Williams.

Referee:  Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges:  Christophe Berdos, Hugh Watkins (Wales)
TMO:  Geoff Warren (England)

Wales left rueing missed chances

New Zealand continued their 55-year hold over Wales on Saturday, winning 29-9 at the Millennium Stadium.

After surviving a Welsh first-half onslaught, the All Blacks came out after the break tighter, more controlled, and with a new tactic.  They had a plan B, while the Welsh were caught short.

Ma'a Nonu's try midway through the second half sealed the deal for the All Blacks, who will surely now claim another Grand Slam in Twickenham next Saturday.  Meanwhile, the Welsh welcome Australia next week, knowing they will need to both vary their game and find a keener cutting edge if they are to prevail.

We had a thriller on our hands even before the kick-off.  New Zealand did their 'Kapa o Pango' haka, which they tend to reserve for the bigger occasions, and the Welsh stood in a line.  They remained standing in a line after the haka had finished.  The All Blacks remained in formation as well.  If looks could kill, not a soul on either side would have survived the eyeballing and nor would Jonathan Kaplan, who shuffled with the match ball into the space between the two teams almost innocently, like a six-year-old wandering into a business meeting whilst unwrapping a sweet.

Kaplan tried to get New Zealand to break rank.  The All Blacks declined.  Kaplan turned to the Welsh, who also declined.  Someone had to break, and in the end it was New Zealand who moved away earlier, to the delight of the home fans.  Round one to the Welsh -- which would have pleased the onlooking Joe Calzaghe.

The first half belonged to the Welsh as well.  They won the penalty count 6-5, had an edge in the scrums, and conceded fewer turnovers.  All four flankers on the day were outstanding, but Martyn Williams was the best.  Again that qualifier though:  in the first half.  The All Blacks went off at half-time 9-6 behind, analysed their faults, and came out after the break tighter, more controlled, and with a new tactic.  They had a plan B, while the Welsh were caught short.

The technical groundings of both coaching teams were evident.  Both sides spent long periods in possession, keeping the ball away from the marauding opposition.  Both defences held up in their different ways, New Zealand stringing men out across the park and trying to get numbers to each breakdown, the Welsh rushing up and hassling.  Both sides exuded control on the ball, and calmness off it.  It was a fine game of pure rugby.

But New Zealand prevailed, on account of their ability to take the chances presented to them and a terrific performance from the pack, a yard faster than their counterparts in the second half and twice as disciplined (the penalty count was 6-2).  It could have been that they read the game better as well as being quicker, but the sheer numbers of black shirts to red at times was phenomenal.  Wales never had a chance in the second half.

The home side started with their usual enthusiasm, and had earned a 3-0 lead before New Zealand had even touched the ball when Nonu high tackled Williams.

New Zealand claimed their own restart and marched through the phases, but conceded another penalty in their determination to break the red wall.

This marked Wales' best spell.  Ryan Jones and Williams combined at a line-out to break into the All Black 22 but the support numbers let them down.  Shane Williams nearly wriggled away, and his tackler was penalised for not rolling away to enable Jones to give his side a 6-0 lead.

With ball in hand, New Zealand passed as flat as possible, using Brad Thorn and Ali Williams in the middle as battering rams.  Once the timing of the passing and running had aligned properly, New Zealand got a head of steam up and made good ground.  They earned a penalty for Carter when Martyn Williams went in the side of a ruck, and Carter should have equalised moments later after Matthew Rees repeated the offence, but instead his kick thumped the post.  6-3 to Wales, and a quarter of the game gone.

Wales continued to threaten more with ball in hand.  Shane Williams' deft reverse pass nearly had Stephen Jones home -- instead Jones landed a penalty to make it 9-3 after Tony Woodcock killed the ball -- and Lee Byrne made a scintillating break followed by an asinine no-look pass which gave the ball away.

All the chances to Wales so far, but no breakthrough.  Instead Carter made it 9-6 with the final kick of the first half.

He made it 9-9 with almost the first kick of the second half as Williams was once again caught offside, and the tide turned.  The All Blacks thundered into breakdowns in defence, and began bringing Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu off the wing, as well as kicking turnover ball into space behind the Welsh.  All three tactics worked brilliantly.  The Welsh lost their ball, struggled to cope with retreating, and found the extra pace and power in the middle too much to cope with.

New Zealand's scrum upped its game as well.  Jimmy Cowan was clearly feeding for much of the game and was nicked for it a couple of times, but for the rest it gave his pack some good go-forward ball.  The Welsh ended up enduring a series of 5m scrums on their line which they did survive -- including a TMO call -- but at the cost of too much energy.

Eventually Nonu crossed after several waves of pressure to give New Zealand the lead, and Carter extended the gap to more than two scores with a penalty on 64 minutes, and even further with another penalty on 75 minutes.

Wales tried a couple of final bursts, a couple of maverick attempts to notch a score and salvage something.  Instead the black shirts washed over a ruck, the ball was turned over, and Jerome Kaino crashed over the line.  Wales' wait goes on.

Man of the match:  Martyn Williams played well in the first half, but faded in the second.  Lee Byrne was a constant threat, and Alun Wyn Jones stood out from the Welsh pack for a superb defensive work-rate.  On the All Black side, Joe Rokocoko's threat was ever-present, Tony Woodcock's pushing immense, and Richie McCaw his usual self at the breakdown.  But Rodney So'oialo was the biggest terror for the Welsh in loose and tight.

Moment of the match:  A break by Joe Rokocoko in the second half that eventually led to the try.  It was a new weapon in the All Black arsenal, one too many for Wales to cope with.

Villain of the match:  Tempting to give it to Jonathan Kaplan for breaking up the pre-match eyeballing!  But the players might never have moved ... so no award.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Pens:  S. Jones 3

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Nonu, Kaino
Cons:  Carter 2
Pens:  Carter 5

Wales:  15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Andy Powell, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones (c), 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements:  16 Richard Hibbard, 17 John Yapp, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Dafydd Jones, 20 Dwayne Peel, 21 James Hook/Dan Biggar, 22 Andrew Bishop.

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Tony Woodcock, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Neemia Tialata.
Replacements:  16 Hikawera Elliot, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Isaia Toeava.

Referee:  Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Dave Pearson (England), Cobus Wessels (South Africa)
Television match official:  Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)
Assessor:  Paul Bridgman (England)

Boks edge Scots

South Africa came back from 10-nil down at half-time to salvage a 14-10 victory over Scotland in an extremely close-fought battle at Murrayfield on Saturday.

The world champions were pushed all the way by the a Scotland team that weren't afraid to take them on physically and almost caused the first upset of the November Test session.

A 56th minute try from replacement centre Jaque Fourie brought South Africa back into the game after Nathan Hines scored on the stroke on half-time to give the home side a deserved lead.

It is not the policy of this website to throw mud at the referee, but the question must be asked if there still is place for Dave Pearson's "School Headmaster" style of officiating in the modern game.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the game was characterised by frustration from both sides concerning the penalties given away at the breakdown.

Pearson's interpretation of what was a penalisable offence for going off one's feet was clearly not in sync with what the Springboks felt constituted winning a rucking battle (i.e. pushing an opponent back and to ground).

Scotland too were to be frustrated and captain Mike Blairs exasperated comment to the ref in the second half -- "We don't know what you want from us"- seemed to sum the situation up.

It must be said that the visitor's discipline was not up the standard their coach would have desired and they had clearly not taken the IRB's directive to referees to be stricter at the breakdown to heart.

With South Africa's penalty count at the breakdown in the first half reaching double figures almost every attack made by the world champions ended with the home fly-half having a chance to kick for touch or the posts.

The first half firmly belonged to Scotland.  They took the game to their visitors, who made far to many errors with ball in hand, notably losing the ball upon impact on a number of occasions and knocking-on when not under pressure (three times in the first six minutes alone.)

The Scots on the other hand were making their tackles count and the passes stick.  The home side dominated the opening stages and took the lead just before the half-an-hour mark thanks to a penalty from Phil Godman.  The lead could have been even more had Dan Parks, on as a blood replacement for Godman, not missed two previous attempts at goal.

The home side were also dominant at scrum time as the Bok set piece fell apart when Bismarck du Plessis was forced off inside the first five minutes.

The question on the lips of every South African regarded the game plan Peter de Villiers team would employ:  Would they the repeat the 'kick it back no matter what' style of a week earlier of would we see a return to the 'run it from everywhere bravado' of the Tri-Nations.

All were hoping for a sensible balance, but with the Scots enjoying the lion's share of territory and possession the men in green and gold were unable to establish any sort of meaningful attacking pattern.

The Boks played very direct rugby, but with the breakdown battle not going their way, they only scared the hosts when Jean de Villiers managed to slip through the defensive curtain out wide or when Conrad Jantjes made a clever chip ahead.

Scotland's forwards were rewarded for making the hard yards when Hines crashed over next to the posts with the break just seconds away.

One tries to avoid using the old cliché of "a game of two halves", but the opening minutes of the second period certainly made it look like it would be the case.

The Boks cleaned up their act and the penalty tide turned against the Scots.  Jean de Villiers was once again the home side's inspiration on attack and his break in the 43th minute set up the platform for the Boks to finally get on the scoreboard via a penalty from Ruan Pienaar.

Pienaar doubled his tally shortly thereafter as the Boks started to take control of the game as their loose forwards made their presence felt.

De Villiers was again involved when they took the lead.  Adrian Jacobs took the ball to the advantage line before passing to his fellow player-of-the-year nominee.  De Villiers drew two defenders before timing his pass to Fourie out wide to perfect.  Fourie, on for Bryan Habana, made giant leap for the line which turned out to be the Boks' biggest step toward victory.

Pienaar slotted another penalty to extend the lead to four points and set up a grandstand finish as Scotland threw the kitchen sink at the Springbok defence, which, so desperate to keep the their hosts at bay, where guilty of losing their shape a bit as they chased the ball carrier.

Peter de Villiers, who questioned the wisdom of his replacements last week, made the bold move of bringing Francois Steyn on for his namesake.  Steyn's massive boot was put to good use to keep the visitor's at bay.

Goodman missed an easy penalty with five minutes left on the clock, forcing the Scots to go a for a try that would not come, despite laying siege to the Springbok try-line in the dying minutes.

Man of the match:  Nathan Hines was immense for the home side, as was Mike Blair.  Tendai "the Beast" Mtawarira gained five metres every time he carried the ball, but stalwart flank Juan Smith produced his best performance in a Test this year.  He was huge in defence and was at his barnstorming best with ball in hand

Moment of the match:  Jaque Fourie's try.  The Springboks came close on a number of occasions but when Fourie finally breached the whitewash, you got the feeling it would be Springboks day after all.

Villain of the match:  No fisticuffs to report.

The Scorers

For Scotland:
Try:  Hines
Con:  Godman
Pen:  Godman

For South Africa:
Tries:  Fourie
Pens:  Pienaar 3

The teams:

Scotland:  15 Chris Paterson, 14 Thom Evans, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Rory Lamont, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair (c), 8 Ally Hogg, 7 John Barclay, 6 Jason White, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobson.
Replacements:  16 Dougie Hall, 17 Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Matt Mustchin, 19 Scott Gray, 20 Rory Lawson, 21 Dan Parks, 22 Hugo Southwell.

South Africa:  15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (c), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements:  16 Brian Mujati, 17 Gurthro Steenkamp, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Ryan Kankowski, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Frans Steyn, 22 Jaque Fourie.

Venue:  Murrayfield
Referee:  Dave Pearson (England)
Touch judges:  Alain Rolland (England), Hugh Watkins (Wales)
Television match official:  Graham Hughes (England)

All Blacks are half way there

New Zealand weathered an intensely contested opening half of rugby before comfortably overcoming Ireland 22-3 to continue on their autumn Grand Slam road at Croke Park on Saturday.

On the back of a long-winded Tri-Nations trophy triumph and Hong Kong sealer against the Wallabies, the Kiwis had demonstrated their contrasting physical and mental state to the north at Murrayfield seven days ago, but it was not the case here during the early exchanges as a packed stadium made life tough for its visitors.

Despite the scene being set for centre Brian O'Driscoll's 50th appearance as Ireland captain, the opposing blacks were ultimately not in a charitable mood as history failed to change at this special arena that had earlier drowned out the pre-game haka.

Past results were certainly against Declan Kidney's side, who had only managed to claim a 10-10 draw against their superior opponents in 1973 during the recent rugby era.

And as is their wont, the All Blacks' clinical edge eventually struck the relevant blows in sealing round two of their autumn quest -- but it took them until the second half to find their form with Ma'a Nonu and Brad Thorn following up a penalty try.

The early exchanges were, as expected, conducted in a furious manner with fresh-faced Luke Fitzgerald running well post an uncharacteristic Daniel Carter penalty miss.

Yet it was the even more international unknown in Tomas O'Leary who brought the crowd to their feet with a flick for the corner on sixteen minutes.  Kidney had brought in the scrum-half for extra speed and grit around the breakdown area and his opening effort seemed to encourage O'Driscoll to follow his nine's kicking example on the other flank soon after.

Surprisingly though with 24 minutes flying past in the blink of an eye, the contest remained locked at 0-0 with Carter missing successive kicks, this time from number eight Jamie Heaslip's infringement under the posts -- were the omens with Ireland?

Well maybe not as the Cantabrian master finally made his own luck at the third time of asking just a minute later with three simple points pushing the Kiwis ahead.

That did not dampen the hungry Irish spirits in the slightest however, as they immediately went downfield hunting a response, only to be thwarted by Mark Lawrence's whistle.  But the southern official quickly endeared himself to the crowd soon after by changing his mind at a separate incident by penalising wing Sitiveni Sivivatu for a high-tackle on the covering Rob Kearney.

Both playmakers continued to endure below-par first periods and if O'Gara had not been unsuccessful with a long-range penalty on 38 minutes to level matters, his evening may have looked even bleaker than it eventually concluded.

There was controversy in the capital on the half's final whistle though, as a grubber towards the corner saw Richie McCaw have the ball deliberately patted into touch by Tommy Bowe, who found himself sent to the sin-bin before Lawrence awarded a penalty try -- the extras added by Carter.

However, New Zealand's numerical advantage was short-lived upon their return to the field as prop Tony Woodcock landed a punch on Rory Best that left Lawrence pondering which colour card to choose.  The South African opted for the less severe punishment but it failed to slow down the Kiwi charge as Nonu and Rokocoko combined for a sublime five points that widened the gap to fourteen.

There was arguably no way back for Ireland from that point as Paul O'Connell's limp summed up how the final 25 minutes were heading.  The momentum was certainly with the All Blacks as this time Carter's swagger came to the fore, finding lock Thorn to stride over with the scores and stadium volume going in very differing directions.

From then on it was all New Zealand as their attacking master-class stole the limelight and was a pleasure to watch for a short period.  However, both sides seemed to concede the inevitable result in the end as the Test disintegrated into a flat final quarter as coach Henry gathered his belongings for preparation ahead of next week's trip to Cardiff.

Man of the match:  While his team-mates took approximately half the contest to find their rhythm, wing Sitiveni Sivivatu was superb from the outset.  The Waikato man's running power and style that seems to stand up the tackler led to several good things in the All Blacks' victory.  A mention for Joe Rokocoko as he continues his rehabilitation and also Ma'a Nonu at centre as they both played their part in the second period.

Moment of the match:  The swagger was certainly found at Croke Park following Graham Henry's half-time talking to and the try from Ma'a Nonu was classic New Zealand rugby.  The Wellington second five spread the ball to his wing who ghosted through the tiring defence before handing the ball smartly to the looping distrubutor which started the ball rolling.

Villain of the match:  Maybe it has to be wing Tommy Bowe for an end-of-half attempt at the hand of god that ultimately cost his side seven points and a player for ten minutes.  Maybe a slightly harsh call though as the All Blacks second-half performance was always waiting in their locker!

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Pen:  O'Gara

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Penalty, Nonu, Thorn
Con:  Carter 2
Pen:  Carter

Yellow card:  Tommy Bowe (Ireland) -- Deliberate hand on 40 minutes, Tony Woodcock (New Zealand) -- Punch on 43 minutes

Ireland:  15 Girvan Dempsey, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Luke Fitzgerald, 11 Rob Kearney, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 James Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Alan Quinlan, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements:  16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Stephen Ferris, 19 Shane Jennings, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Paddy Wallace, 22 Keith Earls.

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Corey Flynn, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Isaia Toeava.

Referee:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Cobus Wessels (South Africa)
Television match official:  Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)
Assessor:  Steve Hilditch

England pay the penalty against Australia

Australia brought England crashing back to earth with a humbling 28-14 victory at Twickenham on Saturday.

In the end Australia had to do little more than apply pressure on England, knowing that sooner or later the English would concede a penalty.  The rest was down to Matt Giteau's boot, as he slotted six penalties and a conversion to ensure England left HQ with little more than they arrived with.

Coming into the game on the back of a promising victory over the Pacific Islands, there was a real hope that England could build on that foundation;  sadly it was not to be.  If it wasn't penalties it was turnovers, and if it wasn't turnovers it was poor kicking.  But when England look back on this they will rue a missed chance.

Until Australia scored their only try, after seventy minutes, the game was there for the taking.  The only problem was that England lacked the composure to take it for themselves, and instead did everything in their power to gift it to Australia.

Prior to Ashley-Cooper going over out wide England had marshalled the Australian attack with something approaching comfort.  Yet when it really mattered, when the game was poised on the proverbial knife-edge, England came up horribly short.

The game started in a bizarre fashion, two early Giteau penalties thrown in amongst some helter-skelter rugby.  Both sides threw caution to the wind and threw the ball around, giving the impression this was something of a celebration game.  Australia soon knuckled down and began to ask questions of England's defence.

Answers were readily available as England looked hungry in defence, repelling the likes of Stirling Mortlock and Ryan Cross with relative ease.  And then, as if by magic, England began to construct passages of play that displayed plenty of intent.  But, as was the case throughout, an error of some kind always cost them.

In fact it was Delon Armitage who opened England's account, sending over a hesitant drop-goal after twenty minutes.  Again Australia reverted to their tried and trusted method of forcing England into mistakes, and soon enough Giteau had clipped over two more penalties and Australia suddenly had a platform from which to build.

Credit to England for ensuring their guests didn't pull away, at least not yet anyway, as they hit back with a telling strike of their own.  A series of five yard scrums eventually saw Nick Easter driven over by his fellow forwards.  Inexplicably Cipriani missed the easiest of conversions, but at least England were back in the game at half-time.

The second half started brightly for England.  Twice they went through ten phases but, ultimately, twice they came away with nothing.  The first was due to a rather harsh penalty, but the second can only be blamed on Cipriani's foolish decision to go for a drop kick.  With numbers outside of him the erratic fly-half fluffed the simplest of kicks.

Cipriani did manage to gather himself to send over a timely penalty, giving England the lead for the first time, albeit fleetingly.  No sooner had they put their noses in front than Andrew Sheridan coughed up a poor penalty at a scrum, which Giteau sent over.  By the time Giteau kicked his sixth penalty, two minutes later, you got the impression England were fading.

England continued to give away penalties, allowing Mortlock to have a long range effort -- no surprise to see it sail through with yards to spare.  The ghost or#f Marseille laid to rest?

From there England were chasing the game and Australia were able to wait patiently for their chance to kill it off.

It came, with ten minutes to go, and Ashley-Cooper's try wrapped up what turned into a comfortable win for Robbie Deans' men.  He will want to see them attack a little more next week, but it's another win and another step in the right direction.

England?  Well one thing is for sure, there is a lot of work to be done before South Africa arrive next week.  The problem today seemed to be mental rather then physical, for time and again they bossed the contact area, only to see all the hard work wasted with needless penalties.

We must accept the fact their side is in it's early stages, and given time they will begin to resemble something more like a team.  There were some fine individual displays, but as a whole England were well below par here.

Man of the match:  For England Danny Cipriani showed moments of magic, but for each there was something equally as bad, and Danny Care was full of running as always.  A mention too for man-of-the-moment Delon Armitage, who didn't set the world on fire but did enough to warrant a third run out next week.  However, the award goes to Matt Giteau, who not only kicked six penalties, but kept Australia going forward throughout.  All the talk was of his opposite number but in the end Giteau was the one who won the day.

Moment of the match:  This has to go to Adam Ashley-Cooper's try as it ended this game as a contest.  Rightly or wrongly England were still in with a sniff at 21-14, but when the Wallaby full-back sauntered over, complete with a grin that would make a Cheshire cat proud, it was curtains for Martin Johnson's men.

Villain of the match:  Nothing to report.

The Scorers:

For England:
Try:  Easter
Pens:  Cipriani 2
Drop goal:  Armitage

For Australia:
Try:  Ashley-Cooper
Con:  Giteau
Pens:  Giteau 6, Mortlock

The Teams:

England:  15 Delon Armitage, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Tom Rees, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Steve Borthwick, 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements:  16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 James Haskell, 20 Michael Lipman, 21 Harry Ellis, 22 Toby Flood.

Australia:  15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 Stirling Mortlock, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Richard Brown, 7 George Smith, 6 Hugh McMeniman, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Mark Chisholm, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Wycliff Palu, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Quade Cooper, 22 Digby Ioane.

Referee:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Tim Hayes (Wales)
Television match official:  Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Brian Stirling

Islanders' discipline costs again

France eased to a 42-17 win over the Pacific Islands on Saturday, but the match was marred by an appalling challenge on Jean-Baptiste Elissalde by Napolioni Nalaga, which saw the Fijian sent off and Elissalde stretchered off unconscious.

The Islanders started the game with confidence, clearly believing that tempo and physicality might rattle the French.  It yielded two early penalties for Seremaia Bai, sandwiching one by David Skrela.

The two Bai goals also sandwiched the lone danger moment of a nervy opening, when Elissalde's clever dart saw Banoit Baby held a hair's breadth short.

France soaked up the enthusiastic but limited movements of the Islanders, and set their stall out to grind their opposition down.  They were clearly dominant in the tight set pieces, especially the scrum, and merely sat back for long periods waiting for their chance.

Then came a moment of utter madness and high unpleasantness.  The monster-sized Napolioni Nalaga lined up Elissalde from a long way away and was unflinching in his run and hit on the diminutive scrum-half, even though Elissalde had long since cleared the ball.  Elissalde was still receiving emergency treatment on the pitch long after Nalaga had been given his marching orders for the thoroughly disgusting tackle.

Skrela missed the penalty that followed, but it took France only six more minutes to press home their advantage, with Dimitri Szarzewski popping up on the end of two pieces of glorious acceleration from Cerdic Heymans and Julien Malzieu.

The Islanders' heads went down, and Elissalde's replacement Sebstien Tillous-Bordes scored the second just before the half-hour, passing to Heymans on the blind side and then looping to take a switch pass and round off a superb move.  Skrela converted both quick-fire tries for a comfortable 17-6 cushion.

After a brief and breathless passage of play where both teams opted to run everything, the Islanders shut their game down at the end of the first half and were remarkably good at it, squeezing out two more penalties for Bai to make it 17-12 at the break.

The match lost much of its intensity after the break, and especially after Heymans had scored France's third courtesy of a quick handling move sparked by Thierry Dusautoir.

Skrela landed two more penalties as the French kept the pressure on up front, and the final ten minutes was marked with a flurry of scoring.

Louis Picamoles took his first pass, off Tillous-Bordes, to score with ten minutes to go, and then Maxime Médard scored his first international try after a break by Damien Traille.  Skrela converted both.

Epi Taione scored a consolation try for the Islanders, barging Imanol Harinordoquy over the line.

The scorers:

For France:
Tries:  Szarzewski, Tillous-Bordes, Heymans, Picamoles, Médard
Cons:  Skrela 4
Pens:  Skrela 3

For the Pacific Islands:
Try:  Taione
Pens:  Bai 4

Red card:  Nalaga (Pacific Islands, 18, dangerous tackle)

France:  15 Maxime Médard, 14 Julien Malzieu, 13 Yannick Jauzion, 12 Benoît Baby, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 David Skrela, 9 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 8 Imanol Harnordoquy, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Lionel Nallet (c), 4 Romain Millo-Chluski, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Lionel Faure.
Replacements:16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Benoît Lecouls, 18 Sébastien Chabal, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 21 Damien Traille, 22 Alexis Palisson.

Pacific Islands:  15 Gavin Williams, 14 Napolioni Nalaga, 13 Seru Rabeni, 12 Epi Taione, 11 Vilimoni Delasau, 10 Seremaia Bai, 9 Mosese Rauluni (cap), 8 Nili Latu, 7 Sisa Koyamaibole, 6 Hale T-Pole, 5 Kele Leawere, 4 Paino Hehea, 3 Kisi Pulu, 2 Tanielu Fuga, 1 Kas Lealamanua.
Replacements:  16 Sunia Koto, 17 Census Johnston, 18 Filipo Levi, 19 Viliami Vaki, 20 Sililo Martens, 21 Kameli Ratuvou, 22 Seilala Mapusua

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Wayne Barnes (England), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
TMO:  Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

Pumas do the job in Turin

Argentina went some way to reclaiming their place in the IRB top four with a 22-14 win over Italy in the Stadio Olimpico in Turin on Saturday.

It was Argentina at the best they have been since the World Cup.  The pack fought doggedly, and the backs ran into what little space they were afforded effectively.

Italy huffed and puffed, but still lack that little edge of sophistication required to unlock defences, and a necessary degree of patience when they don't have the ball.

Felipe Contempomi gave Argentina the lead with a 55m penalty after Mauro Bergamasco had late-tackled Gonzalo Tiesi, a tackle for which the volatile flanker was lucky not to be yellow-carded.

Andrea Marcato, who had another promising game at fly-half, replied for the Italians, but two further kicks from Contempomi saw Argentina in 9-3 ahead at the break.

Otherwise it was a turgid first half, ruled mostly by the boot and the ongoing niggle in the front row which Chris White tried valiantly to deal with but never quite managed to get the players to listen.

Neither side retained the ball terribly well, leading to a lot of knock-ons and balls buried under piles of bodies, followed by scrums that invariably needed a couple of resets.

Contempomi extended the lead to 12-3 just after the break, after a very harsh call for a high tackle on Mario Ledesma, but Marcato kept his side in the game with a long-range drop goal that had the stadium rocking.

The key moment came in the 50th minute.  Juan Martin Hernandez was given a whiff of space behind the Italian back-line and "The Magician" was off, chasing and regathering his chip before offloading to Rafael Carballo who steamed home.  Contempomi converted from under the posts to give his side an 19-6 lead.

Marcato replied with another penalty, but the Pumas, content with their cushion, shut up shop effectively and closed out a useful win, with Contempomi landing a late penalty to complete it.

Italy did cross the whitewash in the final move of the game though, through Andrea Masi.  It had no effect on the result, but it could yet affect the Pumas' IRB rankings.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Try:  Masi
Pens:  Marcato 3

For Argentina:
Try:  Carballo
Con:  Contempomi
Pens:  Contempomi 5

Italy:  15 Andrea Masi, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Matteo Pratichetti, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Andrea Marcato, 9 Pablo Canavosio, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements:  16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Salvatore Perugini, 19 Tommaso Reato, 20 Pietro Travagli, 21 Luciano Orquera, 22 Luke Mclean.

Argentina:  15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Federico Martin Aramburu, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Felipe Contepomi (c), 11 Rafael Carballo, 10 Juan Martin Hernandez, 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 6 Martin Durand, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Esteban Lozada, 3 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements:  16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Alvaro Galindo, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Agustin Figuerola, 21 Santiago Fernandez, 22 Horacio Agulla.

Referee:  Chris White (England)
Touch judges:  Craig Joubert (South Africa), Christophe Berdos (France)
Television match official:  David Changleng
Assessor:  Michel LamoulieLamoulie