Scotland 23 Italy 19

Duncan Hodge kicked Scotland to their first Six Nations victory of the season as they beat Italy 23-19 at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Fly-half Hodge was successful with five of his seven attempts, scoring 17 points, including five penalties and one drop goal, helping Scotland to narrowly avenge last season's shock 34-20 defeat in Rome.

However, Scottish captain Budge Pountney dismissed the fact the win had not been convincing.  "To get the first win on board this season is important even if we weren't so pleased with the performance," he said.

"We made a couple of errors in the second-half which allowed them to get back in the game but overall it has been a positive day and it will give us confidence," he added.

Italy fly-half Diego Dominguez gave a typically peerless kicking display, scoring 14 points with his boot.  But this time it was not enough, although Italy did have the consolation of scoring the try of the match through flanker and man-of-the-match Mauro Bergamasco.

Italy have now lost all four of their matches in this season's championship, putting them in pole position for the wooden spoon.

This was a match Brad Johnstone's team could have won after being 10-6 up at the break.

Then Hodge and Dominguez exchanged penalty goals at the start of the second half before Italy No.8 Carlo Checchinato was yellow-carded by French referee Joel Dume for persistently killing the ball.

Hodge maintained his then perfect kicking record, slotting over the resultant penalty and Scotland were just a point behind at 12-13.

However, his 52nd-minute miss after Bergamasco had infringed left Italy's slender lead intact.  But three minutes later Scotland were in the lead.  Hodge kicked a penalty to touch and from the resultant drive Brive prop Tom Smith just did enough to ground the ball on the line.

Dume called for the video referee before awarding the score but worryingly for Scotland, Hodge missed the conversion with a wild slice to the right.  Even so they were 17-13 ahead.

Dominguez's boot was more reliable and another penalty took Italy back into the game at 17-16 behind and then his accurate kick put the vistors 19-17 ahead after the Scotland forwards erred again.

However, Italian discipline cracked when substitute Giovanni Raineri was penalised for preventing fair release and this time Hodge was on target to give Scotland a 20-19 lead.

Earlier Scotland signalled their intention to grasp the victory when Hodge took a leaf out of Welsh fly-half Neil Jenkins' book and fired over a drop-goal after 38 seconds to put the home side into an early 3-0 lead.

Their bright start continued when Hodge put up an enormous up-and-under, but the chasing Gregor Townsend could only knock on as full-back Cristian Stoica failed to collect.

Italy's first attack of any note was pulled up when Checchinato was penalised for illegal use of the boot.

Hodge kicked his first penalty of the afternoon to put his side 6-0 up when the Italians strayed offside after 21 minutes.

And they should have been even further in front when John Leslie and Townsend combined beautifully to put Craig away, but the youngster could not beat last line of defence Stoica who bundled him into touch.

With Townsend increasingly prominent Scotland continued to cut loose with sparkling rugby but Italy hung in gamely and got their reward through a sparkling 26th-minute try from Bergamasco.  The Treviso flanker took a pass from the base of a scrum -- given after Pountney lost possession in the tackle -- before slipping a Townsend tackle, stepping around Redpath and out-paced full-back Chris Paterson on his way to a 35-metre sprint to the line.

Dominguez fired over a superb touchline conversion to put the visitors into a shock 7-6 lead.  And he stretched it out to 10-6 almost immediately with a 45-metre penalty after another Pountney misdemeanour.

Italy rallied at the close but Scotland just did enough to cling on for an unconvincing win.

Yellow card:  Checchinato

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Stuart Grimes, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney (c), 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Bryan Redpath, 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 James Craig, 12 John Leslie, 13 Gregor Townsend, 14 Kenny Logan, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, Jon Petrie, Cammie Murray, Steve Scott
Unused:  Richard Metcalfe, Glenn Metcalfe, Andy Nicol

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi (c), 3 Franco Properzi-Curti, 4 Wim Visser, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Carlo Checchinato, 9 Filippo Frati, 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Luca Martin, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Walter Pozzebon, 14 Massimiliano Perziano, 15 Cristian Stoica
Reserves:  Matteo Mazzantini, Carlo Caione, Salvatore Perugini, Giovanni Raineri
Unused:  Andrea Benatti, Giampiero De Carli, Andrea Scanavacca

Att:  60,708
Referee:  Joel Dume (Fra)

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Smith T.J. 1
Pen K.:  Hodge D.W. 5
Drop G.:  Hodge D.W. 1

Italy
Tries:  Bergamasco M. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 4

Wales 43 France 35

A magnificent 28 points from fly-half Neil Jenkins inspired Wales to their first back-to-back success in Paris since 1957 on Saturday as they beat France 43-35 in a pulsating encounter that saw the lead change three times.

Jenkins, who also broached the 1000 points mark for Wales in his 83rd international was appropriately the last try scorer for the visitors who at one point trailed 19-6.

The Welsh outscored the French by four tries to two -- Robert Howley's superb individual effort from within his 22 just before halftime sparking a great Welsh comeback -- with Scott Quinnell and Dafydd James grabbing the others.

Tries from Sebastien Bonetti, his second in two matches, and winger Philippe Bernat-Salles, making it four in four matches of the tournament, and 14 from Gerald Merceron were the base of the French score.

But the French will be kicking themselves for missing a string of scoring opportunities throughout the game.

"That was as good a game of rugby as you'll see," said Welsh coach Graham Henry.  "I'm delighted for the boys.  I thought they were brilliant in the second half ... we controlled the game and had more composure than the French," he added.  "Rob's try was the catalyst really.  It helped motivate the guys and created the things which followed," he added.

Henry said he had been delighted by Jenkins' virtuoso display, which saw him break the 1,000-point barrier for Wales.  "I thought his second half was magic.  I don't know if he has played a better 40 minutes of rugby in a Welsh shirt," Henry said.

Jenkins played down the significance of finally bringing up his 1,000.  "Rugby's a team game.  It's nice to get it but it's just an honour and a privilege to wear the red jersey," he said.

Henry's counterpart Bernard Laporte was downcast in defeat, bemoaning his side's self-destructive streak.

"At 19-6 we were in control of the game.  But we got caught in the trap of trying to run the ball too much," Laporte said.

"We ended up getting very tired in the second half and just didn't have the juice," he said.  "Once again we also failed to score from clear chances, which was disappointing," he added, referring to earlier matches this season where France have frittered away try-scoring opportunities.

France were guilty of several glaring misses and should have started the second-half with a try but Jean-Luc Sadourny, still defying his 34 years with electric bursts, failed to make a 2-1 overlap come off and Wales were able to clear eventually.

Merceron, who had given the French backs the spark that Lamaison had failed to in the first three matches, had to go off after just three minutes of the second period with a knee injury allowing Lamaison a chance to rediscover his lost form.

The Welsh, though, struck the front for the first time when Mark Taylor, whose ankle injury has not yet fully healed, slipped a pass to Quinnell and with Sadourny slipping on the greasy surface raced over to touch down -- Jenkins converted for a 23-19 lead.

The French replied with a penalty but Wales emboldened by their new found verve restored the four-point lead when Jenkins magnetic boot dropped a goal from 35 metres out to bring up his 1000 point mark for the Red Dragons.

The Welsh were on fire now and a superb move with Quinnell charging into the line passing on to Taylor whose pass inside to James coming in off his wing brought them their third try of a blistering period of play.

The French fans had had enough and out came the whistles and jeers though Jenkins, who had converted James' try, failed for once with the boot from a 35 metres penalty.

However, with just over 20 minutes to go Howley turned villain when he lost possession just inside France's half and in a sweeping move Sadourny burst into the line to deliver the telling pass to fellow veteran Bernat-Salles, who raced over for his first try against Wales in three meetings.

Bonetti almost grabbed a second for himself when he took a superb pass from Lamaison on the burst and was stopped just short of the line by Gareth Thomas -- though Lamaison slotted over a penalty a minute later to to leave them just a point adrift.

Bonetti was rampant by this stage and another storming run saw him again grounded by Thomas just inches from the line with fullback Rhys Williams hacking the loose ball into touch but Lamaison gave France the lead 35-33 with a coolly-taken penalty five minutes from the end.

The Welsh though rallied and Jenkins restored their lead with a minute to go with another sublime drop goal.

The 23-year-old centre, who had got his place in the side on the back of Yannick Jauzion's injury prior to the Italy match, had given the French the perfect start when he touched down under the posts after just 10 minutes when Merceron burst through the Welsh midfield and passed inside to him.

France should have had another try minutes later when they had a huge overlap but Bernat-Salles somehow contrived to mess it up -- though Merceron slotted over a penalty for a subsequent infringement.

Henry reacted to these two quick scores by giving his replacements a run round the pitch to try and inspire the team -- seconds later Jenkins got their first points with a penalty.  However, Henry's call for the players to use their heads evidently hadn't got through and trying to run it out of their 22 they conceded a penalty which Merceron accepted readily to restore the 10 point deficit.

The Welsh were at sixes and sevens at this point and handed the French another penalty which Merceron's unerring boot found easily within its range to make it 16-3.

The visitors muffed a great opportunity in the 25th minute when with no French defence in sight a wild pass by Taylor went behind Thomas and a surefire try went abegging -- which was slightly redressed when Jenkins added a penalty a minute later for 16-6.

However, the status quo of the first-half was restored when Merceron added another penalty after fullback Williams, who was having a nightmare match, failed to release the ball after being tackled.

Jenkins, though, kept Wales in the hunt with a cracking penalty from just within the French half to make it 19-9.

Centre Thomas Lombard showed why he had managed only one try in his previous 11 appearances by slipping over with a free run to the line as the French carved up the Welsh defence down the blindside.

However, then came Howley's moment of supreme genius picking the ball up from a scrum in his own 22 and sprinting the length of the pitch and with Thomas in support turned Sadourny inside out and evaded the desperate late surge by Bernat-Salles.  Jenkins converted to make it 19-16 at halftime.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Darren Morris, 2 Robin McBryde, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Ian Gough, 5 Andrew Moore, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Dafydd James, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Rhys Williams
Reserves:  Geraint Lewis, Stephen Jones, Andrew Lewis, Craig Quinnell
Unused:  Gareth Cooper, Chris Anthony, Allan Bateman

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Gerald Merceron, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 Sebastien Bonetti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Jean-Luc Sadourny
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Christophe Lamaison, Sylvain Marconnet
Unused:  Philippe Carbonneau, Fabrice Landreau, Pepito Elhorga, Lionel Nallet

Referee:  Lewis a.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Howley R. 1, James D.R. 1, Jenkins N.R. 1, Quinnell L.S. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 4
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 3
Drop G.:  Jenkins N.R. 2

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Bonetti S. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 1, Merceron G. 1
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 3, Merceron G. 4

England 43 Scotland 3

An impressive, if not perfect, England simply blew away the challenge of Scotland in the Calcutta Cup with two tries from Iain Balshaw helping them to a record 43-3 win at Twickenham.

The win, the biggest ever for England between these two nations, underlined just why it looks likely that only a fantastic effort from Ireland, or worringly the more malevolent influence of foot-and-mouth, can surely deny England the Grand Slam.

Scotland were competitive for the first half an hour but once England got in to their stride, they were little more than that and at the heart of things going forward for England was Iain Balshaw.

Whatever his defensive frailties, and again there were some yet again, he brings an attacking edge from fullback that many sides find hard to counter and, after his negative comments earlier in the week, Finlay Calder may well be donning his Braveheart gear for an impressive Mel Gibson impersonation.

A modest Balshaw refused to ram the words down Calder's throat, saying:  "He's entitled to his opinion, and I was just delighted with the performance, and coming up with a good result."

It is a mark of how far England have come, and the expectation heaped upon them, that many will point to a less than perfect line-out, only winning 12 out of their 15, seven turnovers and 13 handling errors.

However, such was their dominance they could afford such lapses and, although many in the southern hemipshere will point to a lack of credible challengers in the Six Nations, England have an hardened and efficient edge that they have lacked over the past few years.

A delighted England manager Clive Woodward said after another impressive 15-man display from his side that it was the mix of styles that separates his side from the one which flopped in the 1999 World Cup.

"The ambition and variety is what pleases me.  In the past we've been too predictable.  We have a special group of players but you've got to pick them."

"The no tries conceded pleases me as well, espeially at the end when we lost our shape a bit.  We can't wait for the next game, but I'm not going to get carried away," he added.

Another England star who chalked up two tries on the day was former captain Lawrence Dallaglio, who said afterwards:  "It was a potentially tricky game, and they always raise their game when they play England.

"Our defensive training all week has been absolutely spot on, and we were determined not to concede any tries.  In the seond-half we maybe got the ball out wide a bit too early, but it's nice to be on the scoresheet, and a lot nicer to win."

Scotland coach Ian McGeechan refused to condemn his side after a start to the game which had them in contention, saying:  "I'm disappointed with the final score, although we came to the speed of the game pretty well in the first half.

"We can't take anything away from that England performance, and it was their two tries just before half-time which took them away.  We couldn't cause them to think at the right times."

With the British and Irish Lions selection already a talking point, former Lions coach McGeechan said of the current England side:  "A lot of them have to be in contention."

After an opening spell where midfield defences were on top England took the lead in the seventh minute.

Following good work by England lock Danny Grewcock flying full-back Balshaw surged forward.  Balshaw, who created a buzz of excitement in the crowd whenever he used his electrifying pace, cut through the cover.

Flanker Neil Back was in support and the retreating Scots could not prevent an overlap when No.8 Lawrence Dallaglio took a pass from centre Mike Catt to touchdown out on the right.  England fly-half Wilkinson missed the conversion, sparking concern that last weekend's poor kicking form from the English Cup final here, might be returning.

Dallaglio's try did not see the floodgates open, however.  The Scottish defence was initially resilient and the visitors enjoyed territory through the astute kicking of wing Cameron Murray and outside-half Duncan Hodge.

But a 10th minute Wilkinson penalty put England 8-0 up before Hodge responded in kind three minutes later.

The match then became bogged down although England looked dangerous when they moved the ball wide and Scotland wing Kenny Logan caused comcern with a lone break.

But in the 37th minute England's greater fluency was rewarded with another try.

After several phases of sustained possession, involving both forwards and backs, including superb hands from Greenwood, England again created an overlap on the right and flanker Richard Hill scored a converted try.

Then, in first-half extra time, England went further ahead.  More sustained handling finished with Wilkinson darting through before passing to Dallaglio for the Wasps forward's second try.

Wilkinson converted and England were on their way to a record-breaking result.

Three minutes after the break, it was Balshaw who effectively sealed the game.  Good midfield work from centre Will Greenwood and Leicester wing Austin Healey released Balshaw down the right to then shimmy through the defence for a fine try.

To make matters worse for Scotland, flanker Budge Pountney was sin-binned for kicking Northampton team-mate and England scrum-half Matt Dawson.

England's pack was also enjoying its work with a series of scrums.  From one five-metre shove the ball was moved wide to Healey but the Leicester man was knocked into the corner flag by a last-ditch tackle from full-back Chris Paterson.

Not that this slowed the scoring for long.  A brilliant cross-kick by centre Mike Catt found Bath team-mate Balshaw for his second try in the 62nd minute.  Jonny Wilkinson converted and England were 36-3 ahead.

The scoring was completed when a sprint through a tired Scotland defence by substitute Jason Robinson saw him feed Will Greenwood for a simple try under the posts.

A streaker then braved the cold to add a last-minute note of comedy -- but only England were probably laughing.

The Teams:

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Dorian West, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Will Greenwood, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Iain Balshaw
Reserves:  Kyran Bracken, Mark Regan, Jason Robinson, Joe Worsley
Unused:  Martin Corry, Matt Perry, Trevor Woodman

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Richard Metcalfe, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Andy Nicol (c), 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Alan Bulloch, 13 John Leslie, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, James Craig, Stuart Grimes, James McLaren, Bryan Redpath
Unused:  Jon Petrie, Steve Scott

Attendance:  75000
Referee:  Davies r.

Points Scorers:

England
Tries:  Dallaglio L.B.N. 2, Greenwood W.J.H. 1, Hill R.A. 1, Balshaw I.R. 2
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 5
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 1

Scotland
Pen K.:  Hodge D.W. 1

France 30 Italy 19

A less than convincing performance from Bernard Laporte's France side saw them churn out a 30-19 win over a down but not out Italy team in Saturday's Lloyds TSB Six Nations Championship clash in Rome.

The statistics will read that France out-scored Italy three tries to one, with scores from Sadourny, Bernat-Salles (pictured) and Bonetti for the visitors, but if ever evidence were needed of the mediocrity besetting the French Test side then this 80 minutes provided it.

With France limping in to half-time at 14-9 up, an incohesive and largely ineffective Italy team were always in the match, and when Massimiliano Perziano touched down for the Azzurri with ten minutes to go, France only had five points between themselves and a potentially embarrassing defeat.

Largely to blame was the horrendous goal-kicking of Christophe Lamaison, who not once, not twice, but three times missed penalties which would have been a gift to any club kicker down the leagues, with opposite number Diego Dominguez in typically ruthless form to keep his side in with a fighting chance.

French coach Bernard Laporte was less than delighted with the victory, but picked out some plus points saying:  "Our defence was good.  We could have killed the match much earlier if we had scored the missed penalties.

"I am satisfied but I know Lamaison can do much better.  He was picked for his goalkicking ability but never performed as he can."

The returning Alessandro Troncon was as much of a disappointment as the spectacle itself on the day, with a laboured and unclinical 65 minutes resulting in an early departure for the scrum-half returning from suspension -- admittedly only semi-fit for the game carrying a calf injury.

Under-fire Italy coach Brad Jonstone put the defeat in to perspective, while ducking questions about his reportedly tenuous hold on his job with the Italian Federation, saying:  "We are making progress.  But while we are running ahead other countries like England are sprinting ahead."

"Rugby is now a professional sport and we must go professional if we can catch up with the other countries."

But asked to criticise the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) Johnstone said:  "Unfortunately I cannot answer that question as I have a family to feed."

It was the returning hero Dominguez -- playing against a number of his Stade Francais team-mates -- who got the scoreboard ticking with a penalty after nine minutes for Italy, but France stole the lead five minutes later with a touch of class from Christophe Lamaison.

With the French attack apparently grinding to a halt on the Italy 22, the Agen stand-off went down the blindside and as the defence flocked round him like bees, he slipped through a superb low weighted kick to completely flat-foot the Italian rearguard.

The beneficiary was fullback Jean-Luc Sadourny, whose perfectly timed run saw the ball leap up in to his arms for the easiest of run ins, with Lamaison converting from in front of the posts.

France consigned an indecisive Italy to further misery after 26 minutes when a superb passage of play, started from a scrum outside their own 22 saw the returning Fabien Galthie break down the blindside and accelerate past the advancing defence.

He cleverly offloaded to the lively Sadourny who free of the Italian three-quarter line faced a two on one overlap for the score.  He drew the last man in textbook fashion on the 22 for wing Philippe Bernat-Salles to characteristically streak away at high speed under the posts for the try, again converted with ease by Lamaison, who was having difficulty transferring his execution of the conversions to similarly easy penalties.

Not once but twice Lamaison horribly failed to make proper contact with penalties which would normally have been meat and drink to the butcher's son, and with Dominguez slotting a third penalty of the half for Italy, France stayed ahead at the break, but within reach of a powerful, but slow Italian side.

Italy coach Brad Johnstone must have delivered a rocket of a half-time speech, as his side came out with a new energy, and nearly got their first try of the day as Perziano chased a kick down the right wing at high speed, only to be foiled by the positional play of Sadourny in the French try area.

Italy only had themselves to blame for wasting a golden chance of three points when awarded a penalty ten metres from the French line.  They took time to consider their options, and with the French only five points in front it seemed incomprehensible that anything other than a Dominguez penalty would be on the cards.

For some reason they decided to run the ball against the might of the French pack, and predictably their maul ground to a halt at the first hurdle, as Troncon took an age to make up his mind, and was swamped by the hungry French pack.

France broke straightaway with Italy at sixes and sevens in defence, and with a two man overlap Bernat-Salles broke to the Italy 22.  He shipped the ball to the usually reliable Magne, whose hands let him down with a try begging outside.  Troncon once again proved chief destructor by blatantly killing the ball right under the nose of the referee.  Lamaison struck over the easy penalty, but Troncon was a lucky man to not to find himself in the sin bin.

Dominguez kept Italy in contention with another penalty soon after, striking a fierce kick in to the wind, which just bobbled over the posts via the top of the crossbar, but it was France who were making all of the running as the game went on, with Italy struggling to string the passes together, and looking more disjointed with every minute the second half went on.

Lamaison proved that his first two penalty misses were no flukes by hooking another shot wide of the posts after 56 minutes -- albeit a long one, before striking the next one a moment later over for a 20-12 lead.

France thought that they had got their third try of the game when from a scrum Olivier Magne looked to have beaten the Italian back-row to a loose ball in the Italian try area to touch down, but after the linesman stepped in it was rightly judged to have came straight out of the front-row tunnel, with France wasting their next attempt at the scrum.

Les Bleus finally increased their lead when Lamaison squeezed in a tight penalty from the left hand touch line, and at only 11 points down Italy looked down and out, with virtually no imagination on the ball -- on the few occasions that they actually had it.

After a torrid and largely diluted comeback, scrum-half Troncon -- so often the engine of the Italy side was replaced by Juan Manuel Queirolo with 15 minutes to go in an attempt to revive the Italian challenge.

His first act was to dive in to a ruck and concede a foolish penalty which Lamaison missed, but Italy had a surprise up their sleeve.

With play in midfield Dominguez embarked on a horizontal run across his back line.  He laid off a deft inside ball to the suriging Manuel Dallan, who slotted through a firm grubber kick in to the French try area down the right flank, which Perziano scurried after and beat the retreating Frenchmen to for the try.

Dominguez slipped over in comical fashion as he struck the testing conversion from way out on the right wing, but the Roman wind somehow blew the ball between the posts and over the crossbar to set up a tighter finale than should have been at 23-19 down and ten minutes to go.

Lamaison missed yet another long penalty as a nervous French side -- still dominating proceedings by and large -- again failed to extend their lead.

Not for long though as debutant centre Sebastien Bonetti dived under the posts as Italy flew in to a ruck en masse near their own line.  With the ball flung inside there was virtually no opposition for Bonetti who touched down for Lamaison to convert for the 30-19 scoreline before referee Chris White brought the game to an end.

Not a convincing French performance by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid one none the less.

The Teams:

France:  1 Christian Califano, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Pieter De Villiers, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Thomas Lombard, 13 Sebastien Bonetti, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Jean-Luc Sadourny
Reserves:  Serge Betsen Tchoua, Sylvain Marconnet
Unused:  Abdelatif Benazzi, Philippe Carbonneau, Fabrice Landreau, Gerald Merceron, David Bory

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi (c), 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Wim Visser, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Carlo Checchinato, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Walter Pozzebon, 14 Massimiliano Perziano, 15 Cristian Stoica
Reserves:  Franco Properzi-Curti, Juan Manuel Queirolo
Unused:  David Dal Maso, Luca Martin, Carlo Caione, Giampiero De Carli, Andrea Scanavacca

Attendance:  24973
Referee:  White c.

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Sadourny J-L. 1, Bonetti S. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 3
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 3

Italy
Tries:  Perziano M. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1
Pen K.:  Dominguez D. 4

England 80 Italy 23

It took them time to get going, but hot Six Nations favourites England scored 47 unanswered second-half points to finally see off an inexperienced and unfancied Italy 80-23 in their Six Nations game at Twickenham.

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson scored 35 of them including 30 of them with 13 successful kicks out of 14, as England recorded their biggest score in the tournament and remain along with Ireland -- who downed France 22-15 in Dublin -- the only sides capable of landing the 2001 Grand Slam.

By the time Wilkinson deservedly scored a last minute try of his own and Lawrence Dallaglio added an extra-time try England were almost playing exhibition rugby against an exhausted Italy.

But earlier Italy had refused to play the role of sacrificial victims in the first-half matching England almost score for score, the home team not looking like 150-1 odds-on winners.  Indeed England, after arrogantly spurning a kickable penalty chance in the opening minute, were made to pay when the visitors opened the scoring.

Following an England offide Italy kicked the penalty to touch for a lineout close to the England line.

Lock Andrea Gritti caught the throw, the forwards drove and the ball was fed out to Denis Dallan, who had moved across from the left to the right wing.

He burst through three tackles before touching down in the corner.  New full-back Andrea Scanavacca converted, suggesting injured points machine Diego Dominguez might not be such a big loss after all.

England responded, three minutes later through the boot of Wilkinson who was on target with all seven of his first-half kicks at goal.

Gradually England's forwards gained a measure of control, allowing the England backs to show the same quick skillis that finished off Wales in Cardiff.

Dallaglio, whose father was born in Italy, made good ground up the middle, the No.8, passing to speedy full-back Iain Balshaw.

He returned the pass before Dallaglio sent in right wing Austin Healey in the 14th minute.  A Scanavacca enalty levelled the scores at 10-10 before more flowing play from the England backs produced another try.

This time Balshaw's eleusive pace started the move after the ball had been spun wide to the right.

He passed to Healey and the Leicester man was almost over the line when he was tackled by opposing wing Luca Martin of English side Northampton.

Australian referee Stuart Dickinson was not certain Healey had grounded the ball and called on video referee Clayton Thomas to make the call.

The Welsh official took an age to decide, receiving a slow handclap from the crowd, before confirming the score.

The ever accurate Wilkinson made light of a tricky conversion and England were 17-10 ahead.  Italy, who had reshaped their backs completely after a 41-22 defeat by Ireland in Rome, came roaring back.

Balshaw knocked on centre Cristian Stoica's high kick, the rebound taken by prop and Italy captain Alessandro Moscardi.

The pack supported and the ball was moved to the blindside where No.8 Carlo Checchinato was on hand to score from close range.

After 25 minutes the scores were level at 17 apiece and England must have wondered what had hit them.

A penalty exchange saw parity maintained before another England try took them clear again.  A quick Matt Dawson tap penalty caught Italy on the backfoot and Healey's long loop pass left Balshaw with a clear run in on the left.

Scanavacca and Wilkinson then shared more penalties to leave England 33-23 up at half-time.  Almost immdediately from the restart England gave themselves breathing space when Northampton wing Ben Cohen crashed through some tired-looking tackles for a score under the posts.

Italy were physically wilting, although England were still making plenty of errors.

Front-rower Mark Regan finished off another overlap move before Italy centre Walter Pozzebon was sin-binned for persistent offside.

Substitute forward Joe Worsley added to Italy's misery when after an inside pass from Balshaw he too scored a try.

The Teams:

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Dorian West, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Will Greenwood, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Iain Balshaw
Reserves:  Kyran Bracken, Martin Corry, Mark Regan, Jason Robinson, Joe Worsley, Trevor Woodman
Unused:  Mike Tindall

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi (c), 3 Andrea Muraro, 4 Wim Visser, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Carlo Caione, 8 Carlo Checchinato, 9 Juan Manuel Queirolo, 10 Giovanni Raineri, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Walter Pozzebon, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Luca Martin, 15 Andrea Scanavacca
Reserves:  David Dal Maso, Marco Rivaro, Giampiero De Carli, Tino Paoletti
Unused:  Matteo Mazzantini, Andrea De Rossi, Ramiro Pez

Attendance:  75000
Referee:  Dickinson s.

Points Scorers:

England
Tries:  Dallaglio L.B.N. 1, Greenwood W.J.H. 1, Healey A.S. 2, Regan M.P. 1, Worsley J.P.R. 1, Balshaw I.R. 2, Cohen B.C. 1, Wilkinson J.P. 1
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 9
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 4

Italy
Tries:  Dallan D. 1, Checchinato C. 1
Conv:  Scanavacca A. 2
Pen K.:  Scanavacca A. 3

Ireland 22 France 15

Brian O'Driscoll lived up to his pre-match hype to star in a historic 22-15 Ireland win over France in Saturday's Lloyds TSB Six Nations clash at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, scoring the only try for the Irishmen -- albeit a dubious one -- in a fierce and committed display.

In combination with the equally cunning Rob Henderson in the centres, O'Driscoll's outstanding run down the left wing early in the second-half was reward for a varied display from the Irish, which also saw five penalties for stand-off Ronan O'Gara.

France applied pressure at stages, but were an incohesive and often wasteful unit when in possession, although their two second-half tries from Pelous and Bernat-Salles set up a thrilling end to a superb advert for Six Nations rugby -- often derided for its predictability.

A fiery and fascinating first 40 minutes produced no tries, but plenty of drama as Ireland dominated possession and territory, but crucially could not reflect their dominance fully in the score, going to the interval at only 9-3 in front.

France's excursions in to the Ireland half were restricted mainly to the long punts of Christophe Lamasison, that was before his sin-binning in the 32nd minute for a high arm in the face of Tyrone Howe -- which in truth was more clumsy than malicious as Howe changed direction and the reflex grab from the Agen stand-off saw him catch the Ulster wing in the face.

A typically noisy sell-out Lansdowne Road crowd had to wait all of four minutes for their first score of the day, when Ronan O'Gara struck a penalty, but a cagey first 20 minutes from both sides saw Lamaison tie the game at 3-3 after 18 minutes, before Ireland really started to carry out their threats to throw the ball around in their potent backs division.

O'Gara missed a kickable penalty on 20 minutes, before Brian O'Driscoll gave the fans their first glimpse of his lightning acceleration, jinking with quick feet through the French back line before streaking away down the left wing.  With support dwindling though, he was forced to punt forward, and although an impressive kick found the corner, Ireland ultimately came away scoreless.

O'Gara put his side six points up in first-half injury time with a hammer blow of a kick, a penalty from fully 50 metres which flew over with some to spare -- and for once the Dublin wind did not have much to do with it as the sides went in with Ireland 9-3 up, and in the ascendancy.

The Munsterman started the second half where he had left off the first, striking over another penalty to nudge Ireland further past an increasingly disorganised and apparently stunned French side.

But the biggest break was yet to come.  From midfield just inside the France half, the ball was worked right through the hands to inside centre Rob Henderson -- whose hat-trick put Italy to the sword last week.

Henderson jinked his way past one tackle before having the good sense to wait and recycle the ball back as the numbers came.  From the crowd of bodies Brian O'Driscoll suddenly burst clear, with that trademark acceleration plain for all to see, and as he burnt away down the left wing it looked as if he would be bundled in to touch.  However the Leinster man ducked under the attempted tackle and apparently downed the ball before taking the corner flag with him in to touch.

The video referee controversially confirmed the crowd's view of the replay -- which appeared to show O'Driscoll bounce the ball as he went to touch it down, and Lansdowne Road exploded in to life as Ireland led 19-3 after O'Gara's outstanding conversion from the touchline.

Another O'Gara penalty saw Warren Gatland's side extend their lead, but with the French resolve apparently gone, they summoned up a try of true Gallic grit, turning down a kick at goal from short range to go for a powerful rolling maul, which also needed video adjudication before captain Fabien Pelous could claim the score, with lamaison converting to set up a thrilling last 20 minutes at 22-10 down.

With a try now vital if they were to salvage anything from the match, France coach Bernard Laporte brought in strike runner Christophe Dominici for the last ten minutes, and from virtually the play after the visitors nearly scored, when scrum-half Carbonneau -- in for the suspended Galthie -- broke from five metres out, but kicked when it looked like the try was on and wasted the chance.

France did however get the crucial try a minute later when the ball was worked right to the lively Bernat-Salles, who in the same manneras last week against Scotland, accelerated in to the corner from ten metres out for a try, and in the same blow almost doubled the average blood pressure in Dublin with the score at 22-15 and five minutes to go, but Lamaison scuffed the conversion from the touchline to slightly ease the pressure as Ireland summoned on Kevin Maggs to tighten the midfield for the impressive but tired Rob Henderson.

Ronan O'Gara missed another penalty attempt as France piled on the pressure, but Ireland's willingness to run the ball saw them keep the majority of possession as injury-time approached.

Australian referee Scott Young finally put the Lansdowne Road crowd out of their misery after nearly four minutes of added time, in a game which saw Ireland firmly establish themselves as the main rivals to England in the quest for the Six Nations Championship, with the March 24 meeting between the two sides in Dublin pencilled in already as a potential championship decider.

Ireland coach Warren Gatland, who has repaid the faith shown in him by the selectors after many were demanding his head when Ireland conceded 50 points to England in last year's Six Nations opener, was understandably elated.

"We justified the confidence shown in us and showed real backbone when we came under pressure for 15 minutes in the second-half," the 37-year-old Kiwi said.  "I am delighted both with the result and the manner in which we achieved it," added the quietly spoken former All Black reserve hooker.  His French counterpart Bernard Laporte, who is faced with a second successive Six Nations failure, suggested rather lamely that if O'Driscoll had been in their side they would have won.  "The Irish have an extraordinary attack and put us under a lot of pressure," the bespectacled 35-year-old said.

"However, if O'Driscoll had been on our side then we would have won the match," he added.  Laporte, did, though praise his side in the excellent defence they mounted against a furious Irish onslaught.

"We gave away too many balls particularly in the first-half but I thought the defence did really well in stopping the Irish attacks," he said.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 John Hayes, 4 Mick Galwey, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 David Wallace, 7 Alan Quinlan, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Rob Henderson, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 14 Tyrone Howe, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves:  Gary Longwell, Emmet Byrne, Kevin Maggs, Andy Ward
Unused:  David Humphreys, Brian O'Meara, Frankie Sheahan

France:  1 Pieter De Villiers, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Philippe Carbonneau, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Franck Comba, 14 David Bory, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  Abdelatif Benazzi, Serge Betsen Tchoua, Christian Califano, Christophe Dominici
Unused:  Olivier Azam, Gerald Merceron, Christophe Laussucq

Attendance:  50000
Referee:  Scott Young (Australia),
Touch Judges:  Chris White (England), Iain Ramage (Scotland).

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  O'Driscoll B.G. 1
Conv:  O'Gara R.J.R. 1
Pen K.:  O'Gara R.J.R. 5

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Pelous F. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 1
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 1

Scotland 28 Wales 28

Murrayfield witnessed one of the great international comebacks on Saturday, when Scotland fought back from 25-6 down to earn a memorable 28-28 draw with Wales in the Lloyds-TSB Six Nations Championship.

Duncan Hodge held his nerve to strike the decisive conversion with only one minute to go, after Ian McGeechan's Scotland side produced a monumental effort to come up with two tries in the last five minutes when the game looked well beyond them, with Wales' man-of-the-match Neil Jenkins conceding afterwards, "We blew it."

James McLaren and Tom Smith earned the two last gasp tries, adding to Chris Paterson's earlier effort, but it was the poor kicking display of Scotland's Kenny Logan which will have the Murrayfield crowd rueing the one that got away.

On at least three occasions Logan missed easy shots at goal, and when the decisive shot came up at the death he passed the buck to Duncan Hodge to take the applause.

Wales scored only one try on the day, with Mark Taylor's interception score coming just after the break, which had seen his side go in at 18-6 up.

Speaking after the game, Scotland scrum-half and captain Andy Nicol hailed the "never say die" attitude of his battlers.

"This team has a lot of belief, and we're disappointed we didn't win," said the Glasgow Caledonian Reds star.

"Giving Wales a big lead made it very difficult, but we showed a lot of guts."

Wales fly-half Neil Jenkins -- who hit 23 of Wales' 28 points with the boot spoke of the despair in the Welsh dressing room after going in to such a big lead.

"We blew it, absolutely blew it," he said.

"We thought the game was under control, but we let ourselves down defensively again.  No disrespect, but we lost it rather than Scotland winning it.  Hopefully we can build on this."

The difference between the two kickers was obvious right from the start of a try-less forst half, with Jenkins drop-goal in the very first minute flying over to set the scoreboard in motion, and Kenny Logan's first penalty attempt for Scotland going wide, when in truth it was an eminently kickable chance.

It was the two kickers who dominated the first half, or to be more precise one kicker -- Neil Jenkins.  His penalty on seven minutes put Wales 6-0 up, hit back with a penalty from straight in front outside the 22.

Possibly learning their lessons from their Cardiff abomination against England, Wales took the points when they were on offer, with a second drop-goal from Jenkins following, before a third penalty and then another drop goal as the backs struggled to engineer gaps.

One of the attacks which may have yielded the first try was stopped illegally by giant lock Richard Metcalfe, when he curtailed Scott Gibbs' chip-and-chase by body checking him as he ran to retrieve the ball.

In a fairly scrappy half the last word went to Kenny Logan who pulled the scores slightly back with an easy penalty from inside the 22 for an 18-6 half-time score.

The second-half saw both teams come out with tries in mind, and it was Scotland's willingness to throw the ball around in the backs which led to the first try of the match -- unfortunately it went to Wales.

With Scotland in possession in midfield John Leslie saw the space out wide and launched a loop pass, but Wales and Swansea centre Mark Taylor had anticipated the mistake, and as Leslie's pass failed to clear Taylor he stuck his arms in to the air and claimed the ball for a free run-in from the halfway line for the try, which Jenkins converted from under the posts.

Scotland hit back virtually straight away when fullback Chris Paterson set away down the left wing from halfway, but with men to beat it looked as if his progress would be limited to the 22.  A shocking attempted tackle by fullback Rhys Williams -- a late addition for the injured Stephen Jones -- saw Paterson breeze in under the posts for the converted try, and the was deficit brought back to 25-13.  All this in the five minutes after the break.

Normality was soon restored to Murrayfield as Logan went about missing his third kickable penalty of the afternoon, but he got the next one with 20 minutes left on the clock as Scotland applied the pressure.

The normally reliable Jenkins then proved that Logan was not the only player capable of missing easy points, as he sliced a penalty wide of the posts, and there was a real charge on from both teams, but Jenkins composed himself to slot over his fourth penalty as the match went in to the last 10 minutes with Graham Henry's Wales 28-16 up.

Scotland probed the Welsh line, and after the video referee had denied them a score from a pile-up over the Welsh line, it was down to centre James McLaren to do the honours with a crashing try as he barged over the line on the burst after the the ball had been moved left, but again, Logan produced a diabolical kick to miss the extra points.

Scotland were not done though, and as prop forward Tom Smith broke down the left from the Welsh 22 it seemed incomprehensible that he could beat Llanelli flyer Mark Jones for pace, but the British Lion threw a dummy and accelerated past the wing for a precious try -- but Scotland were still two points down.

Kenny Logan shirked the responsibility of the testing conversion from between the posts and the left touch line, and it was down to Duncan Hodge to strike the extras to tie the game.  The Edinburgh star sent Murrayfield in to delirium as he nailed the kick, but missed a late drop goal which could have won the match outright.

One man who will be feeling the strain from Murrayfield is Wales coach Graham Henry, who spoke after the game of the mood in the Welsh camp.

"We've come a long way in a week, and we've got to be positive, but yeah we're disappointed," he said.

"It's always a worry when you concede that many points, and we need to work harder.  There's no magic wand though."

Att:  67,500
Referee:  Steve Lander (Eng)
Touch Judges:  Steve Walsh (New Zealand), Joel Jutge (France).

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Richard Metcalfe, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Jon Petrie, 9 Andy Nicol (c), 10 Duncan Hodge, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 John Leslie, 13 James McLaren, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, James Craig, Stuart Grimes
Unused:  Alan Bulloch, Bryan Redpath, Steve Scott, Jason White

Wales:  1 Darren Morris, 2 Robin McBryde, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Ian Gough, 5 Andrew Moore, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Mark Jones, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Dafydd James, 15 Rhys Williams
Reserves:  Spencer John, Rupert Moon, Craig Quinnell
Unused:  Geraint Lewis, Allan Bateman, Garin Jenkins, Gareth Thomas

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  McLaren J.G. 1, Paterson C.D. 1, Smith T.J. 1
Conv:  Hodge D.W. 1, Logan K.McK. 1
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 3

Wales
Tries:  Taylor M. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 1
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 4
Drop G.:  Jenkins N.R. 3

France 16 Scotland 6

Biarritz wing Philippe Bernat-Salles managed to produce the only moment of excitement at the Stade de France, Paris, as his try helped France to an uninspiring and error-ridden 16-6 win over Scotland in the Six Nations Championship.

Bernat-Salles' try immediately after half-time had looked like bringing to life a poor advert for rugby, which yielded 28 handling errors, 33 turnovers and 27 penalties, but unfortunately failed to do so, as a capacity 80,000 crowd showed their disapproval by booing their victorious side on the final whistle.

Harsh critics may lay some blame with Australian referee Stuart Dickinson's apparent pedantry, but in truth it was an inept 80 minutes of rugby from every player on the pitch which conspired to produce one of the dullest and most incohesive Six Nations matches in recent memory.

Scotland defied their tag as extreme underdogs by holding Les Bleus 6-6 at the interval, but with France tipped as England's main rivals for the championship, Clive Woodward's men can sleep easy if France play out the rest of the competition in the manner they did this game.

Speaking after the game, Scotland coach Ian Mcgeechan spoke of where exactly the game was lost:  "We had one casual minute after half-time, and that was ultimately the difference.  We're all very disappointed, and thought we played well.  We created opportunities in the first-half, and thought we were very competitive, but it didn't show on the scoreboard.

"The crowd weren't too happy about what was going on, and that worked in our favour."

The band's decision to play two verses of "Flower of Scotland" before the match caught players and fans alike by surprise, but a bigger shock was on the cards for the Scots as the game got underway.

Cameron Murray chipped ahead down the right wing in to the French 22 after only two minutes, and from the resulting ruck near the line, their creative centre-piece Gregor Townsend felt the full weight of the French pack, with his knee buckling, and an early exit for the Castres fly-half, who spent the remainder of the game under ice on the bench.

Duncan Hodge was summoned on to fill the breach, and the more structured conservative approach of the Edinburgh star may have helped Ian McGeechan's side, as the French struggled to break them down from the first and second phase, and Hodge probed the French fringes around the base of the rucks.

Scrum-half Andy Nicol shouldered much of the attacking burden for the Scots, breaking succesfully on more than one occasion with a dummy and burst of pace, but ultimately resulting in no first-half tries, with the sides going in tied at 6-6 at the break.

On paper that score may well have flattered Scotland, but in an atmospherically lacking Stade de France they were every bit as threatening as their opponents, taking the lead after 11 minutes with a Kenny Logan penalty.

Christophe Lamaison -- largely deprived of quick ball from Fabien Galthie -- levelled the scores minutes later, only for Logan to once again put Scotland ahead with a penalty.

Nicol's sniping runs got the large Scottish travelling contingent going midway through the half, and when he broke from the 22 to face a one on one with fullback Garbajosa it looked as if a score might be on, but with support visibly lacking he threw away possession for France to counter through the strangely quiet Olivier Magne, who worked the ball in to the Scotland half and subsequently inside down the right.

It fell to Bernat-Salles who thought he had a shout for a try, but a superb last ditch intervention from Kenny Logan's left thigh meant that the video referee had no option but not to award the score.

A penalty from Lamaison brought the scores to 6-6 minutes before the break, but the last act of the first-half was the sin-binning of flanker Martin Leslie for Scotland after what at first appeared to be a blatant clothes-line on Bernat-Salles near the Scottish line, but on later inspection revealed a spot of amateur dramatics from the Frenchman, who although collared was merely tackled at shoulder height.

Lamaison missed the chance to send his side in ahead at half-time with the resulting penalty, but the first minute of the second period saw that elusive French spark finally rear its head.

Stade Francais' Franck Comba broke from midfield outside the 22, and after a weaving crossfield run found the lively Bernat-Salles outside him on the right flank.  Looking like the Scottish cover would be enough to bundle him in to the advertising hoardings, the Biarritz flyer side-stepped Kenny Logan and then jinked his way past Stuart Grimes over the line for the try, converted by Lamaison for a 13-6 lead.

A huge up and under from Lamaison caused further tremors in the Scotland rearguard, with the impressive Chris Paterson taking his eye off the ball on the edge of the 22, and Andy Nicol scurrying back to touch down under pressure from the French runners.

France rang the changes, and the presence of former captain Abdelatif Benazzi inspired the pack, as Magne charged for the Scotland line from the 22.  He was held short and Bernat-Salles tried to pick up and dive over but to no avail.  With a whole back line waiting Scotland sensiby conceded a penalty by killing the ruck, and as the wedge failed to break down the now organised Scotland, the danger was averted.

Captain Fabien Pelous was the next to have a go, when he threw a dummy on the 22 and broke for the line.  When a direct sprint for the try seemed the more fruitful option, Pelous looked out wide for the added gas of Bernat-Salles, but the looping pass gave the Scots time to regroup, and the winger was bundled in to touch.  Referee Stuart Dickinson -- unnecessarily pedantic on a number of occasions -- went back for an earlier penalty, which Lamaison struck wide from the right touch line.

Scotland had to endure the last 15 minutes without their scrum-half and captain Andy Nicol due to injury, with Sale Sharks' Bryan Redpath on to try and spark some life in to what had materialised in to an extremely dull and error-ridden match.

Kenny Logan went about trying to do just that, breaking from halfway through the French centres and offloading to Chris Paterson at pace down the left wing.  Paterson snaked inside and as a gap opened up for Jon Petrie, the Glasgow No.8 couldn't hold on for what could well have been a try, with Garbajosa's frailties at fullback once again exposed as he slipped over for Paterson to glide past him.

The Toulouse fullback went some way to making up for 78 minutes of ineptitude when he tore away from the defence down the left wing from 40 metres out.  With only Paterson to beat, the Scotsman raced across the pitch to bundle him in to the corner flag, followed by Olivier Magne clattering in to Cameron Murray as he shaped up to take a quick lineout.

The French crowd finally came to life at the end of the game as Lamaison slotted over an 85th minute penalty, only to boo their side, who had won the game, but lost French respect after a dull and unco-ordinated showing.

Man of the match:  Philippe Bernat-Salles (France)

The Teams:

France:  1 Pieter De Villiers, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Franck Comba, 14 David Bory, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  Abdelatif Benazzi, Serge Betsen Tchoua, Christian Califano, Gerald Merceron
Unused:  Olivier Azam, Philippe Carbonneau, Christophe Dominici

Scotland:  1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Mattie Stewart, 4 Richard Metcalfe, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Jon Petrie, 9 Andy Nicol (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 John Leslie, 13 James McLaren, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Chris Paterson
Reserves:  Gordon McIlwham, Alan Bulloch, Stuart Grimes, Duncan Hodge, Bryan Redpath, Robbie Russell, Jason White

Referee:  Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch Judges:  Scott Young (Australia), Mark Lawrence (South Africa)

Points Scorers:

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 1
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 3

Scotland
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 2

Ireland 41 Italy 22

The opening game of the 2001 Six Nations saw Ireland rally in the second-half to a 41-22 win over Italy in Rome, with a hat-trick from centre Rob Henderson.

After a first-half which saw Italy stun Ireland with a try from wing Corrado Pilat, centre Rob Henderson got one in injury time before the break for a half time advantage of 19-15 to the visitors.

Ireland recorded their first opening day win since 1988, and afterwards their coach Warren Gatland said:  "We came here to get a result and we got a result.  Obviously we are happy -- we would have been happy with a one-point win.  We nearly let it slip before half time."

Captain and hooker Keith Wood added:  "I'm pretty bloody happy.  We got a win."

The pre-match news that talismanic fly-half Diego Dominguez was absent from the Italian line-up must have Ireland licking their lips, and as deputy Ramiro Pez -- also born in Cordoba, Argentina was visibly nervous, it looked as if an Irish romp was on the cards.

Not to be though in the first-half, as a penalty exchange from Italian wing Pilat, and Ronan O'Gara for the visitors saw Ireland nosing ahead at 6-3 after a scrappy opening ten minutes.

The loss of Dominguez was an expensive one, for as well as Diego Dominguez kicks usually and kicked in the opening Six Nations match in 2000 so Italy kicked poorly in this match.  Indeed Italy were behind at half-time only because of failed kicks.  By half-time Italy had scored two tries to Ireland's one.

Italy were surprisingly better than Ireland in the forwards.  They were better at set pieces -- putting pressure on Ireland at scrum time, winning their own line-outs and pinching two of Irelands -- and in driving play.  But outside of the forwards Italy were no match for the Irish, even without start centre Brian O'Driscoll who was out because of injury.  At first O'Gara used a barrage of Garryowens to upset the Italians but it was the Irish running which finished them off.

The first scoring was came from penalties to make the score 9-3 to Ireland when Christian Stoica, the Italian centre a suprise selection at fullback for this match, cut through the Irish defence and despite Ireland's manful efforts to recover, he was there to take a return pass and then float one out to Corrado Pilat on the Italian right wing.  Pilat scored in the corner.  He was injured in the effort and replaced.  He had also been Italy's first-choice kicker for the match and was replaced by Pez for the rest of the match.

At this stage Italy lost prop Alejandro Moreno to the sin bin after a report from touch judge Bob Dickson.  While he was away, Rob Henderson, the man of the match, burst through the fragile Italian middle on a long surging run for a try which Ronan O'Gara converted.  O'Gara added another penalty to make the score 19-8, and it looked as if Ireland was running away with it.

But the Italians, sparked by stocky scrumhalf Alessandro Troncon, came back and eventually went over in a bundle.  Jonathan Kaplan was unsighted and referred to the television match official, Ed Morrison.

The process was long but eventually the telly ref found that Paulo Cecchinato had scored, to the roared approval of the Italian supporters.  Pez converted and half-time brought a score of 19-15 to Ireland, not a comfortable lead.

Warren Gatland, the Irish coach, probably had harsh things to say to the Irish at half-time for they came out firing in the second half.  In no time Henderson was over for his second try, which O'Gara again converted.  Then some clever play by Tyrone Howe on the left wing brought Henderson his third.  First Howe skilfully beast his man.  Then confronted by Stoica he kicked a beautifully weighted kick some 30m into the Italian in-goal area where Henderson outstripped the Italians to score.  Stoica in the meantime had blocked Howe's passage with a dropped shoulder.  The try was the result of good advantage by the referee, Jonathan Kaplan.

The Italian forwards continued to strive manfully and the Irish backs continued to score skilfully.  It was not long before Shane Horgan was over on the right wing.

Peter Clohessy, not for the first time in his career, incurred the referee's displeasure and a yellow card for putting studs on an opponent's body.  Malcolm O'Kelly was fortunate that the same fate did not befall him for the same reason at the same incident.

The Italians went one better in ill-discipline.  Peter Stringer pulled Alessandro Trocon's jersey as the Italian scrumhalf was striving to get close to the action not far from the Italian goal-line.  Troncon swung round, swung a punch and laid Stringer out.  For this Troncon was given a red card.

Ireland enjoyed his absence, and O'Gara, who had had a wonderful afternoon, tiptoed through the Italian defence to make the score 41-15.

Just before the end, the strong Italian flank, Mauro Bergamasco, burst straight down the field from a maul to score, untouched by the fanned Irish defence, under the posts.  Pez converted to make the final score 41-22 to Ireland.

Afterwards Keith Wood said:  "We are bloody pleased to have won."

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 John Hayes, 4 Mick Galwey, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 David Wallace, 7 Alan Quinlan, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Tyrone Howe, 12 Rob Henderson, 13 Mike Mullins, 14 Shane Horgan, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves:  Jeremy Davidson, David Humphreys, Brian O'Meara, Emmet Byrne, Kevin Maggs, Frankie Sheahan, Andy Ward

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi (c), 3 Andrea Muraro, 4 Wim Visser, 5 Carlo Checchinato, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Carlo Caione, 8 David Dal Maso, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 10 Ramiro Pez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Luca Martin, 13 Giovanni Raineri, 14 Corrado Pilat, 15 Cristian Stoica
Reserves:  Filippo Frati, Ezio Galon, Walter Pozzebon, Giampiero De Carli, Giuseppe Lanzi, Tino Paoletti, Aaron Persico

Referee:  Kaplan j.

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  Henderson R.A.J. 3, Horgan S.P. 1, O'Gara R.J.R. 1
Conv:  O'Gara R.J.R. 2
Pen K.:  O'Gara R.J.R. 4

Italy
Tries:  Bergamasco M. 1, Checchinato C. 1, Pilat C. 1
Conv:  Pez R. 2
Pen K.:  Pilat C. 1

Wales 15 England 44

Will Greenwood helped himself to a hat-trick of tries in half an hour on Saturday as England empahtically put Wales to the sword in the Six Nations clash at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, running out 44-15 winners.

Had it not been for Scott Quinnell's second-half try then it would have been a record, but even so, the manner of this defeat must send shudders through the Welsh Rugby Union, as a clinical, organised, and more importantly attacking England seemed to back up Wales coach Graham Henry's claims that they are now truly among the elite of world rugby.

It took England only 11 minutes to register their first score of the day, when man of the match Greenwood touched down in what was to be the start of an avalanche of tries in the first half, which saw England 29-8 up at half time, after Greenwood's first two, and a pair for scrum-half Matt Dawson, who was a constant threat in the No.9 shirt.

The only cheer of the day from the Welsh fans was when Neil Jenkins reached the 1000 point mark in Test rugby (including his 41 for the Lions), but by then the result was well beyond their reach.

Clive Woodward's men proved that their autumn wins over Australia and South Africa were no flukes, with the other try on the day coming from Northampton wing Ben Cohen, whose pre-match build up had been dominated by the repercussions from that "Shane who?" quote about Shane Williams -- who did not earn a place in the squad this time round.

Wales themselves salvaged two tries from the game, both as a result of scrum-half Rob Howley's acceleration at the base of the ruck, with one try for the man himself, and one created by him for Scott Quinnell in the second half.

England manager Clive Woodward denied after the game that it had been a completely one sided affair, saying:  "We expected Wales to come out hard, and they did.

"Will Greenwood and Mike Catt were outstanding for us, and it's refreshing to talk about the England back line for a change.

"We gave full respect to Wales, and it was a brilliant start for England, although we could have got a couple more in the second-half."

Hat-trick hero Will Greenwood said after his afternoon to remember:  "We knew the kitchen sink would come at us right from the start, and we had to take the crowd out of the equation.

"Jonny Wilkinson got right in their faces, and made a lot of space out wide.  All of my tries were team tries, and it was a lot of fun out there.  We're building a good squad at the moment, but we're not going to go around saying how good we are."

Despite the end result, Wales nearly got the ideal start when after two minutes of solid pressure in the England 22, Scott Gibbs floated over a delicately weighted chip which caught the England defence on the back foot.

The ball took a vicious backspin when it landed in the try area, and as Balshaw scurried back he appeared to fail to ground it properly, and with Dafydd James for Wales and Ben Cohen for England both going down on the ball in a heap, it was down to the video referee to adjudicate that Cohen had got the first downward pressure, saving his side from conceding an early score.

Neil Jenkins tried to break the deadlock on his home patch with a 52 metre penalty, but unfortunately for the Welshman it dropped just short.

England had just the answer to silence the Millennium Stadium crowd, and when Jonny Wilkinson broke from halfway, the Welsh defence magnetically drew to him as he streaked away down the left wing.

Wilkinson had the composure to look round and assess the support, and it was the timely inside run of Will Greenwood which caught Wilkinson's eye as he lobbed an inside pass over the head of the retreating Welsh in to the arms of the Harlequins centre to breeze under the posts for the converted try.

Before Wales had even had chance to draw breath the misery was compounded even further, as a run from England fullback Iain Balshaw down the right wing saw him beat his opposite number for pace, before being hauled back five metres short of the line.

Once again it was the superb support play of Will Greenwood which saved the day, as it was he who had started the move in midfield with a long loop pass.  Balshaw presented the ball for Greenwood on a plate, and with shouts of "double movement" from the crowd, Greenwood legally grounded the ball just over the line, with Wilkinson missing the conversion, and hitting a penalty soon after.  But Wales had a trick up their sleeve as the game restarted.

Scrum-half Rob Howley picked up from the base of a ruck on the England 22 and shaped to pass out wide on the right.  Both Phil Vickery and Richard Hill took the bait, and as Howley held on himself, he accelerated through the gap at a speed the critics doubted that he still had, with a diagonal burst in to the right corner sealing the try, which Jenkins failed to convert for his 1000 points in Test rugby (including British Lions).

It was Howley's opposite number Matt Dawson who touched down the next try of the game on the half hour, in what was shaping in to a more expansive England game.

Wilkinson changed the direction of play ten metres out with a long pass to Mike Catt, but with the Wales defence offside the penalty was given just right of the posts.  Dawson turned down the kickable three points and tapped quickly to go himself from five metres.  Chris Wyatt on the Welsh line went in too high for the tackle as Dawson slid under him for the try, which Wilkinson had no problems in converting.

Neil Jenkins then once again missed the 1000 point mark as his long penalty struck the left upright, and England cleared with the midfield ruck seeming to bring play to a halt.  Not so as Dawson picked up from the base, and like Howley ten minutes before sucked in the Wales forwards with a calculated dummy.

From fully 50 metres he raced away, and with only new fullback Stephen Jones to beat stepped first off the right foot, then the left, leaving Jones in a hypnotic daze as the Llanelli man fell backwards, with Dawson jogging in to place the ball for his second try of the half, and England's fourth as Wilkinson converted for a 29-8 half-time lead.

Wales weren't given any breathing room as the second-half started, when only two minutes in a charged down clearance by Wales was snapped up by Ben Cohen, who found Greenwood in space for the centre to complete his hat-trick and go over for the try in the right corner, with Wilkinson missing the conversion.

England were flying, with passes finding men out wide, and a renewed imagination from Clive Woodward's side, demonstrated perfectly when Austin Healey dropped two sidesteps on halfway before the ball found its way to Iain Balshaw on halfway down the right wing.

The Bath star chipped ahead and made a mockery of opposite number Stephen Jones in a footrace to the ball under the posts.  With the attentions of Colin Charvis the only obstacle between Balshaw and that dream try, the England man hacked in to the try area but made a hash of the touchdown as he dived, palming the ball, but unfortunately for England not in to the ground.

Another penalty from Wilkinson nudged England further ahead with 24 minutes to go, before Ben Cohen steamed through the Wales back line on a diagonal run to power over for another try.

With Wales well and truly on the rack, they produced a spark of inspiration to earn one of the truly great milestones in Rugby history.

With a seemingly innocuous scrum just inside their own half, Howley broke from the base and sped through the dawdling England line.  With the defence flocking round him Howley threw a superb reverse scissors pass for Scott Quinnell on the burst from 30 metres out to run the try in.

With the scoreline irrelevant, Neil Jenkins finally kicked over his 1000th point in Test rugby, a monumental landmark for a player whose consistency has never wavered, but a brief aside from this otherwise dour afternoon for the Welsh game.

Man of the match:  Will Greenwood (England)

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Darren Morris, 2 Robin McBryde, 3 Dai Young (c), 4 Ian Gough, 5 Chris Wyatt, 6 Colin Charvis, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Scott Quinnell, 9 Rob Howley, 10 Neil Jenkins, 11 Dafydd James, 12 Scott Gibbs, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Gareth Thomas, 15 Stephen Jones
Reserves:  Mark Jones, Allan Bateman, Spencer John, Rupert Moon, Andrew Moore
Unused:  Geraint Lewis, Garin Jenkins

England:  1 Jason Leonard, 2 Dorian West, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Martin Johnson (c), 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Dan Luger, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Will Greenwood, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Iain Balshaw
Reserves:  Martin Corry, Austin Healey, Matt Perry, Mike Tindall, Trevor Woodman
Unused:  Mark Regan, Julian White

Referee:  Dume j.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Howley R. 1, Quinnell L.S. 1
Conv:  Jenkins N.R. 1
Pen K.:  Jenkins N.R. 1

England
Tries:  Dawson M.J.S. 2, Greenwood W.J.H. 3, Cohen B.C. 1
Conv:  Wilkinson J.P. 4
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 2

England 25 South Africa 17

Date:  02 Dec 2000
Venue:  Twickenham
Attendance:  Not Recorded
Referee:  Mchugh d.

Let there be no doubt about it, England have come of age.  If there was ever any reservation -- following a win in South Africa and a victory over Australia a fortnight previously -- that England was not a member of the exclusive "top three in the world club", it was completely overcome at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.

Having led 19-9 at the break, England held off a concerted South African effort early in the second half to prove that that win in Bloemfontein in June was no fluke.  As expected, they were hard and uncompromising, and although the rugby on display was not terribly exciting, it was unquestionably passionate.

For South Africa, it was not to be another great escape.  Both Ireland and Wales had their chances, but on both occasions the Springboks hauled out something special at the end to keep their tour on a winning track.

At Twickenham that late spark failed to ignite as England closed down the slightest break and smothered anything loose.

Speaking after the game England manager Clive Woodward saluted his side, who made it two wins over southern hemisphere opposition in two weeks.

"That was a big, big win for us today," he said.

"The marks out of ten won't be fantastic.  Our front five were excellent, and the captaincy of Martin Johnson has proved really strong.  It was a good performance but we could have played better."

Kicking hero of the day Jonny Wilkinson said after the match which saw him split his head in the opening minute:  "The first 15 minutes were impossible.

"We could have quite easily gone back in to our shells but we took the challenge."

Wilkinson also dismissed recent criticism of the Twickenham turf, after the mud-bath surface for the Argentina Test last Saturday.

"The pitch was as good as I have ever seen it, and kicking wasn't really a problem."

Much of the early going was South Africa's, but it was of little value as far as points were concerned.  First Percy Montgomery, back to the familiar role of fullback, failed to find touch with a penalty, and then Robbie Fleck threw a hopelessly forward pass to Stefan Terblanche when the try looked decidedly on.

So it was England who opened the scoring through Jonny Wilkinson with a 40-metre strike, and then Braam van Straaten put the Boks on the board with another penalty.

Wilkinson had restored the three-point lead when South Africa finally found a way through the English defence, via Breyton Paulse's pace and through kick.  The Boks were awarded a scrum and Montgomery dashed through, only to be held up on the line.

The homeside, however, were offside and again Van Straaten levelled matters.  In that period England lost the services of both their flanks, with Martin Corry coming on for Richard Hill, and reserve hooker Mark Regan taking over at the side of the scrum from Neil Back.  Regan's spell in the unknown was gratifyingly short though, with Back returning just before the break.

Wilkinson, in the meantime, was growing in confidence.  He pushed and prodded with that deft left foot of his, always pressing the Boks back.

In a desperate effort to fall back and defend, South Africa inevitably went offside, with England scrumhalf Matt Dawson taking a string of quick taps.  In between that, a rolling battle continued amongst the more robust and less focused.  The net result was another three points to Wilkinson, and Japie Mulder having to receive attention for a bloody gash.

Perhaps Mulder's absence created the gap, but Will Greenwood pounced on the opportunity.  He collected a short pass from Wilkinson and split the Bok midfield defence for the opening try.

Van Straaten and Wilkinson exchanged penalties to end the half with England in front 19-9.

South Africa's brightest hope came in the unlikely form of Van Straaten.  So often derided for his cumbersome running, his one dimensional play and unimaginative options, the stand off darted through a gap, broke three tackles and crashed over for a try four minutes into the half.

The score gave rise to a period of sustained Bok pressure, but the visitors could find no way through.  England's defence held firm and then Wilkinson began working his magic once more.

24 minutes after Van Straaten's touchdown, Wilkinson threaded a ball through that ended up just metres from the Bok tryline.  South Africa, once again on the back foot, transgressed and again Wilkinson punished them.

Van Straaten, en route to scoring all 17 of South Africa's points, pulled one back but Wilkinson held his nerve at the seething stadium to slot his sixth penalty and seal the win.

Speaking after the game, England try-scorer Will Greenwood outlined the renewed enjoyment of this campaign, and admitted that the first half score had surprised himself as well as the Springbok defence.

"I'm delighted to be back playing for England, and we've been doing a lot of work between the stand-off and the first centre this week."

"I didn't even realise that I had a left-foot sidestep in the cupboard," he added.

Man of the match:  Close competition from Will Greenwood, but Jonny Wilkinson was superb.  As he proved against Australia, he is a man for the big occasions.  He was South Africa's undoing in Bloemfontein, and he did so again on Saturday night.  In all, the pivot scored 20 points on top of his clever kicks and sending his line away with good ball.

Moment of the match:  Greenwood slicing through the middle.  Until then, the match had threatened to be a rather dour and solely physical affair.  Alternatively, England hooker Phil Greening with a huge pin-point kick for touch under pressure in his 22 in the second half which raised a smile from everyone in the ground.

Villain of the match:  Far too many candidates to choose from.  With so many off the ball incidents -- from both sides -- it would be unfair to single out just one offender.

England 25 South Africa 17 (H-t 19-9)

England:  Matt Perry (Bath);  Ben Cohen (Northampton), Mike Tindall (Bath), Will Greenwood (Harlequins), Dan Luger (Saracens);  Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle), Matt Dawson (Northampton);  Lawrence Dallaglio (Wasps), Neil Back (Leicester), Richard Hill (Saracens);  Danny Grewcock (Saracens), Martin Johnson (Leicester, capt);  Julian White (Saracens), Phil Greening (Wasps), Jason Leonard (Harlequins).
Replacements used:  Martin Corry (Leicester), Mark Regan (Bath), Iain Balshaw (Bath), Phil Vickery (Gloucester), Austin Healey (Leicester)

Try:  Greenwood.
Conversion:  Wilkinson
Penalties:  Wilkinson (6)

South Africa:  Percy Montgomery (Western Province);  Breyton Paulse (Western Province), Robbie Fleck (Western Province), Japie Mulder (Golden Lions), Stefan Terblanche (Natal);  Braam van Straaten (Western Province), Joost van der Westhuizen (Blue Bulls);  Andre Vos (Golden Lions, capt) Andre Venter (Free State), Corne Krige (Western Province);  Mark Andrews (Natal), Albert van den Berg (Natal);  Willie Meyer (Golden Lions), John Smit (Natal), Robbie Kempson (Western Province)
Replacements used:  Grant Esterhuizen (Golden Lions), AJ Venter (Natal), Ollie le Roux (Natal), Dan van Zyl (Western Province), Warren Brosnihan (Natal)

Try:  Van Straaten
Penalties:  Van Straaten (4)

Referee:  David McHugh (Irl)
Att:  75,000

Wales 13 South Africa 23

Date:  26 Nov 2000
Venue:  Cardiff-Millennium Stadium
Attendance:  Not Recorded
Referee:  Walsh s.jnr

At a packed Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on Sunday afternoon, South Africa scored 10 points in injury time to not only keep new Springbok coach Harry Viljoen's hundred per cent Test record, but extract revenge for last year's shock loss to Wales in Cardiff with a 23-13 victory.

In a desperately tight match, that perfect Viljoen record looked in constant threat as his side battled to come to grips with the wet conditions and an uncompromisingly physical Welsh side.

Viljoen's request for the stadium roof to be shut fell on deaf ears, and the rain-soaked Cardiff pitch was more reminiscent of the classic 1970s bogs of the old Cardiff Arms Park, resulting in a stifled game for the expansive Boks, and a plethera of handling errors.

That South Africa won by ten points seems a travesty given the relentless probing and commitment of the Welsh, who went in at the break deservedly 10-6 in the lead, and tied at 13 - 13 with less than five minutes to go.

The Springbok rally came despite being a man down after Robbie Fleck was eventually sin-binned for his constant and needless illegal challenges.

In that period, Breyton Paulse, who had barely seen the ball the entire game, finally sniped through the defence and ultimately set up a penalty that Braam van Straaten converted from point blank range.

Three minutes later he sealed the win when he sliced the Welsh defence in two with one of his characteristically jinxing runs.

All this excitement though, only came at the end.  On Saturday, Viljoen warned that the game would degenerate into a kicking exercise.  After this performance, he is certainly a man of his word.

Apart from the kicking though, South Africa made far too many mistakes.  Were it not for England's sub-standard performance against Argentina the day before, Viljoen would have been an extremely worried man going into next Saturday's Test in London.  As it is, he is probably merely worried at the moment.

South Africa opened the scoring through Van Straaten in the fourth minute with a penalty after a string of rolling mauls was only halted 10 metres from the Welsh line when the visitors were blown up for going over the top.

Wales had a chance to respond eight minutes later when South Africa, under immediate pressure in the scrums, were blown up for the second time for scrumming up.  Neil Jenkins, uncharacteristically, pushed the kick wide, but two minutes later Jenkins did equalise when the Boks were penalised for going off-side.

South Africa countered immediately.  Despite three golden opportunities to score though, they failed to capitalise.  First, Delport's scorching run down the left touchline was stopped less than a metre from the tryline by a magnificent covering tackle from Gareth Thomas.

Albert van den Berg spoilt the resultant lineout, but when South Africa swung it wide, they knocked on.

Fortune was still egging them on though.  The Boks won the tighthead, but Joost van der Westhuizen dropped the ball and Rob Howley hacked it forward.

The Boks, in turn, were called upon to put in some desperate tackles.

They hung on and Van Straaten restored them to the lead with his second penalty.

In the meantime, Chester Williams had replaced Pieter Rossouw on the left-wing.  He first managed to lose the ball in the tackle, and then kneed the ball into touch in his own 22 when it was clearly going there, unaided, from a Welsh boot.

From the lineout, Wales punched through the midfield and Scott Gibbs, enroute to the tryline, shoved Van der Westhuizen into the mud before diving over.  The Jenkins conversion gave the Welsh a 10-6 lead as they ran up the tunnel.

South Africa, having soaked up much of the early second half pressure induced by the Welsh, started playing with a conviction they had failed to show in the first half.

They won a number of five metre scrums and eventually Van der Westhuizen found a way over after Andre Vos had picked from the base of the scrum and driven forward.

Arwel Thomas, much to the crowd's delight, replaced Jenkins and within a minute of his coming on, stepped up to slot a 40 metre penalty to level the scores.

Buoyed by that early success, Thomas attempted two drop kicks and a penalty from slap in front of the poles, all of which missed by some margin.

As injury time ticked away, those misses were to prove particularly costly.

Man of the match:  Andre Venter.  So often the unsung hero of the South African cause.  Venter was brilliant in the wet conditions.  He never missed a tackle, always made ground when on the drive and, when AJ Venter replaced Albert van den Berg, took his ball in the lineout.  To top it all, it was his initial beak that set up the penalty that put the Boks into the lead in the 81st minute.

Moment of the match:  Venter breaking at least two tackles and surging through the gap.  His break finally gave the Boks the thrust to strike the knockout blow.

Villain of the match:  Definitely Robbie Fleck.  He behaved like a hyper-active child on the field and his foul play was not only palpably in bad taste, but immensely daft as well.  He is far too talented a player to be reduced to that level.

The scorers

Wales:  Try by Scott Gibbs.  Neil Jenkins kicked one conversion and one penalty and Arwel Thomas kicked one penalty.

South Africa:  Tries by Joost van der Westhuizen and Breyton Paulse.  Braam van Straaten kicked two conversions and three penalties.

England 19 Argentina 0

Date:  25 Nov 2000
Venue:  Twickenham
Attendance:  60000
Referee:  Lewis a.

After a troubled week off the field, England put in an uninspiring performance in poor conditions to beat Argentina by 19-0.

Like the week that preceded it, this match is probably best forgotten by all true fans of English rugby.  While shocking conditions at Twickenham probably contributed to the lack of spectacle, the England team -- who days earlier had threatened to withdraw their labour over a pay dispute with the Rugby Football Union -- looked listless, unfocused and generally off their game.  In fact, had their fee for his outing been strictly performance related, the men in white would have been in receipt of a sum approximating to a round of beers in one of the stadium's many bars.

But it would be churlish to criticise England too harshly as it belittles the efforts of a battling Argentina side who refused to be swept aside and battled for every inch on the muddy Twickenham turf.  While they looked a little one-dimensional at times with their brand of 'up-the-middle', driving rugby, it was only the poor kicking performance of Gonzalo Quesada which had prevented the Pumas from drawing level

It was only when they were reduced to 14 men after Felipe Contepomi was yellow-carded that the Pumas' defensive wall started to show cracks.  In the 69th minute, a solid England scrum in the Pumas 22 allowed Wilkinson to grubber the ball behind the Puma defence.  The ball bounced off the post and Ben Cohen was on hand to seize on the ball and drive over for the only try of the contest.  Wilkinson was on target with the conversion to make it 19-nil and with his efficient personal display put himself into the history books as the youngest Test player to reach the 300 points barrier.

Just five minutes later England replacement Will Greenwood put Dan Luger in space and he flew down the left hand touchline.  It seemed that nothing could stop the hero of last week's victory over Australia, but a brilliant tackle from Ignacio Corletto stopped the Saracen in his tracks.

England had actually started at a fair pace, storming into the opposition's territory to enable fly-half Jonny Wilkinson to put his side up by 3-0 after just a minute when the Pumas came up offside.  But after that flying start, a litany of penalties went against them but the normally metronomic Quesada clearly hadn't packed his kicking boots and missed three penalties in the first half.

England who could only add a further Wilkinson penalty plus a drop goal to go into the break 9-0 to the good.

England continued to exert pressure throughout the second half and were laying siege to the Argentine line for the final quarter before running out of time.  It was not a vintage performance but one they will take satisfaction from, especially given the off-field happenings and the fact they succeeded in preventing the Pumas from registering any points.  Argentina could conjure few scoring opportunities of their own, although Ignacio Corletto did have one scorching run in the 61st minute, wrong-footing Cohen and dancing down the left touchline -- only a despairing Mike Catt tap-tackle preventing England's blushes.

But there are serious question marks hanging over England's creative ability in the backline.  They clearly have a number of exciting strike-runners in the likes of Iain Balshaw, Dan Luger and Ben Cohen but seem unable to craft scoring opportunities for them.  Balshaw, in particular, was particularly under-utilised in this match, more often receiving the ball from Argentine kicks rather than a team-mate's pass.

That said, the Bath flyer did squander a certain try during the second half, opting to go for individual glory in a two-on-one situation rather than pass to an unmarked Cohen on his outside.  That is the sort of decision which will need to addressed in the run-up to the upcoming Springbok Test.

England skipper Martin Johnson offered no excuses for the lacklustre efforts by his team.  "It was an extraordinary game.  Conditions were terrible and our skill let us down.  It was very difficult but there are no excuses.  It was not good enough.  A few overlaps went begging on a day when it was difficult to control the ball.  We could have moved it a lot more but kicked it.  What happened this week happened and there are no excuses for our performance."

Man of the Match:  Backrower Richard Hill was one of the few England players to consistently breach the gain-line against the Pumas and made a number of telling breaks before he was replaced late in the second half.  Hill also did a magnificent job in stopping the big Argentine forwards charging up the middle.

Scorers:
For England:  Try:  Ben Cohen.  Jonny Wilkinson kicked one conversion, three penalties and one drop-goal.

Italy 19 New Zealand 56

Date:  25 Nov 2000
Venue:  Genova
Attendance:  33000
Referee:  Davies r.

The touring New Zealand side ended their European tour on a winning note on Saturday, beating Italy 56-19 in a keenly contested Test in Genoa.

While the All Blacks won with ease, scoring eight tries to two, it was not a vintage performance and Italy, who lost their best player, scrum-half, Alessandro Troncon in the opening minute to a head injury, can take some pride in their show.

It was a vast improvement on their 101-3 defeat to the All Blacks in last year's World Cup, especially since they were hit by a hammer blow in the opening minute of the match when Troncon was injured in a ruck on his own 22 metre line.

He was attended to on the pitch for two minutes and was clearly confused by a blow to the head but there was no way he could continue and he was replaced by Filippo Frati.  His performance in a previous international with Canada was so indifferent that coach Brad Johnstone was forced to swallow his pride and recall Troncon whom he had dropped on a matter of principle.

So it was no surprise when stand-off Carlos Spencer, taking over from all-time leading New Zealand points scorer Andrew Mehrtens, popped over two early penalties to give the All Blacks a 6-0 lead.

Ramiro Pez, who had earlier missed a simple attempt, reduced the score to 6-3 with a penalty of his own for Italy but then the All Blacks scored the first try of the match with their first fluent back move of the half.

Centre Pita Alatini's pass found the opening, setting up winger Bruce Reihana who touched down for a try converted by Spencer.

That put the All Blacks 13-3 ahead but Pez quickly reduced arrears with two penalties as Italy's forwards put their opponents under real pressure.

They came close to a try with Welsh referee Robert Davies eventually awarding New Zealand a scrum on their own five-yard line just as it looked as though Italy would find the gap.  Even Frati was doing his bit with a far more convincing performance than against Canada.  Pez too had missed two relatively easy kicks for Italy although his positional kicking from hand was much better.

But while the half-backs were not quite up to the task Italy's front row of Andrea Muraro, Alessandro Moscardi and Andrea Lo Cicero -- much improved under the tutelage of former All Black prop Johnstone -- were excelling.

But six minutes before the break the All Blacks finally imposed themselves with two tries, the first of which sparked a furious brawl.

Scrum-half Justin Marshall made the initial break down the middle and flanker Filo Tiatia reaped the benefit touching down under a rough tackle from Frati.  That prompted the brawl with virtually all the players involved and boots, punches and headbutts flying around though no-one was penalised.

Then the All Blacks pulled further clear with their best passing move yet eventually letting in Auckland's Doug Howlett, who breached the line with this time the points being added by Spencer, who had led his team in the Haka just before the kick-off.

After the interval Italy centre Luca Martin was sin binned and the Kiwis quickly took advantage with Reihana, who replaced the injured Jonah Lomu for the second Test with France last Saturday, dummying full-back Christian Stoica and touching down in the corner for his second try.  Finally it was beginning to look as one-sided as had been predicted before the match and Spencer set up Ron Cribb for another try which this time was converted.

But Italy then delighted the big crowd at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium by scoring a try.  It was no surprise that it was the forwards who produced the score with the pack driving over from a penalty and Lo Cicero coming up with the ball under a pile of players.

Although then a solo try from half-back Marshall, who ran in unopposed, finally quietened the crowd down.  Now the All Blacks were beginning to showboat and man-of-the-match Christian Cullen created the opening for Spencer to score a try which he then converted.

No. 8 Cribb grabbed his second -- also converted -- before the match ended on a high note for the hosts as replacement Stefano Saviozzi touched down after another pack move in injury time.

It was Italy who took a lap of honour after a gutsy performance which will only further be boosted by the return of talismanic fly-half Diego Dominguez for the Six Nations Tournament in January.

Italy 19 All Blacks 56 (H-t: 9-25)

Italy:  Cristian Stoica; Massimiliano Perziano, Luca Martin, Giovanni Raineri, Denis Dallan; Ramiro Pez, Alessandro Troncon; Riccardo Piovan, Carlo Caione, Maurizio Zaffiri; Wilhelmus Visser, Andrea Gritti; Andrea Muraro, Alessandro Moscardi (capt), Andrea Lo Cicero Replacements used:  Giacomo Preo, Filippo Frati, Stefano Saviozzi, Andrea De Rossi, Luca Mastrodomenico, Tino Paoletti,
Replacement not used:  Nicola Mazzucato

Tries:  Lo Cicero, Saviozzi, Penalties:  Pez (3)

New Zealand:  Christian Cullen; Doug Howlett, Tana Umaga, Pita Alatini, Bruce Reihana; Carlos Spencer, Justin Marshall; Ron Cribb, Scott Robertson, Filo Tiatia; Tory Flavell, Todd Blackadder (capt); Greg Somerville, Anton Oliver, Greg Feek
Replacements used:  Andrew Mehrtens, Jason O'Halloran, Taine Randell, Norm Maxwell, Gordon Slater
Replacements not used:  Mark Hammett, Byron Kelleher

Tries; Reihana (2), Tiatia, Howlett, Cribb (2), Marshall, Spencer.  Conversions:  Spencer (5).  Penalties:  Spencer (2)

Sin Bins Italy -- Martin 44, Lo Cicero 70

Attendance:  33,000
Referee:  Robert Davies (Wal)