Old guard brings new England home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

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

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

The teams:

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

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

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

"Sea-bass" stars as Italy flounder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Scorers:

For Italy:
Pen:  Pez

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

The Teams:

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

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

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

Portugal now one step away

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

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

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

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

That was the score at half-time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

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

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

The teams:

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

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

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

Irish leave the Islanders adrift

The Old Lady of Dublin bid a fine farewell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

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

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

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

The teams:

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

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

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

Boks put England to the sword

Robinson pulls level in "sack race" against White

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

England:
Tries:  Cueto
Pens:  Goode 3

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

The teams:

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

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

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

France hold off Puma fightback

French breathe sigh of relief after uncomfortable final half-hour

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

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

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

Teams:

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

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

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

Wallabies silence Scotland bagpipes

Australia too good for brave Scots

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

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

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

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

And why not?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

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

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

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

The teams:

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

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

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

New Zealand magic slays Dragons

Sivivatu triple leads the way in Cardiff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Half time and Wales were already a beaten team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scorers:

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

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

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

The teams:

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

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

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

Stanojevic double sets up Italian rout

Azzurri blow the Canadians away

Winger Marko Stanojevic scored two tries to help Italy beat Canada 41-6 in their one-off test in Fontanafredda on Saturday.  The Azzurri outscored their hapless opponents by five tries to none.

Replacement forwards Alessandro Zanni and Martin Castrogiovanni and captain Marco Bortolami also scored for the Azzurri.  Fullback David Bortolussi kicked five conversions and two penalties.

Canada fly-half Ander Monro kicked two first-half penalties for the visitors to trail 13-6 at the interval.

Italy had narrowly lost to Australia and Argentina in the last two weeks.

While the scoreline may suggest that the home side dominated, the Canadians gave a good account of themselves and it took the Italians more than 20 minutes to stamp their authority on the game.

In fact the Canadians took an early 6-0 lead, through two penalties by Monro.

But then the Azzurri found their rhythm and reacted in the best way possible, with a try.  And it was captain Marco Bortolami who cut through the Canadian defence to open his team's scoring with a try.  Fullback David Bortolussi added the conversion to give the home side a 7-0 lead.

Bortolussi extended the lead to 13-6 with two penalties of his own.

But in the second half there was only one team in it, Italy.

Stanojevic soon put his team further in the lead with his first try, converted by Bortolussi and then Zanni scored (again converted by Bortolussi) to make it 27-6.

By now the Canadian defence wavered and Stanojevic punished them further with his second try -- converted by Bortolussi -- to make it 34-6.

The final score went to Castrogiovanni, converted by Bortolussi, for the final scoreline.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Tries:  Stanojevic 2, Zanni, Castrogiovanni, Bortolami
Cons:  Bortolussi 5
Pens:  Bortolussi 2

For Canada:
Pens:  Monro 2

The teams:

Italy:  15 David Bortolussi, 14 Warren Spragg, 13 Walter Pozzebon, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Marko Stanojevic; 10 Andrea Scanavacca, 9 Paul Griffen; 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami (captain), 4 Santiago Dellape, 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements:  16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Alessandro Zanni, 19 Maurizio Zaffiri, 20 Simon Picone, 21 Ramiro Pez, 22 Gonzalo Canale.

Canada:  15 Ed Fairhurst, 14 Mike Pyke, 13 Ryan Smith, 12 Derek Daypuck, 11 Justin Mensah-Coker, 10 Ander Monro, 9 Morgan Williams, 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Stan McKeen, 6 Mike Webb, 5 Oliver Atkinson, 4 Luke Tait, 3 Forrest Gainer, 2 Pat Riordan, 1 Dan Pletch
Replacements:  16 Aaron Abrams,17 Kevin Tkachuk, 18 Mike Pletch, 19 Stu Ault, 20 Adam Kleeberger, 21 Dean Van Camp, 22 DTH Van der Merwe.

Referee:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Craig Joubert (South Africa), Romain Poite (France)
Television match official:  Peter Allan (Scotland)
Assessor:  Paul Bridgman (England)

Japan race to France

Big win over Korea

Japan beat Korea 54-0 in Hong Kong on Saturday afternoon to book their place in the 2007 World Cup in France.

Beaten Korea now play Tonga in a répechage match, the winner also qualifying for France.  It is highly unlikely that Korea will come close to winning that one.

Japan, who have only ever won one match at the World Cup now slot into Pool B along with Australia, Wales, Fiji, and Canada.

Japan led 28-0 at half-time after tries by Mitsugu Yamamoto, Go Aruga, Luatangi Samurai Vatuvei and Phil O'Reilly all converted by Aruga.

In the second half rugby's greatest scorer of Test tries ever, Daisuke Ohata, scored a hat-trick of tries to extend his record to 69 tries, four of them scored in this tournament.  Right at the end Hirotoki Onozawa scored Japan's last try.  Young Aruga converted three of them.

Afterwards incoming coach John Kirwan said:  "I am very pleased for the boys and Japan.  There was lot of pressure on us before the game but we can now think about the World Cup.  The players did their nation proud."

Scorers:

For Japan:
Tries:  Yamamoto, Aruga, Vatuvei, O'Reilly,  Ohata 3, Onozawa
Cons:  Aruga 7

Teams:

Japan:  15 Go Aruga, 14 Daisuke Ohata (captain), 13 Hideyui Yoshida, 12 Shotaro Onishi, 11 Hirotoki Onozawa, 10 Keisuke Sawaki, 9 Mamoru Ito, 8 Takuro Miuchi, 7 Philip O’Reilly, 6 Hajime Kiso, 5 Luatangi Samurai Vatuvei, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Ryo Yamamura, 2 Mitsugu Yamamoto, 1 Tatsukichi Nishiura
Replacements:  16 Yuji Matsubara, 17 Yuichi Hisadomi, 18 Takashi Akatsuka, 19 Takashi Kikutani, 20 Takashi Tsuji, 21 Kenji Shomen, 22 Ryota Asano

Korea:  15 Jae Young Chae, 14 Chul Woong Kwak, 13 Jong Su Kim, 12 Sung Soo Kim, 11 In Sou Cho, 10 Tae Il Yoon, 9 Myung Geun Lee, 8 Kwang Moon Lee, 7 Young Nam You, 6 Jeong Min Kim, 5 Kwon Woo Youn, 4 Young Nam Kim, 3 Tae Hyung Kim, 2 Soon Kil Eom, 1 Young Keun Kim
Replacements:  16 Sung Un Jung, 17 Tae Hyung Kim, 18 Seon Kyu Park, 19 Song Gun Jung, 20 Young Hun Yang, 21 Min Hyung Yoo, 22 Keun Hyun Kim

Referee:  Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  James Leckie, George Ayoub (both Australia)
Assessor:  Brendan McCormick (Australia)

Georgia march to France

Win rewarding draw in Lisbon

Georgia and Portugal drew 11-all in Lisbon on Saturday in the last of Europe's World Cup qualifiers.

As Georgia won the first leg of this two-leg tie, they will be the ones going to France in 2007 for the Rugby World Cup.

All is not lost for Portugal as they now go into répechage and play Morocco for the right to play Uruguay.

Portugal had their moments in this match and actually achieved parity in possession but were intent on bashing up the middle when playing wider may have been wiser.  Their try came on the one occasion when they went wide.

Hooker Cristian Spachuk made the running down the right touch-line.  The ball came back wide to the left wing where centre Diogo Mateus scored.

The Georgian try was a soft one when Portuguese concentration lapsed near their own line, allowing veteran flank Grigol Labadze an easy run to the line.

Portugal missed three penalty kicks at goal.  There was no scoring at all in the second half.

Scorers:

For Portugal:
Try:  Mateus
Pens:  Malheiro 2

For Georgia:
Try:  Labadze
Pens:  Jimsheladze 2

Teams:

Georgia:  15 Teimuraz Sokhadze, 14 Irakli Machkhaneli, 13 Revaz Gigauri, 12 Irakli Giorgadze, 11 Besiki Khamashuridze, 10 Pavle Jimsheladze, 9 Irakli Abuseridze, 8 Besarion Udesiani, 7 Grigol Labadze, 6 Rati Urushadze, 5 Mamuka Gorgodze, 4 Ilia Zedginidze (captain), 3 David Zirakashvili, 2 Goderdzi Shvelidze, 1 David Khinchagashvili
Replacements:  16 George Kutarashvili, 17 Mamuka Magrakvelidze, 18 Levan Datunashvili, 19 Ilia Maisuradze, 20 Bidzina Samkharadze, 21 George Shkinin, 22 George Elizbarashvili

Portugal:  15 Pedro Leal, 14 Pedro Carvalho, 13 Miguel Portela, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 António Aguilar, 10 Gonçalo Malheiro, 9 Luís Pissarra, 8 Vasco Uva (captain), 7 Paulo Murinello, 6 Diogo Coutinho, 5 Gonçalo Uva, 4 Marcello D'Orey, 3 João Correia, 2 Cristian Spachuk, 1 Joaquim Ferreira
Replacements:  16 Rui Cordeiro, 17 David Penalva, 18 Juan Severino, 19 João Uva, 20 José Pinto, 21 Cardoso Pinto, 22 Frederico Sousa

Referee:  Tim Hayes (Wales)

Ireland burn bright in gloomy Dublin

Irish cohesion trumps Wallabies

Ireland allowed their fans to dream of world domination after conquering not only Australia but tempestuous conditions in Dublin on Sunday, recording a remarkable 21-6 victory over the touring Wallabies.

Like England's progression towards Rugby World Cup 2003, Ireland are beginning to collect scalps from the Southern Hemisphere and the benefits of Ireland's policy of keeping faith in an established core of players is now evident for all to see.

Australia won't be the first side to put a loss down to that tired old excuse of "RWC development" -- and, indeed, some of their new combinations looked decidedly undercooked -- but the inescapable truth is that they were second-best to Ireland in every facet of play.

The locals were simply outstanding, earning a standing ovation from a soaked but satisfied crowd not only at full-time but also as they trooped off for the interval.  A rare honour indeed, but thoroughly deserved.

Both sides had beseeched the heavens to supply a dry canvas for their respective artists, but the gods failed to deliver the goods:  the weather was worse than filthy.  The rain lashed Lansdowne Road, coming down at all angles as a swirling wind took on the appearance of a nascent hurricane.  Perhaps they won't have to demolish this old pile after all, it will just be carried off across Ireland before disappearing into the mutinous Shannon waves.

Somehow the conditions failed to dampen the spectacle.  Modern rugby jerseys are not designed for the old up-the-jumper tactic, but credit goes to both sides for shunning all notions of safety-first, the handling was simply outstanding -- this was bare-foot rugby on Bondi Beach rather a wrestle in an Irish bog.

The official statistics tell us that the Irish completed 119 passes and only committed 16 errors.  It's hard to believe but it's near enough to the truth.  Where are the All Blacks when you need them?

Wallaby skipper Stirling Mortlock landed two penalties but Australia never threatened to score a try and were not helped by having Phil Waugh and replacement Mat Rogers sin-binned simultaneously for fighting;  Denis Leamy joined them for his role in the same sorry skirmish.

Ireland, who beat South Africa 32-15 last Saturday, pulverised the Australia pack with the maniacal Neil Best spearheading a dominant forward display that snuffed out a promising start from the visitors that bore an early penalty goal.

Ireland then staged a series of attacks which saw Australia's defensive line stretched to the limit.  One raid produced 21 phases of play before Matt Giteau knocked Shane Horgan off course with a try-saving tackle.

Despite failing to secure the five points, the Irish began to believe in their own dexterity and continued to press.  Geordan Murphy was the next man to come close, but the television match official ruled that a double-tackle by Chris Latham and Wycliff Palu had forced the Irishman to knock-on in the act of scoring.

But all was not lost, referee Marius Jonker went back to a penalty for off-side and Ronan O'Gara landed the shot at goal via a kind deflection off the uprights.

Australia were now under heavy pressure, turning over possession on their own line-out and relying on a last-ditch tackle from Mark Gerrard to keep out O'Driscoll.

Palu was penalised for holding onto the ball after going to ground and Ireland opted for the line-out after assessing the wind conditions.

Their decision paid dividends as the ensuing move led to a fine score in the left corner -- following a juggling display from O'Gara.

The Munster fly-half attempted to offload but fumbled the ball and recovered as he went about running out of support.

He spotted Hickie unmarked on the left touchline and fired a crossfield kick which the Leinster wing gathered before jinking between three Wallaby defenders to score.

It was a magnificent finish from Hickie and Australia's problems deepened when Larkham limped off and was replaced by Rogers.

Gerrard kicked the ball out of play, allowing Ireland to stage a fresh assault which Horgan used to offload in the tackle to Leamy -- and it took more desperate defending to keep the Munster back row out.

They could not be denied a minute into first-half injury-time, however, as they pinched a line-out and ran in a stunning try.

Superb handling from O'Gara released Gordon D'Arcy who dashed forward before feeding the outstanding Shane Horgan and the big Leinster winger drew Gerrard and supplied the scoring pass to Murphy.  O'Gara converted to bring the curtain down on an inspired first half.

Australia drew first blood in the second period with a Mortlock penalty but Ireland were still in control thanks to the reams of possession secured by their pack.

O'Gara sent a penalty between the uprights to give Ireland an 18-6 lead and tempers boiled over in the 52nd minute when an exchange of punches between Leamy and Waugh resulted in a large meeting between minds and fists.

Both players were yellow carded and Rogers joined them in the sin-bin for involving himself in the fight.

Australia's discipline was in danger of disintegrating as Jonker penalised them 10 yards for back-chatting.

The Wallabies were seeing more possession but when Ireland came up with the ball in the 58th minute O'Gara sent them deep into opposition territory with a sublime touch-finder and then booted his third penalty.

O'Gara missed a penalty in the 66th minute but Australia looked dead on their feet and seemed incapable of staging a comeback.

Little more headway could be made as the conditions grew increasingly worse and the influx of late replacements disturbed the rhythm of the game -- a common and highly frustrating aspect of modern rugby.

But it mattered not one wit, Ireland were already out of sight.

Man of the match:  Rocky Elsom and Chris Latham kept the Australian flag flying, albeit at half-mast, but the Irish were so dominant that one feels compelled to hand out a joint 22-man award.  The glories of Ireland's backline are well documented, but it was the Irish forwards who impressed on Saturday.  Denis Leamy, bar some indiscipline, swatted the Wallabies off like flies and John Hayes got through a mountain of work in the tight, but our award goes to the marauding Neil Best who got himself absolutely everywhere, not least up the noses of the opposition.

Moment of the match:  Ireland's second try was an absolute corker.  Stolen line-out ball turned into points by the cunning of the backline spells "teamwork".  But we'll opt for the crowd's standing ovation at the break which sums up Ireland's magnificent first 40 minutes.

Villain of the match:  Denis Leamy and Phil Waugh deserve slapped wrists for their disagreement in the second half, but Mat Rogers deserves more for steaming into other people's business from 20 yards away.  This one's for you, Mat.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Tries:  Hickie, Murphy
Con:  O'Gara
Pens:  O'Gara 3

For Australia:
Pens:  Mortlock 2

Yellow card(s):  Waugh (Australia) -- fighting, 52; Rogers (Australia) -- fighting, 52; Leamy (Ireland) -- fighting, 52.

Teams:

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

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

Referee:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Nigel Owens (Wales), Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Assessor:  Brian Smith (Ireland)

Injuries sour Scotland's glory

Beattie and Cusiter carried off

Scotland underlined their burgeoning stature with a well-taken 34-22 victory over a game Pacific Islanders side at Murrayfield on Saturday.  But the win, in which the hosts had led 31-5, was marred by injuries to Johnnie Beattie and Chris Cusiter, both of whom now look doubtful for Scotland's match against Australia next week.

Whether the Scots have returned to the path that they slide off in the late nineties is still a matter of debate, but Frank Hadden's men have produced enough evidence to suggest that this revival could blossom into a bright new era.

True, the Pacific Islanders are not quite the All Blacks, but they put up a decent if disjointed fight.  What was impressive about Scotland was their ability to dictate terms.

The Islanders did excel in one area of play and that was their intuition on the counterattack, but rugby depends on a lot more than pure god-given ability.

The Islanders' lack of together-time was evident for long passages of play, passes checked their receivers and defensive patterns lacked cohesion.  But these guys can put passes together and threatened the comeback of all comebacks before the Scots managed to put a lid on the gathering storm.

Plenty of column inches had been dedicated to the Islanders' love of running but it was Scotland who made the more enterprising start even though that adventure came at quite a price.

Johnnie Beattie was forced to exit the stage in the eighth minute of the game with an ankle injury and the gloom grew deeper as Chris Cusiter followed the No.8 to the medical tent just seconds later -- a sad moment for a man keen to reassert himself on the Test stage after a long injury-enforced absence.

But Marcus Di Rollo soon lifted Scottish spirits by punctuating good approach work from his forwards with an easy try born of lackadaisical defending.  Chris Paterson converted in the shadow of the uprights.

The forwards spied a chink in the Islanders' armoury and began to turn the screw with a series of handsome driving mauls.

With the Islanders in reverse, Mike Blair -- on for the luckless Cusiter -- decided to ship the ball wide, and a brilliant miss-three pass from Dan Parks found Dave Callam -- on for the luckless Beattie -- who slid into the corner for Scotland's second try; Paterson added the extras with a fine conversion.

Scotland had their tails up now and began to play wide rugby, with Simon Webster to the fore.

The Islanders did what they could with limited possession, but their efforts lacked cohesion.  Frustration got the better of the tourists and Epi Taione was soon trudging off to the sin-bin for killing the ball.

Scotland made good use of their numerical advantage; Kelly Brown broke off the back of a driving maul to score and he was soon followed by Andrew Henderson who snaffled a try on the back of another fine break from Webster.

Paterson converted both tries to leave Scotland 28-0 up after just 28 minutes.  It seemed Christmas had come early.

But the locals were unable to maintain the momentum and a poor clearance from Parks gifted the visitors a line-out on the blue 10-metre line.

With a sniff of a score, island intuition kicked into gear and fine handling across the backline allowed Rupeni Caucaunibuca to stroll in for a try on his opposite wing.

Tusi Pisi missed the difficult conversion and Paterson drew the first half to a close by slotting a 42-metre penalty.  At 31-5 up at the break, Scotland's half-time oranges must have tasted very sweet indeed.

Credit to the Islanders, they could have easily thrown in the towel but they exploded into the second period, scoring two tries in the first five minutes.

Kameli Ratuvou was the first man over the whitewash after he scooped up spilt Scottish possession to poach an unconverted try.

Then Caucaunibuca gave birth to a length-of-the-field try, scored by Daniel Leo, that owed its metamorphosis to the natural dexterity and vision of the tourists.

But Pisi failed to land his conversion yet again, with Parks doing well to charge down his kick at goal.

Scotland tried to lure their increasingly confident guests into a pitched battle, but the Islanders were having none of it.  Great handling and Caucaunibuca's phenomenal strength almost produced another long-distance try, but Sean Lamont performed miracles in defence.

Scotland put their thinking caps on and Parks began to play for territory, but quick throw-in after quick throw-in kept island fires burning.  They were beginning to click.

Then, in the manner of stern parents, Scotland stamped order on the raucous proceedings, confining their rowdy guests to their own half via boot and brawn.

Lome Fa'atau almost got over the line at the end of one of a handful of jail-breaks, but good cover defence took him into touch.

Di Rollo added a drop-goal in the closing stages of the game, but it was the Islanders who had the last word as Ratuvou picked up his second try of the day after collecting his own grubber.

Pisi finally found his range with the conversion, but it was too little too late.

Man of the match:  Plenty of fine individual performances from the Islanders, but this award must go to a Scot.  Kelly Brown had an industrious day on the openside, Sean Lamont was a rock in defence and Marcus Di Rollo held the backline together.  But our man of the match is Simon Webster whose adventurous running lines out-islanded the Islanders.

Moment of the match:  Could it be Rupeni Caucaunibuca's first touch?  Or Seru Rabeni's pile-driving tackle on Simon Taylor?  We'll opt for the free-flowing build up to Leo's try.

Villain of the match:  Epi Taione earned a yellow-card, but it wasn't evil incarnate.  No award.

The scorers:

For Scotland:
Tries:  Di Rollo, Callam, Brown, Henderson
Cons:  Parks, Paterson 3
Pen:  PatersonDrop goal:  Di Rollo

For the Pacific Islanders:
Tries:  Caucaunibuca, Ratuvou 2, Leo
Con:  Pisi

Yellow card(s):  Taione (Pacific Islanders) -- killing the ball, 25

The teams:

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

Pacific Islanders:  15 Norman Ligairi, 14 Lome Fa'atau, 13 Kameli Ratuvou, 12 Elvis Seveali'i, 11 Rupeni Caucaunibuca, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Moses Rauluni, 8 Epi Taione, 7 Nili Latu, 6 Viliami Vaki, 5 Daniel Leo, 4 Simon Raiwalui (captain), 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 2 Mahonri Schwalger, 1 Taufa'ao Felise.
Replacements:  16 Aleki Lutui, 17 Justin Va'a, 18 Ma'ama Molitika, 19 Semo Sititi, 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Seremaia Bai, 22 Seru Rabeni.

Referee:  Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Alan Lewis and George Clancy (both Ireland)
TMO:  Hugh Watkins (Wales)

Pumas race back to win in Rome

Todeschini sparks another Argentine comeback

Argentina staged a superb second-half comeback to claim a 23-16 victory over Italy in Rome on Saturday.

Have you heard of a monkeys' wedding?  When the sun shines and the rain falls at the same time, that's a monkey's wedding.  That's what we had in Rome on Saturday afternoon, but there was certainly not a bagful of tricks on the field in that tryless first half.

Oh there could have been a try but prop Marcos Ayerza knocked on, which was the only way that there would not be a try.  Ayerza had a prodigal half as he gave away three penalties, one of which gave David Bortolussi a long goal-kick from his own half, which he goaled to give the Azzurri the lead.

In fact the Pumas were prodigal for they gave away ten penalties (to three) in that half.

It was a half of much kicking, a lot of it desultory.

When Alessandro Zanni was penalised at a tackle/tuck, Federico Todeschini, a hero at Twickenham the week before, goaled a penalty to open the scoring.

A bit of unsubtle barging in the line-out by young Estaban Lozada enabled Bortolussi to level the scores.  penalised at a scrum -- he was penalised twice at collapsed scrums -- Ayerza enabled Bortolussi to put Italy ahead and then just on half time he gave his side a 9-3 lead with a 45-metre penalty when the Pumas captain of the day, Gonzalo Longo, tackled late.

Sin novedad!  There was nothing notable to report, sir.

The second half was a bit better.  After all, there were three tries -- two long-range affairs by Argentina and a well-worked try by Italy.

Todeschini scored first in the second half when the Italian hooker Carlo Festuccia went off-side.

After that Italy looked promising, despite their erratic flyhalf Ramiro Pez who served Argentina well.  (The little man comes from Córdoba in Argentina.  (Isn't Fifth Columnist a Spanish concept?)  There were promising breaks by Pablo Canavosio, Gonzalo Canale and Mirco Bergamasco.  (The first two are also Argentinians which suggests that they really were trying to serve their adopted country well.)

But it was the Pumas who scored first.  Their handling just inside their own half broke down but big Ignacio Corleto, playing on the right wing, grabbed the ball and raced down the touch-line, bursting inside through Marco Bortolami's tackle to feed Todeschini on his insiode, and the flyhalf scored a try which he converted.

The second try was also a break out as the ball went from industrious Horacio Agulla on the left wing to Miguel Avramovic and then to Martín Durand and back to Avramovic who was delighted to score.  Again Todeschini converted.  20-9 to Argentina after 62 minutes.

Lots of substitutions happened about this time.  One of them was flank Juan Manuel Leguizamon who went straight into action and straight out of it again.  He was involved in a scuffle and seemed to be complaining about a finger in the eye but the referee had seen him interfering with the ball in the tackle and sent him, holding his right eye, to the sin bin.

From the second of two attacking line-outs, the Italians went rapidly right and replacement flyhalf Andrea Scanavacca played back inside to left wing Marko Stanojevic who cut clean through to score.

The appearance of Scanavacca at flyhalf made a vast difference to Italy's ability to run the ball.

Italy were running the ball because they were within a try of possible victory but Scanavacca was penalised for holding on in a tackle and Todeschini, ineluctably, lobbed the long kick over, and the final whistle went.

Man of the Match:  It was not a match for heroes at all but Mirco Bergamasco and Paul Griffen did well for Italy while Horacio Agulla was busy for Argentina but our Man of the Match, despite two lost line-outs, was hooker Mario Ledesma.

Moment of the Match:  There were three tries, but the breath-catching clean finish of Marko Stanojevic gets our nod.

Villain of the Match:  Juan Manuel Leguizamon got the yellow card but if somebody really did set out to poke him in the eye, that would be the villain.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Try:  Stanojevic
Con:  Bortolussi
Pens:  Bortolussi 3

For Argentina:
Tries:  Todeschini, Avramovic
Cons:  Todeschini
Pens:  Todeschini 3

The teams:

Italy:  15 David Bortolussi, 14 Pablo Canavosio, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Marko Stanojevic, 10 Ramiro Pez, 9 Paul Griffen, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami (captain), 4 Santiago Dellape, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements:  16 Fabio Ongaro, 17 Carlos Nieto, 18 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 19 Josh Sole, 20 Simon Picone, 21 Andrea Scanavacca, 22 Walter Pozzebon.

Argentina:  15 Juan Martin Hernández, 14 Ignacio Corleto, 13 Miguel Avramovic, 12 Manuel Contepomi, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, 8 Gonzalo Longo (captain), 7 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand.  5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Esteban Lozada, 3 Martín Scelzo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements:  16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Juan Gómez, 18 Jaime Arocena, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 20 Nicolás Vergallo, 21 Hernán Senillosa, 22 Pablo Gómez Cora

Referee:  Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Joël Jutge, Romain Poite (both France)
Television match official:  Tim Hayes (Wales)