All Blacks snatch Dunedin victory

Late Mealamu try seals crucial bonus point win

New Zealand beat South Africa 31-27 in Dunedin on Saturday, with Keven Mealamu's late try giving them not only the match, but a potentially series-winning bonus point in the 2005 Tri-Nations.  South Africa also get a bonus point, but it will be scant consolation to them as they will see this match as one that got away.

Graham Henry, the All Black coach, said this was the final.  Jake White, the Springbok coach, said this was a final.  In that case the All Blacks have won the Tri-Nations.  Funny that Australia's participation is discounted!

After grim singing of anthems, a ferocious Tana Umaga led his team in a new haka of great intensity, which lasted till the final whistle.

The intensity spilled over into the match in which mistakes were severely punished, and was not decided till the All Blacks gained the victory with Mealamu's try.

Both sides gave it their all, but All Blacks were livelier.  For one thing they kicked better out of the hand and chased better to put pressure on the Springbok defence while the Springboks kicked to touch, and this time there was not much to choose between the two line-outs as the All Blacks kept the ball away from Victor Matfield, who had an anonymous match.

It was not a match of great construction except for one moment at the start of the second half when the All Blacks went left and right to the touch-lines.  For the most part they probed at close quarters, using Weepu, MacDonald and Collins around the fringes, seeking to avoid contact with the Springboks out wide, while the Springboks seemed to think that their sole attacking weapon was the battering Barry.

The tackle area was often a wild clash and crash but the All Blacks won the turn-overs.

In the end it was a game of consequences, as it always is.  Luke McAlister, on for Leon MacDonald with 12 minutes to go, kicked down towards the Springbok line.  Falling back Jean de Villiers did not control the rolling ball under pressure from Tana Umaga.

The defence held but in the process the Springboks conceded a penalty for off-side which the All Blacks tapped to charge at the line.  That desperate situation ended when the television match official decided that Richie McCaw had knocked on in trying to score.

That made it a scrum for the Springboks, but in this half the All Blacks had had the upper hand in the scrums and Rickie Januarie had trouble getting a pressured ball to Jaco van der Westhuyzen, who cleared under pressure but only 10 metres from the Springbok line.

The All Blacks mauled the line-out.  The referee played advantage and suddenly Mealamu broke away for a powerful thrust at the line which Januarie, Van der Westhuyzen and De Villiers could not stop.

McAlister's conversion from fairly far out ensured that the Springboks would have to score a try to win.

It was a match that the Springboks had seemed on their way to winning when Jaque Fourie scored a try and Van der Westhuyzen and Percy Montgomery were pinning the All Blacks back in their territory with rolling diagonal kicks.

The Springboks had the better of the early part of the game as they played with a slight breeze at a chilly Carisbrook.  The All Blacks conceded several penalties in the half -- 7-2 was the half-time count -- and Percy Montgomery goaled the first one against Carl Hayman at a ruck.  But thereafter, first Montgomery and then André Pretorius missed kicks at goal.

Two of the tries in the half, which ended 21-17 to New Zealand, came from charge-downs.

Aaron Mauger charged down a delayed kicked by Pretorius.  The ball skidded off parallel to the goal lines and landed up with Joe Rokocoko who sped down the left and scored as Pretorius tackled him.  MacDonald converted from touch to make it 7-3 to New Zealand.

The fifth try of the half also came from a charge-down.  This time it was Enrico Januarie who charged down Leon MacDonald's kick.  The little scrumhalf scurried after the ball, gathered it just before the line and dived over for the try.  That brought half-time.

Januarie also had a hand in the Springboks' first try.  As the ball squirted out of a tackle area towards the All Blacks, Januarie, standing in a suspicious position at best, footed it into the ankles of Piri Weepu.  The ball ricocheted sideways off his ankles and Bryan Habana needed no further invitation.  He gathered it in and raced downfield for a try which Montgomery converted.

MacDonald regained the lead for New Zealand, this time after a big error by Montgomery, compounded by a flap of a tackle.

The Springboks dropped out a long way downfield.  The All Blacks hoisted a high kick in return which Montgomery, not really close to catching the ball, knocked on.  Mealamu charged, brushing Montgomery aside, before sending MacDonald on a canter over the 22 and under the posts.  MacDonald converted.  14-10 to New Zealand after 21 minutes.

The All Blacks now struck a golden seam as they attacked and then scored an unlikely try.  That got untidy ball back from a tackle scene and Rokocoko, standing, then moving, then weaving beat Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Juan Smith and Pretorius in a confined space to score at the posts.  MacDonald converted.  21-10 and it looked as if the All Blacks were cruising.

Just before half-time Schalk Burger and Pretorius were tackling but clashed heads and both went off.  Burger was bleeding and got back on but Pretorius was replaced by Van der Westhuyzen.

Then Januarie stole his try and the score was 21-17.

The intensity boiled over early in the second half after a scrum with several players involved in a fracas.  Referee Joel Jutge, shouting "Please stop" in his finest English, consulted with linesman Chris White about the "little fight" but took no further action as nobody could identify who had started it.

Montgomery and MacDonald exchanged further penalties to make it 24-21 with 20 minutes to play.

The All Blacks played off a scrum.  They gave to Jerry Collins who sought to play inside.  He threw the ball on a laboured loop which Januarie snatched.  Off he went.  Caught by Rokocoko from behind the scrum-half offloaded to Fourie who swept over under the posts.  Montgomery converted and South African fans held their breath.

Now the Springboks led 27-24 with 15 minutes to play.  Would they break the Carisbrook hoodoo?  They looked like doing so till those fatal, consequential last four minutes which delighted the whole of New Zealand.

Man of the Match:  Schalk Burger again for South Africa, despite a battering, was an outstanding player, Bryan Habana got his try and was superb in defence again, Enrico Januarie had a game of extreme ups and downs, and one wished that Jaque Fourie would get a pass or two more.  New Zealand had Leon MacDonald, answering critics, with a varied game of great effectiveness, Tana Umaga with a tackle on Habana to snuff out a possible try-scoring opportunity for the Springboks in this last five minutes, Jerry Collins who had a great first half but faded as them match played on, neat Aaron Mauger, two try Joe Rokocoko, Piri Weepu who tested the Springboks time and again in the first half, and our Man of the Match:  sturdy hooker Keven Mealamu who was all things strong and intent, made a try and scored the one that counted.

Moment of the Match:  The winning try by Keven Mealamu after brilliant work by the whole All Black pack.

Villain of the Match:  Forgive the front rows for their altercation.  It helped the intensity and the spectacle!  Nobody gets this unwanted tag.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Rokocoko 2, MacDonald, Mealamu
Cons:  MacDonald 3, McAlister
Pens:  MacDonald

For South Africa:
Tries:  Habana, Januarie, Fourie
Cons:  Montgomery 3
Pens:  Montgomery 2

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Tana Umaga (captain), 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Leon MacDonald, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Derren Witcombe, 17 Greg Somerville, 18 James Ryan, 19 Sione Lauaki, 20 Kevin Senio, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Doug Howlett.

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Jean de Villiers, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 De Wet Barry, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 André Pretorius, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt.
Replacements:  16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 Eddie Andrews, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 22 Marius Joubert.

Referee:  Joël Jutge (France)
Touch judges:  Chris White (England), Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Television match official:  Christophe Berdos (France)
Assessor:  Jim Bailey (Wales)

Australia downed, and out!

South Africa head to Dunedin with all to lose

South Africa held off a ferocious second-half assault to sucker-punch Australia with a second Bryan Habana try and win their Tri-Nations encounter 22-19 in Australia, their first win there for seven years.

Bryan Habana was the hero for the Boks with two breakaway tries, one at each end of the game, and the Bok defence was again the key to victory.

South Africa now stay top of the Tri-Nations Championship with three wins from three matches.  The Wallabies stay bottom with just two bonus points from four matches.

The Wallabies made most of the running in the match putting the ball through many phases with the patience their coach Eddie Jones had asked for but the Springboks scored two tries to their one.  Both Springbok tries were scored by speedster Bryan Habana, both when the Wallabies knocked on when hot on the attack.

The Wallabies had most of the possession as they threw into 24 line-outs, the Springboks just eight.  This time, by and large, the Wallaby line-out worked.  It worked near the front partly thanks to Bill Young who moved into Victor Matfield and co. somewhat suspiciously, and when Matt Dunning replaced Young just before half-time he took over what was obviously a spoiling tactic.

The Wallabies also had the best individual runs of the match, notably by Morgan Turinui and, on one brilliant occasion, Drew Mitchell.

Percy Montgomery's goalkicking was not up to his usual standard.  He goaled three penalties and a dropped goal but missed three penalties and two conversions.  Two of the penalties missed bounced off the crossbar.

The Wallabies suffered a setback even before the kick-off when Elton Flatley withdrew because of double vision.  Morgan Turinui moved to inside centre, Clyde Rathbone came off the bench to outside centre and Adam Ashley-Cooper came onto the bench.

From the second line-out of the match -- and the Wallabies threw in to 12 in the half to the Springboks' four -- The Wallabies launched a great attack until, facing a tackler, David Lyons knocked on.  Schalk Burger scooped up the ball and played to his left -- to Jean de Villiers, to Jaque Fourie to Bryan Habana about ten metres from his line.  The rapid wing set off down the field and did not really look in danger of being caught as first George Gregan and then Lote Tuqiri covered.  Percy Montgomery missed the conversion as he did his first two penalty attempts.

The Wallabies paid dearly for a penalty count that went 9-5 against them in the half, but the Springboks also suffered the absence of Breyton Paulse in the sin bin.  During his absence the Springboks scored three points.  The Wallabies' only points were the penalty for Paulse's infringement of coming in the side and kicking the ball when it was on its way back to the attacking Wallabies.

Two of the South African penalties were against Young at scrums.

When Jean de Villiers was penalised for slowing the ball down at the tackle, Matt Giteau goaled a little unsteadily, and for the rest of the match Mat Rogers did the kicking.

Montgomery goaled his first penalty when Rathbone was penalised at a tackle.  That made the score 8-3 to the Springboks after 17 minutes.

When Paulse wandered off to the sin bin, Rogers kicked the penalty goal from far out on his left and it was 8-6 after 120 minutes.

When Al Baxter copped a tough penalty at a tackle, Montgomery made it 11-6 and then extended the lead to 14-6 just before half-time when Tuqiri and others were off-side.

The off-side occurred during a hectic Springbok attack.  First Schalk Burger ran off the back of a line-out and after interpassing the Springboks went wide to their left but a long, wayward pass from André Pretorius squandered a huge overlap.  Habana footed the pass on and a five-metre scrum ensued when Drew Mitchell played it back from the field of play to touch-in-goal.  Young was penalised at the scrum but the Springboks opted to scrum again and attacked to their right where the off-side occurred.

The Wallabies had the better of the second half starting with a long, mazy run by Mitchell when the Springboks were attacking.  He beat five tackles until De Villiers caught him, but that brilliant run seemed to inspire the Wallabies who hammered at the Springbok defence.  When Os du Randt was penalised at a tackle/ ruck, Rogers goaled and it was 14-9.

John Smit won a turnover from his opposing captain George Gregan and the Springboks looked set to score till Rathbone caught Paulse from behind.

The Wallabies had a scrum there but under pressure Mitchell did not find touch.  Paulse passed infield to Montgomery who took his time, concentrating and dropping a long goal.  17-9.

Soon afterwards the Wallabies had their best moment.  From a line-out Turinui burst over Pretorius and when tackled fed Rathbone with a short pass to his right and Rathbone scored under the posts. 

Rogers converted.  17-16 with 29 minutes to play.

Still the wallabies attacked as the Springbok defence looked leaky.  When Bakkies Botha was penalised at a tackle, Rogers missed but when Botha was penalised for a collar tackle, Rogers goaled and the Wallabies led 19-17 with 19 minutes to go.

The home side was the attacking side but they suffered a devastating blow when within striking distance of clinching the victory.  Rogers was the player who knocked on this time.  Montgomery picked up and passed to his left.  Jaco van der Westhuyzen, on for Pretorius, fed Fourie who gave to Habana who sped down the touch-line, beating speedy Mitchell to score the try which won the match.

This means that South Africa will need to do what no Springbok team has done -- win a test at Carisbrook -- in order to win the Tri-Nations 2005 and retain their title won in 2004.

Man of the Match:  For Australia Clyde Rathbone, Dan Vickerman and Mat Rogers had great performances.  Two Springboks certainly stood out even above Jaque Fourie, Enrico Januarie and John Smit -- Juan Smith who was brilliant in the line-outs, with the ball in hand and in the tackle and Bryan Habana, whose defence was excellent.  But it was his two tries that made the big difference in the end to make him our Man of the Match!

Moment of the Match:  Bryan Habana's second try.  It was harder than the first one and its timing made it the vital score of the match.

Villain of the Match:  Presumably it was Breyton Paulse for his yellow card but it was hardly villainy.  Then Bill Young's shenanigans may have been more calculated villainy.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Tries:  Habana 2
Pens:  Montgomery 3
Drop goal:  Montgomery

For Australia:
Try:  Rathbone
Con:  Rogers
Pens:  Rogers 3, Giteau

Yellow card:  Breyton Paulse (South Africa, 19)

Australia:  15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Mat Rogers, 13 Clyde Rathbone (Adam Ashley Cooper, 75), 12 Morgan Turinui, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 George Gregan (Chris Whitaker, 69), 8 David Lyons, 7 Phil Waugh (George Smith, 69), 6 Rocky Elsom (John Roe, 24-39, 61), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Daniel Vickerman, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Brendan Cannon, 1 Bill Young (Matt Dunning, 42-55, 61).
Unused replacements:  16 Stephen Moore, 18 Mark Chisholm.

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Andre Pretorius (Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 61), 9 Ricky Januarie (Fourie du Preez, 55), 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha (Albert van den Berg, 65), 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt (Gurthro Steenkamp, 58).
Unused replacements:  16 Hanyani Shimange, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 21 Wayne Julies.

All Blacks smash Wallabies in Sydney

Kiwis keep the Bledisloe Cup

Coming back from 13-0 down, for the second successive week, the All Blacks beat the Wallabies 30-13 in their Tri-Nations/ Bledisloe Cup match at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney on Saturday.  The winning margin could well have been greater.

Winning meant New Zealand retained the Bledisloe Cup and kept their hopes alive of winning the Tri-Nations though they would have liked the bonus point which would have come with a fourth try.

Australia's chances of winning the Tri-Nations must surely now be purely a theory.

Australia started well, but then the All Black pack got on top and by the end they were winning the scrum, the tackle and the line-out.

The Wallabies, in their defence, were rendered tattered by a succession of injuries which saw them clear their bench and Chris Whitaker at fly-half for the last part of the match.

New Zealand also suffered a setback when Daniel Carter was helped off with a leg injury but by then the All Blacks led 23-13.

For 68 minutes Australia did not score a point.

Two calls for knock-ons robbed the All Blacks of first a probable and then a possible try.  On both occasion there was the impression that the ball had gone backwards.

There were also close calls for the Wallabies when the television match official judge d that Lote Tuqiri had got a hand to the ball a nanosecond before Carter did.

Rico Gear lost the ball about three metres from the line.  Piri Weepu and Joe Rokocoko managed to knock on a kick with the line beckoning.  A diagonal kick by Carter was gathered by Rokocoko, but Mils Muliaina knocked on the flicked pass from the stately Fijian.

Once Weepu broke blind from, a turn-over but ignored a plethora of support all around him to grubber the ball into touch.  The winning margin could well have been greater.

The opening quarter of the match belonged to Australia, the second quarter to New Zealand, the whole second half to New Zealand.  In the opening quarter Australia went ahead 13-0 after 12 minutes but by half-time the score was 13-10 and Australia perhaps lucky to be ahead.

The Wallaby hero of the first quarter was young fullback Drew Mitchell.  He broke sharply three times in this period, the second producing a brilliant try.

He came in at fly-half from a midfield scrum, beat Daniel Carter on the outside with a hand-off, beat Mils Muliaina and then as Jerry Collins leapt on his back he skidded over for a try on the wet turf.  That try converted by Giteau took Australia to 13-0.  It was a brilliant try from a set piece.

Before the try Giteau had kicked a straightforward penalty when Chris jack was penalised for holding on and then a more angled one when Richie McCaw was penalised at a tackle.

There were during the match, but especially in the first half, several long passages of play as first one side and then the other ran.

Much of New Zealand's efforts were spoilt as the backs tended to run across the field -- after Weepu had taken a step or two or three sideways before passing.  In the second half the All Blacks became more direct.

But it was Weepu who scored New Zealand's first try.  Muliaina countered off a feeble kick and gave to Rokocoko near touch.  The wing bumped Mitchell out of the way and was stopped at the line.  Back the ball came to Weepu who darted, barged and scored far out.  Carter converted.

Aaron Mauger grubbered and Tana Umaga flykicked ahead to keep the pressure on Australia who lost Jeremy Paul to a shoulder injury.  His place was taken by Brendan Cannon, recently back from injury.  He had a rusty match.

Elton Flatley and Clyde Rathbone also came on from recent injury, though Flatley then had to be replaced in the second half, sending Whitaker to fly-half.

Mauger had a great break just before half-time but then threw a woeful pass to his left.

New Zealand started the second half sharply and enjoyed almost complete domination of the half.  The Wallabies' attacking opportunities came almost exclusively as a result of penalties.

Two scrum penalties gave New Zealand the lead in the half.  The Australian scrum was under pressure throughout and became scruffier and scruffier as the match went on.  First Bill Young and then his replacement Matt Dunning were penalised for collapsing and each time Carter goaled, the second time in off the upright.

The Wallabies were defending grimly.  A wobbly line-out left Daniel Vickerman to clean up but he was shunted back and held on in the tackle.  Vickerman penalised, McCaw tapped and charged ahead at George Gregan and other Wallabies to score a try confirmed by the TMO.  Carter converted.  23-13.

The wallabies battered at the New Zealand defence, one at a time with more force than skill till big Stirling Mortlock, whose game had been reduced to a tight forward's speed and mode of play, was tackled.  McCaw won a turn-over off him and suddenly the All Blacks were racing left out of their 22.  Rokocoko took a pass somewhere near the half-way line, ran, chipped, gathered and raced over for a try which he celebrated, rising lark-like from the ground before plunging to earth at the posts.  Luke McAlister, on for Carter, converted.

There was still time and energy for the All Blacks to hunt down a bonus-point try, but in vain.

Man of thee Match:  Richie McCaw, Jerry Collins, Chris Jack Carl Hayman, Keven Mealamu were great in the All Black pack and Aaron Mauger did clever things behind them Joe Rokocoko made a try and scored one.  For Australia John Roe was gallant but our Man of the Match was Drew Mitchell, a young player who was the most electric back on the field, able to flash into effective action.

Moment of the Match:  Drew Mitchell's try was a great one and Joe Rokocoko's even more so but the try from the smallest run was the one that decided the match -- Richie McCaw's try.  The flank put the ball down, tapped it with great concentration, picked it up and then drove with strength and determination.  That try made the win for New Zealand.

Villain of the Match:  None was immediately obvious though a tackle on Morgan Turinui and a tackle on Elton Flatley may not have been entirely wholesome.  But our Villain of the Match was Daniel Carter for a trip after a penalty, a gratuitous bit of silliness.

The scorers:

For Australia:
Try:  Mitchell
Con:  Giteau
Pens:  Giteau 2

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Weepu, McCaw, Rokocoko
Cons:  Carter 2
Pens:  Carter 3

The teams:

Australia:  15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Stirling Mortlock, 12 Morgan Turinui (Clyde Rathbone, 49), 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau (Elton Flatley, 36 -- Gregan 74), 9 George Gregan (captain, Chris Whitaker, 66), 8 David Lyons (Phil Waugh, 55), 7 George Smith, 6 John Roe, 5 Nathan Sharpe (vice-captain, Mark Chisholm, 66), 4 Daniel Vickerman, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Jeremy Paul (Brendan Cannon, 34), 1 Bill Young (Matt Dunning, 44-57).

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Tana Umaga, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Dan Carter (Luke McAlister, 69), 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Rodney So'oialo (Marty Holah, 74), 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Ali Williams (James Ryan, 76), 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman (Greg Somerville, 60), 2 Keven Mealamu (Derren Witcombe, 67), 1 Tony Woodcock.
Unused replacements:  20 Kevin Senio, 22 Leon MacDonald.

Referee:  Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges:  Alain Rolland (Ireland), Dave Pearson (England)
Television match official:  Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)

Boks grind out another vital win

Aggressive defence seals the win for SA

South Africa completed a 100 percent Tri-Nations home record for 2005 when they ground out another vital win, beating New Zealand 22-16 at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.  The teams scored one try each, but penalties and some aggressive defence won the day for the Springboks.

It was not the fluid game that most expected, partly due to the north-westerly gale that had sprung up during the course of the day before the kick-off, and partly due to the aggressive defence that disrupted New Zealand's attacking rhythm.

However that suited the Boks just fine.  It was disruption and plunder of the New Zealand ball that was the tactic of choice, and the more ragged the New Zealand attacks became during the second half, the more obvious the outcome.

South Africa's back row swarmed all over the New Zealand half-backs and line-outs, and rushed them into a series of errors, especially in the second-half.  Dan Carter, on whose shoulders a seemingly never-ending shower of praise is heaped, had a terrible game, and despite Aaron Mauger's attempts to bale him out, neither could spark the All Black backs into anything like the life they showed against the Lions.

Nobody who saw the game will ever be convinced that Richie McCaw had fully recovered from his attack of mumps either, so sluggish did the New Zealand pack leader look.  He was also unfortunate enough to come up opposite Schalk Burger, whose maturity, skill, and desire for the full eighty allowed us a glimpse of the truly finished Burger product.  He was an inspiration to his team, as was Victor Matfield, who is fast etching his name onto the tablet of all-time greats.

South Africa were 13-0 ahead after ten minutes.  Percy Montgomery stroked over an early gift courtesy of a wandering hand, and Andre Pretorius stroked over a close-range drop goal for the early advantage.

Then Rico Gear made a sizzling break through the centres, but his support let him down, and Jean de Villiers once again read the offload to intercept and outstrip Rodney So'oialo for the opening try.

Pretorius' drop goal was his lone success from five attempts on a distinctly mixed day for the fly-half, who rarely got his backs into decent motion.  But South Africa's game was not about making points of their own, rather forcing their opponents into presenting them.

Byron Kelleher left the field shortly after De Villiers' try, feeling the after-effects of a massive hit early on by Matfield.  Piri Weepu replaced him, and looked to be the All Blacks' one true source of inspiration.

The All Blacks eventually clawed their way level, through a brace of penalties from Carter and a superb try by Gear.  Jerry Collins' floated pass over the on-rushing Springbok defence was one for every centre to be proud of, never mind a flanker, and Gear took the ball wide and at pace and blazed into the corner.

New Zealand had the upper hand at this point, reading the Boks' defensive rushes and floating a series of passes wide and flat to the pacemen, but Montgomery, Jacques Fourie, Breyton Paulse and Bryan Habana were exceptional in the amount of ground they covered to stymie the moves.  Gear's try was the only one to get away.

Montgomery kicked a simple penalty on the stroke of half-time to give the Boks the lead, and it was a lead they never lost as the wind increased in strength and blew into the All Black faces.

He landed two further penalties early in the second half to stretch the lead to nine, and then the Boks simply defended in numbers.  Not once did an All Black attacker break cleanly for more than ten metres' gain, and the number of SA tackles behind the gain-line was simply phenomenal.  Several times more intercept tries looked on the cards, and several times referee Andrew Cole called the moves back for infringements which might not have been on other days.

Carter, Umaga, and McCaw all knocked on under pressure, and when Juan Smit took the number of turnovers into double figures midway through the second half and Breyton Paulse fired a peach of a kick into New Zealand's left-hand corner, New Zealand's shoulders drooped.

Carter brought them back to within a score ten minutes from the end, but despite the industry in the final part of the game, the Springbok defence held, and South Africa ended a winless streak against the All Blacks at Newlands that stretched back 29 years.  They earned their lap of honour.

Man of the match:  Bok flank Schalk Burger.  Pillaging, rampaging, and DISCIPLINED.  What all have wanted from Burger for so long may finally have arrived.

Villain of the match:  New Zealand lock Ali Williams ought to be censured for the number of times he tried to niggle his opponents, but the reactions of his targets were so exemplary that the niggle was rendered more ridiculous than villainous.

Moment of the match:  When Breyton Paulse fired a spiralling kick 50m back into the corner with 20 minutes to go, after the All Blacks had threatened to break the line several times.  Any New Zealand resurgence faded thereafter.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Try:  De Villiers
Con:  Montgomery
Pens:  Montgomery 4
DG:  Pretorius

For New Zealand:
Try:  Gear
Con:  Carter
Pens:  Carter 3

The teams:

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 André Pretorius, 9 Enrico Januarie, 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt.
Replacements:  16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 Gurthro Steenkamp, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Wayne Julies, 22 Jaco van der Westhuyzen.

New Zealand:  15 Leon MacDonald, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Tana Umaga (c), 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Mils Muliaina, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Derren Witcombe, 17 Greg Somerville, 18 James Ryan, 19 Marty Holah, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Joe Rokocoko

Referee:  Andrew Cole (Australia)Touch judges:  Alan Lewis (Ireland), Donal Courtney (Ireland)Television match official:  Nigel Owens (Wales)

Boots win it for the Boks

Pretorius, Montgomery kick SA to victory

South Africa got their defence of the Tri-Nations off to a winning start at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday, beating Australia 22-16 thanks to the boots of Percy Montgomery -- with three penalties and a drop goal -- and Andre Pretorius, whose kicking from hand was exemplary.

It was a tense, tactical game, punctuated by moments of brilliance.  Both sides made very few poor mistakes and genuinely open play was not abundant, but those moves that did send the ball wide were often scintillatingly executed.

Australia's disjointed preparations were disrupted still further when David Lyons failed a late fitness test.  John Roe slipped into the No.8 shirt, and the mobile Phil Waugh was called up to No.6 for the Wallabies.  Waugh certainly made a difference in the loose defence, but Lyons' rampaging runs were sorely missed as Australia varied the straight inside pass with a number of well-executed switch moves.  Lyons would have been perfect.

Stephen Larkham sustained an injury in the thirteenth minute as well, meaning Matt Giteau had to share the fly-half duties with him for a while.  Larkham's running did not seem too affected, but Giteau took over the kicking duties from hand, meaning that Australia's moves became slightly more predictable whenever Giteau slotted in at fly-half.  Larkham eventually resumed full kicking duties later in the game, but he was so poor he would have been better-advised to go off.

Australia's moves became fairly predictable anyway.  Once Percy Montgomery had spilled an early high ball, more and more high kicks came his way for Chris Latham and Lote Tuqiri to chase.

It was either that or one of George Gregan, Larkham or Giteau switching inside to a runner from deep.  Out of the box thinking it wasn't, but it was effective, and kept the ball tight.

South Africa had set their stall out to run the ball before the game, and they did spread the ball well, but there was not enough penetration, and often the Boks back-line would be standing too flat to get the momentum going.  Perhaps they would have been better advised to use the boot of Andre Pretorius more -- his kicking was inch-perfect all day.

South Africa opened the scoring in the third minute with a simple Montgomery penalty after George Smith had entered the ruck from the side.  That was it for the first 20 minutes as South Africa probed but failed to find ay cracks in a resolute Wallaby defence.

Indeed it was the Wallabies who although had less of the ball, seemed more likely to do something with it.  Sailor and Smith both went close to the line, and only several interventions by Percy Montgomery -- particularly one on Wendell Sailor in the 15th minute -- staved off the threat.

Australia kept pressing, and after Matt Giteau had slotted a simple penalty for a blatant Fourie du Preez offside, he was given another chance when Chris Latham won an aerial battle with Montgomery and set Tuqiri away.  Tuqiri was brought down and the ruck was slowed down with a hand.  Giteau slotted the penalty for a 6-3 lead after half-an-hour which the Australians just about deserved.

Montgomery squared the game with a wonderful drop goal just after the half-hour, using all of his experience to stop a move that was going nowhere and take his time over the sweetest of strikes.

But Australia delivered what might have been a killer blow right on half-time, when George Smith wriggled through a couple of tacklers and plonked the ball down on the line.  Giteau converted and gave Australia a 13-6 half-time lead.  In a game as tight as this, a seven-point lead looked a big task to claw back.

The second half began much as the first had done, with South Africa enjoying more of the possession but Australia enjoying more of the penetration.  Then came the moment that turned the match.

Bryan Habana drifted over into the line off his wing and produced a mesmerising moment with his hands to take the ball past Turinui.  He then flicked it behind Turinui's back to Montgomery, whose pass to Paulse will be replayed in Rolex advertisements for months to come, so well-timed was it.

Paulse made the 22 remaining metres with something to spare, and Montgomery's conversion brought the teams level with a half-hour to go.

If anything, the game tightened up still more after that, and Australia -- as expected -- began to fade in the thin air and heat, and their aerial storm on Montgomery was brilliantly weathered.  Montgomery will be particularly grateful to Bryan Habana for a superb piece of support which kept four Australian chasers of one such kick at bay, after Montgomery had again won his ball-clutching battle with Latham.

Giteau capitalised on the spell of pressure by firing over a penalty, but Montgomery replied with two more as the Australians ran out of ideas and energy and the Boks grew in confidence.

With the last play of the game, Andre Pretorius dropped a superb goal from 30m to send the deafening Loftus support into raptures.

Man of the match:  Victor Matfield was again king of the line-outs, and George Smith was prominent for disrupting the Boks' possession, but once he had the opening twenty minutes out of the way, Percy Montgomery delivered everything you would want under pressure from an old head in a tight game.  He dealt with all the high balls that came his way, and his tackling and defensive work was fantastic.

Moment of the match:  Bryan Habana's little handiwork in the build-up to South Africa's try, followed by Monty's perfectly-timed pass.  The try was at the perfect time, and set the South Africans on their way to victory.  There was also the support from Habana to Montgomery in the face of four Australian chasers two minutes later, a piece of work which showed just how hungry the Boks were.

Villain of the match:  None

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Try:  Paulse (51)
Con:  Montgomery (51)
Pens:  Montgomery (3, 61, 73)
DGs:  Montgomery (29), Pretorius (80)

For Australia:
Try:  Smith (40)
Con:  Giteau (40)
Pens:  Giteau (22, 27, 58)

Teams:

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers (Wayne Julies, 61), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 André Pretorius, 9 Fourie du Preez (Enrico Januarie, 73), 8 Jacques Cronjé (Schalk Burger, 53), 7 Juan Smith, 6 Joe van Niekerk, 5 Victor Matfield (Albert van den Berg, 67), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde (Gary Botha, 67), 2 John Smit, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Unused replacements:  17 Lawrence Sephaka, 21 Jaco van der Westhuyzen.

Australia:  15 Chris Latham, 14 Wendell Sailor (Drew Mitchell, 73), 13 Morgan Turinui (Stirling Mortlock, 58), 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 George Gregan (captain), 8 John Roe (Rocky Elsom, 77), 7 George Smith, 6 Phil Waugh, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Daniel Vickerman (Mark Chisholm, 72), 3 Matt Dunning (Al Baxter, 48), 2 Jeremy Paul (Stephen Moore, 78), 1 Bill Young.
Unused replacement:  20 Chris Whitaker.

Referee:  Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Steve Walsh (New Zealand), Nigel Owens (Wales)
Television match official:  Roy Maybank (England)

Australia 37 France 31

Two second-half tries by Morgan Turinui helped Australia survive a late scare and beat France 37-31 in Brisbane.

The Wallabies outscored France by six tries to four in the one-off Test and could have won by a much bigger margin.

But centre Matt Giteau's goalkicking was poor, succeeding just two of his eight attempts.

Australia, leading 15-7 at half-time, were forced to hang on after the break as the French hit back, but replacement Turinui finally settled their nerves.

Giteau opened the scoring for Australia with an early penalty.

But French winger Cedric Heymans pounced to intercept a Chris Latham pass and cross for the first try.

Australia hit back with tries by fly-half Stephen Larkham and fullback Latham to establish a comfortable lead.

But France scored immediately after the interval, with wing Julien Laharrague going over.

They also scored tries through Damien Traille and Julien Candelon, with captain Jean-Baptiste Elissalde kicking four out of four conversions, plus a penalty.

The teams:

Australia:  Chris Latham, Wendell Sailor, Stirling Mortlock, Matt Giteau, Lote Tuqiri, Stephen Larkham, George Gregan (capt), David Lyons, George Smith, Rocky Elsom, Nathan Sharpe, Mark Chisholm, Al Baxter, Jeremy Paul, Bill Young.
Replacements used:  Morgan Turinui, Chris Whitaker, Mat Rogers, John Roe, Al Campbell, Matt Dunning, Stephen Moore.

France:  Nicolas Brusque, Julien Laharrague, Yannick Jauzion, Benoit Baby, Cedric Heymans, Frederic Michalak, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (capt), Julien Bonnaire, Olivier Magne, Remy Martin, Pascal Pape, Gregory Lamboley, Denis Avril, Dimitri Swarzewski, Olivier Milloud.
Replacements used:  Yannick Nyanga, Sylvain Marconnet, Pieter De Villiers, Sebastien Bruno, Damien Traille, Julien Candelon, Thibault Privat.

Referee:  Nigel Williams (Wales)

Unbeaten Wales sweep past Scotland

Wales book a Grand Slam date

Wales will play Ireland in Cardiff for the Grand Slam after sweeping past Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.  The Welsh ran in six tries before the Scots mounted a spirited fightback -- but it was to no avail, as the Welsh ended the day with a 46-22 win under their belts.

It was a remarkable, entertaining, enterprising RBS Six Nations match at threadbare Murrayfield on Sunday afternoon.  It was a match of many adjectives from brilliant to mystifying.

Brilliant!

Wales scored five tries in the first half against Scotland!  It is such a simple statement but it tells nothing of the magic that surely must have the druids chortling with delight and set the poets and songsters looking for words and sounds adequate enough.

For years to come people will sing about this day in the valleys and old men will tell the little children with bright eyes.

Wales were simply astounding.

The five tries were not long in coming.

Scotland centre Hugo Southwell hoofed a meaningless kick downfield, but Wales, gratefully, counterattacked.  Burly Ryan Jones burst straight through the Scottish locks and passed.  Four pairs of hands later the ball came back to him and over he went for the first try.  Stephen Jones converted.  7-0 after four minutes.

Already the crowd were singing Cwm Rhondda.  After all some 40,000 Welshmen had made the popular Edinburgh trip, that Max Boyce sang about.

The future was writ big on the wall -- so it seemed.

Scotland wing Sean Lamont started a bullocking run.  Scotland did all sorts of pick-'n-drive.  They went right and came back left.  Dan Parks through a long pass to skip two men.  But he did not skip Rhys Williams who intercepted and ran 80 or so metres to score under the bar.  Stephen Jones converted.  14-0 after ten minutes.

Wales fly-half Stephen Jones cut through and gave to Michael Owen who gave to Shane Williams who skipped through for a try at the posts.  Stephen Jones made it 21-0 after 13 minutes.

Stephen Jones then kicked a penalty from in front.  24-0 after 18 minutes.

Scotland fullback Chris Paterson goaled a penalty to make it 24-3, which raised no excitement amongst the astounded Scots.

The referee was playing an advantage for Wales when Tom Shanklin forced a gap through Sean Lamont, and Kevin Morgan was on hand to score at the posts.  Stephen Jones converted.  31-3.

The next try looked unlikely as Wales bounced a messy ball back, but Dwayne Peel went back and got it, sold a dummy and then broke clean through.  He played inside to Morgan who scored at the posts.  Stephen Jones converted.  38-3.

There was still time for the kick-off and an astounding passage of play which may have been a sign of what was to come in the second half as the Scots attacked and attacked and kept possession.  The attack lasted nearly four minutes before the final whistle finally went.

When the old men and the druids and the bards tell of this match in the valley, hill and dale of Wales, they will tell about the first half.

Oh they had a moment in the second half when Peel caught Scotland napping.  He tapped a penalty on the left, ran to the right and threw a wonderful pass to Rhys Williams, who scored in the corner.  43-3 with 31 minutes to play.

Those remaining 31 minutes belonged to Scotland.  In that time all Wales managed was a pusillanimous penalty.

Suddenly Scotland started taking a leaf out of the Welsh book, passing quickly, keeping the ball going beyond the tackle and doing it with growing confidence.  Like Wales they made the tackle-ball quick by having the tackled player place it well back from his body.

They attacked down the right and then came the width of the field to the left touch-line where Andy Craig went over in the corner.  Paterson converted.  43-10 with 27 minutes to play.

Oh, well, one thought -- an hiatus in the Welsh blitz.  But no.  Scotland were the ones blitzing.

They went left, right, and left again with Mike Blair providing much of the spark with his lively running.  Less than half a metre from the Scottish line, Brent Cockbain stepped in from the side to deny Scotland the ball and was sent to the sin bin.

The Scots came again and only a timely tackle by Tom Shanklin on Gordon Ross prevented the try.

But with 22 minutes to go the Scots played the width of the field, going left, then far right, then far left where Rory Lamont, the debutant right-wing, powered over -- through Shane Williams and Shanklin -- for a try in the corner.  43-15.

Wales attacked, but Haldane Luscombe, falling on a long, low pass, spilled the ball in the Scottish 22.  Sean Lamont picked up and the Scots came bursting away.  Southwell hoofed downfield and Paterson easily beat everybody to the ball.  Carefully he went down to collect, threw a little dummy and sprinted over for the try at the posts.  He converted.  43-22.

It was after this that Wales were awarded a penalty goal in front of the Scottish posts with five minutes left.  Stephen Jones goaled it to the sound of booing.  46-22.

Back came the Scots with confident skill.  They were right at the line and when Nathan Hines was close, the TMO decided that he could not see if the ball was grounded on the line and awarded a five-metre scrum.  But still the Scots attacked.

Mystifying?

What happened in the second half?  Did Wales switch off because the match was clearly won?  Did the many changes have the desired effect for Scotland?  Certainly they were smarter, sharper and more resolute in the second half, giving Wales no more presents.

Man of the Match:  Scotland scum-half Mike Blair played only a half but was the spark that ignited the Scots.  Burly Sean Lamont battled and battled with remarkable courage.  Allister Hogg was creative and brave and Chris Paterson, as always, was everywhere for Scotland.  For Wales there was relentless Martyn Williams, making Scottish opportunities into opportunities for Wales, bustling Ryan Jones who started the scoring, smooth Stephen Jones who did everything right, big Gethin Jenkins and our man-of-the-match scrum-half Dwayne Peel whose skill and judgement were unfailing.

Moment of the Match:  There is that moment -- agonising if you are Scottish, delicious if you are Welsh -- when Rhys Williams intercepted, but for creativity our vote for moment of the match goes to Chris Paterson's try and everything that went before it and the spirit that it signified.

Villain of the Match:  Nobody misbehaved, but who made the Welsh decision to kick at goal when 43-20 up and five minutes to play?

The Scorers:

For Scotland:
Tries:  Craig, R Lamont, Paterson
Cons:  Paterson 2
Pen:  Paterson

For Wales:
Tries:  R Jones, R Williams 2, S Williams, Morgan 2
Cons:  S Jones 5
Pens:  S Jones 2

The teams:

Scotland:  15 Chris Paterson, 14 Rory Lamont, 13 Andy Craig (Andrew Henderson, 76), 12 Hugo Southwell, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Dan Parks (Gordon Ross, 41), 9 Chris Cusiter (Mike Blair, 44), 8 Allister Hogg, 7 Jon Petrie, 6 Simon Taylor, 5 Scott Murray, 4 Stuart Grimes (Nathan Hines, 41), 3 Gavin Kerr (Bruce Douglas, 42) 2 Gordon Bulloch (captain), 1 Tom Smith.
Unused replacements:  16 Robbie Russell, 19 Jon Dunbar.

Wales:  15 Kevin Morgan, 14 Rhys Williams, 13 Tom Shanklin (Haldane Luscombe, 7-15), 12 Gavin Hanson (Ceri Sweeney, 76), 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Michael Owen (captain), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones, 5 Robert Sidoli, 4 Brent Cockbain (Jonathan Thomas, 71), 3 Adam Jones (John Yapp, 63), 2 Mefin Davies (Robin McBryde, 49), 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Unused replacements:  19 Robin Sowden-Taylor, 20 Mike Phillips.

Referee:  Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Donal Courtney (Ireland), Christophe Berdos (France)
Assessor:  Giovanni Romano (Italy)
Television match official:  Eric Darrière (France)

England end campaign on a high

Noon notches up a hat-trick

England ran in seven tries in total as they finished a frustrating RBS Six Nations campaign with a flourish at Twickenham.  Jamie Noon scored a hat-trick of tries as England reclaimed the Calcutta Cup -- and avoided fourth place in the standing.

Scotland had a better second half after England had led 26-10 at the break, and it could have been even closer but for an aberration by Scottish right wing Rory Lamont.

With England leading 33-22, Lamont had a run down the right wing which had "try" written all over it as he had two supporters on his inside.  But he chose to take Josh Lewsey's tackle and get dumped into touch.

Both sides tried to run the ball at every opportunity but the match lacked the intensity, speed and skill which Wales, Ireland and France were able to generate.

That said, there were some splendid tries, especially Scotland's second.

In all England scored seven tries, Scotland three.  Three of England's tries were scored by Noon, the first hat-trick in a Calcutta Cup match since John Carleton of England did it in 1980.

The first bright moment of the first half was provided by Scottish fullback Chris Paterson who darted, raced and swerved in counter-attack, but England scored first.

From a line-out Charlie Hodgson simply cut inside Gordon Ross and gave to James Noon who had a simple run to the posts.  Hodgson converted.  7-0 after 14 minutes.

When Martin Corry was penalised, Paterson made it 7-3.

England struck straight back.  They won the ball at the kick-off and Noon scored his second try -- a remarkable solo effort.  He burst between two Scots, shucked off another and then bounced Paterson out of the way to score at the posts.  Hodgson converted.  14-3.

Mark Cueto on the right wing and not far from touch moved out, drawing two Scots, before passing inside to Joe Worsley who got over in the corner.  19-3 after 27 minutes.

When Iain Balshaw was taken off on a stretch for a leg injury, Ollie Smith came on.

England's went left.  Hugo Southwell, rushed off his line and Mark Cueto, coming off the right wing, cut clean past him, drew Paterson and sent Josh Lewsey over for the try, which Hodgson converted.  26-3 after 33 minutes.

Just before the break the Scots played through many phases, centre Andy Craig made the running and Sean Lamont powered over for the try.  Paterson converted to make the score 26-10 at the break.

Scotland scored first in the second half, one of the very best tries of the whole RBS Six Nations.

Paterson collected the ball well inside his own 22, looked calm as if preparing to kick and suddenly was accelerating over the 22, past Martin Corry and into England's half.  He chipped and chased, Blair control an awkward bounce and fed Craig who galloped off to score a brilliant try.  Paterson converted.  26-17 after 45 minutes.

Two minutes later England mauled a line-out and played down the blindside where Ollie Smith sent Harry Ellis racing for the line.  Hodgson converted from far out.  33-17 after 47 minutes.

Then came a shock.

England won a line-out and Ellis was torpedoing his lads to the left when Simon Taylor intercepted and ran nobly nearly half the length of the field for a try.  33-22.

The next significant moment after this was Rory Lamont's indiscretion.

England attacked and attacked again through many phases.  Matt Dawson changed direction with a back flick and Noon surged over for his third try.  38-22 with 14 minutes to play.

Olly Barkley broke sharply and the ball went out to the right wing where Mark Cueto shook off Sean Lamont's neck-tackle to score.

The Scots then went through several phases but a knock-on by Gordon Bulloch ensured that it did not go far enough.

Man of the Match:  Chris Paterson was far and away the most exciting player on the field, but we name powerful Jamie Noon for his rare feat of a Calcutta Cup hat-trick.

Moment of the match:  Andy Craig's try and all that made it.

Villain of the Match:  Poor Rory Lamont -- he had a nanosecond in which to make a decision and made the wrong one.

The scorers:

For England:
Tries:  Noon 3, Worsley, Lewsey, Ellis, Cueto
Cons:  Hodgson 4

For Scotland:
Tries:  S Lamont, Craig, Taylor
Cons:  Paterson 2
Pen:  Paterson

The teams:

England:  15 Iain Balshaw (Ollie Smith, 31), 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Josh Lewsey, 10 Charlie Hodgson (Andy Goode, 76), 9 Harry Ellis (Matt Dawson, 65) , 8 Martin Corry (captain), 7 Lewis Moody (Andy Hazell, 40), 6 Joe Worsley, 5 Ben Kay (Steve Borthwick, 13), 4 Danny Grewcock, 3 Duncan Bell (Mike Worsley, 51), 2 Steve Thompson (Andy Titterrell, 72), 1 Matt Stevens.

Scotland:  15 Chris Paterson, 14 Rory Lamont, 13 Andy Craig, 12 Hugo Southwell, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Gordon Ross, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Allister Hogg (Jon Petrie, 75), 6 Jason White, 5 Scott Murray (Stuart Grimes, 33), 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Gavin Kerr, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 1 Tom Smith (Bruce Douglas, 24).
Unused replacements:  16 Robbie Russell, 20 Graeme Beveridge, 21 Dan Parks, 22 Andrew Henderson.

Referee:  Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Touch-judges:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa) and Nigel Whitehouse (Wales).
Television match official:  Christophe Berdos (France)

Cardiff erupts as Wales romp home

Wales are back!

Wales completed their clean sweep of the RBS Six Nations with an inspired 32-20 victory over Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday.  Wales -- 40/1 to win the tournament a the start of the year -- walk away with the title, the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam.

What a place to be -- Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on 19 March, 2005, as Wales put 27 years of hurt behind them!

The great crowd in the great ground in the Welsh capital grew redder and redder as the moments ticked away and it became obvious that victory belonged to Wales -- victory and far more -- honour and glory, a restitution of Welsh pride and nationhood and a a revitalisation of rugby as an adventurous game for all.

There they stood -- red jerseys, chests out proud, a beer in one hand, a daffodil in the other, head up singing a hymn with fervour.

Every Welshman in the Principality became a king!

Ireland were beaten, but their energy and skill during the last twenty minutes of this encounter made the match a thriller.  The end of that match was full of determination and resolve.

The roof was open, the sun shone on a shirt-sleeve day, the anthems were ardent, Cwm Rhondda prayerful.  And Wales kicked off to start this match of destiny.  Would it be Wales?  Would it be Ireland?  And in the background was the spectre of France and their big win over Italy which could still bring them the championship.

Ireland got early into the Welsh half and Robert Sidoli was penalised for toppling the Irish jumper.  Ronan O'Gara goaled.  3-0 after three minutes.

A minute later Stephen Jones missed a penalty kick and the whole Welsh world groaned.  But then as the Welsh attacked with lots of cleverness, Gavin Henson kicked a dropped goal under pressure.  3-3 after 13 minutes.

Not long afterwards came a turning point in the match.  O'Gara sat back to kick and Gethin Jenkins charged the kick down.  It was a classic hands-out charge-down from the mobile prop.  Then with skill no prop is entitled to have, he footed gently on.  At the line he slowed with patience and fell on the ball for the match's first try.

Stephen Jones converted and Wales led 10-3 after 17 minutes, and their confidence grew and grew.

The stadium then swelled with pride as Henson goaled a penalty goal from 52 metres away, the ball glancing in off the left upright.  13-3.

Ireland had a golden moment when Denis Hickie came off the left wing and took a neat inside pass from Brian O'Driscoll.  Hickie sped through.  As Kevin Morgan tackled him he gave to Geordan Murphy.  Murphy gave to Girvan Dempsey and right at the line Stephen Jones and Mark Taylor pulled him down.

There was then a five-metre scrum to Ireland -- and Wales won it.  Yes, it was going to be Wales's day!

Stephen Jones made it 16-3 when O'Driscoll was penalised at a tackle but O'Gara made it 16-6 at half-time when Robert Sidoli was penalised for holding on.

When O'Gara was penalised for being off-side -- and was cross about it -- Stephen Jones made it 19-6.

Ireland attacked but Wales ran from their own line and set Tom Shanklin free.  He kicked long and only Anthony Foley was there to save.

After Shane Williams countered off an Irish grubber and kicked high, Ireland knocked on and Wales were on hectic attack.  They had a huge overlap -- five against two but Martyn Williams knocked on.

When Ireland were penalised, Dwayne Peel tapped and ran and Martyn Williams cut through.  It ended with a penalty by Stephen Jones which made it 22-6 after 51 minutes.

At this stage Ireland pulled O'Gara off and sent David Humphreys on.  Whether it was cause and effect or just desperation, from then on Ireland mounted attack after attack -- eventually with a measure of success.

They made many passes but always, it seemed, there were more defenders than passes.  Big Anthony Foley pounded for the corner but little Shane Williams forced him out.

Back came the Welsh, and Michael Owen made a charge.  The ball came back to Shanklin who cut straight through.  He passed to his left to Kevin Morgan who went off at an incline to score.  Stephen Jones converted.  29-6 with 22 minutes to play.

The crowd were still tense and tension would grow as Irish effort intensified.

At this stage Ireland changed as much of its pack as it could.  They got to the Welsh line and Peter Stringer flicked a pass to Marcus Horan who burst between Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins to score Ireland's first try.  Humphreys converted.  29-13 with 14 minutes to play.

Ireland were then back on attack, but Morgan managed to hack the ball free.  Shane Williams chased and Brent Cockbain was there to put pressure.  At a scrum Horan infringed seriously and Stephen Jones made it 32-13 with nine minutes left.

Those nine minutes were Irish as they flung attack after attack at the Welsh line which stood in the priority of Rorkes Drift.

Humphreys kicked a high diagonal towards little Shane Williams's wing.  Ireland won the air battle and Murphy went over for a try, Humphreys converted.  32-20 with seven minutes to go.

Those minutes passed like hours in Welsh hearts until Martyn Jenkins got the ball and hoofed it into the red-clad crowd, the final whistle went and Welshmen started rejoicing -- this day will last lifetimes.

Man of the Match:  It would be silly and unfair to single out a single Welsh hero on this wonderful day in Wales.

Moment of the Match:  There were many, but two stood out as a sign of Welsh intent -- one was a tackle by Tom Shanklin on Brian O'Driscoll.  The other occurred when Kevin Morgan footed through and Shane Williams chased.  The ball was on the ground about to come into contest when Brent Cockbain, swooped onto the ball.  They were fifty-fifty moments, which clearly meant more to Wales than to Ireland.

Villain of the Match:  Paul O'Connell and Robert Sidoli went in for some juvenile wrestling in touch, but worse than that was Gavin Henson's attempted trip on Denis Hickie.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Tries:  G Jenkins, Morgan
Cons:  S Jones 2
Pens:  S Jones 4, Henson
Drop:  Henson

For Ireland:
Tries:  Horan, Murphy
Cons:  Humphreys 2
Pens:  O'Gara

The teams:

Wales:  15 Kevin Morgan, 14 Mark Taylor, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Gavin Hanson, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Michael Owen (captain), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones, 5 Robert Sidoli, 4 Brent Cockbain, 3 Adam Jones (John Yapp, 67), 2 Mefin Davies (Robin McBryde, 69), 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Unused replacements:  18 Jonathan Thomas, 19 Robin Sowden-Taylor, 20 Mike Phillips, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Haldane Luscombe.

Ireland:  15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Girvan Dempsey, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Kevin Maggs, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Ronan O'Gara (David Humphreys, 51), 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Anthony Foley (Eric Miller, 59), 7 Johnny O'Connor,6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell (Donncha O'Callaghan, 63), 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne ( Frankie Sheahan, 63), 1 Reggie Corrigan (Marcus Horan, 59).
Unused replacements:  20 Guy Easterby, 22 Gavin Duffy.

Referee:  Chris White (England)
Touch judges:  Joël Jutge (France), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Assessor:  Ian Scotney (Australia)
Television match official:  Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)

France finish with a Roman flourish

Les Bleus still in with a shout

Two sudden tries in the last three minutes stretched France's victory over Italy at Stadio Flaminio in Rome to 56-13, giving them a points difference of 42 and still the possibility of retaining the RBS Six Nations title.

It may have looked at one stage in the first half as if France were going to break records in running away with the match, but Italy were not going to be milk cows, and in the end the margin of victory may just have flattered the French.

Under blue Italian skies Gert Peens of Italy kicked off to get the last weekend of the RBS Six Nations under way.  Yann Delaigue kicked out and Fabien Pelous barged at the first line-out.  With the breeze at his back Peens goaled the long kick.

Italy led 3-0 after three minutes and the crowd chanted:  "Italia!  Italia!"

Delaigue broke well but passed to an Italian, but when the Italians were marched on 10 metres at a penalty Dimitri Yachvili levelled the scores.  All square after seven minutes.

A ghastly pass then rolled behind the French centres.  Christophe Dominici stayed behind to gather and looked in terrible trouble as three Italian warriors bore down on him.

But with astonishing strength and verve the small wing burst away from them and down the field to give a pass to Yannick Nyanga and the young flank burst over for this first try for France.  Yachvili converted from touch.  10-3 to France after ten minutes, and the crowd chanted:  "Allez les Bleus!  Allez les Bleus!"

Just after this Italy skipper Marco Bortolami took out Pelous's support in the line-out bringing the French captain crashing to earth.  For this Bortolami was sent to the sin bin.

Dominici set up the next try when he beat Kaine Robertson and stayed on his feet to pass to Yannick Jauzion who swivelled over Alessandro Troncon's tackle for the try, which Yachvili again converted.  17-3 after 16 minutes.

Back came the French on attack and back came Bortolami from the sin bin just in time to witness an astonishing try.

Delaigue was going left and switched to pass infield, but the pass found Italy's Kaine Robertson who sprinted some 80 metres down the field for a try that caused much joy to echo around the Seven Hills of Rome.  Peens converted.  France led 17-10 after 25 minutes.

Just after this Delaigue had a kick charged down, Andrea Lo Cicero went on the burst and then the Italians had a passage of brilliant, quick handling which ended when the referee penalised Martin Castrogiovanni for holding on, and catcalls echoed around the ground.

Then came a horrible incident.  Dominici was running off to his right, drawing the Italians to allow room for Yachvili.  Bortolami shoved a shoulder into him from the front and Salvatore Perugini drove into him from behind with a swinging arm -- both actions fractionally late.  There was a long hiatus while Dominici was brought back from unconsciousness and taken off on a stretcher-car to be taken to the San Pietro Hospital for observation and treatment for shock.

The French got their third try as they came right and Dominic Traille, a replacement for Dominici, drew two defenders to send Nicolas Laharrague running free down the wing for a try in the corner.  Yachvili converted.

They nearly scored again before the break but Delaigue's pass to Yannick Nyanga was forward.

At half-time France led 24-10.

Peens kicked his second penalty to make it 24-13 and then the French settled down to attack.

Yachvili passed under pressure and centre Simon Picone intercepted and went off, but he lacked Robertson's speed and was hunted down by Traille.  The ball went loose and Cédric Heymans footed it back towards his own line, gathered it and cleared.

To catcalls Yachvili then kicked two penalty goals as the French were intent on scoring points.  They led 30-13 with 28 minutes to play.

Heymans nearly scored when he set off down the left touch-line but a fragment of the outside of his left boot touched a sliver of the white line and a line-out ensued instead of the try.

The French patiently built up an attack in midfield.  David Marty, on debut, picked up a bouncing ball, and sped 45 metres down the middle of the field for a try, an echo of Benoît Baby's against Ireland the week before.  Yachvili converted.  37-13 to France with 14 minutes to go and substitutions streamed onto the field.

The French made a line-out a maul and drove at the Italian line.  Scrum-half Pierre Mignoni broke away and fed Grégory Lamboley who plunged over.  Michalak converted.  44-13 with nine minutes to play.

Traille did a switch with Laharrague and the French went off with sharp, short passes -- Traille to Jauzion to Serge Betsen to Pierre Mignoni and then to Marty who raced over for this second try in a good position but Michalak missed the conversion.  39-13 with three minutes left.

France came back, but their handling broke down.  Italy heeled at the pressurised scrum and Mignoni picked up and raced 50 undeviating metres to score.  Michalak converted and France had a lead of 42 points.

Man of the Match:  Christophe Dominici was an early candidate, but he was forced out of the game with injury.  Italian candidates were Alessandro Troncon and Sergio Parisse.  But out choice is Yannick Nyanga, the tall young flank who scored the first try, did so well in the line-out, won ball, carried ball and made tackles.

Moment of the Match:  Kaine Robertson's intercept and long run as the French scurried back.

Villain of the match:  Italian skipper Marco Bortolami for the yellow card.  There is also a case for the action that destroyed Christophe Dominici.

The scorers:

For Italy:
Try:  Robertson
Con:  Peens
Pens:  Peens 2

For France:
Tries:  Nyanga, Jauzion, Laharrague, Marty 2, Lamboley, Mignoni
Cons:  Yachvili 4, Michalak 2
Pens:  Yachvili 2

The teams:

Italy:  15 Gert Peens, 14 Paul Kaine Robertson (Roberto Pedrazzi, 65), 13 Andrea Masi, 12 Simon Picone (Roberto Pedrazzi, 55-60), 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Alessandro Troncon (Paul Griffen, 57), 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 David Dal Maso (Silvio Orlando, 70), 6 Aaron Persico, 5 Marco Bortolami (captain), 4 Santiago Dellape (Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3-9, 60) , 3 Salvatore Perugini, 2 Fabio Ongaro (Carlo Festuccia, 55), 1 Andrea Lo Cicero (Martin Castrogiavanni, 28).
Unused replacement:  21 Roland De Marigny

France:  15 Julien Laharrague, 14 Cédric Heymans, 13 David Marty, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Christophe Dominici (Damien Traille, 32), 10 Yann Delaigue (Frédéric Michalak, 60), 9 Dimitri Yachvili (Pierre Mignoni, 69), 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Yannick Nyanga (Grégory Lamboley, 66), 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Jérôme Thion, 4 Fabien Pelous (Pascal Papé, 71), 3 Nicolas Mas (Pieter de Villiers, 41), 2 Sébastien Bruno (William Servat, 59), 1 Sylvain Marconnet.

Referee:  Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Touch judges:  Tony Spreadbury (England), Rob Dickson (Scotland)
Television match official:  Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)

England put six tries past Italy

World champs clinch first win of 2005

England got their RBS Six Nations campaign off the mark with a six-try 39-7 win over Italy at Twickenham on Saturday.  Italy have yet to win a match -- with the daunting prospect of facing France in their final match.

Saturday's match had sparkling moments but by and large it was ragged, not aided by the use of uncontested scrums.  Italy lost their hooker Fabio Ongaro in the first half, and then in the second half prop Salvatore Perugini and replacement hooker Giorgio Intoppa.  They had, they said, no suitably trained player to play hooker and the scrums became uncontested.

England scored ten points in the first nine minutes and 12 points in the last four minutes and not much else happened in the first half.  In the second half they scored their first points after 20 minutes, the next four minutes later, and the last in the last movement of the match.

It was a match England were never going to lose.  Perhaps with contested scrums they would have got a more complete grip on the game but lots of it was ragged.

Italy scored a neat try was they attacked and attacked, and then late in the game their backs showed enterprise, especially from Andrea Masi and nippy wing Ludovico Nitoglia.

England looked best when Iain Balshaw was running but after the initial flourishes he had little running -- until near the end when he produced the blooper of the season.

Italy were best in doing ordinary things well -- getting and keeping possession but they lack a game-breaker -- any game-breaker, which mean that regardless of how close they got and how many phases they went through the ardent Azzurri were not a threat to England's defence.

When Marco Bortolami was penalised at a tackle, the very first penalty of the match, Charlie Hodgson goaled.  3-0.

Italian fly-half Luciano Orquera kicked a long way downfield to his left and away from the forwards.  Balshaw got the ball and started running.  He beat two Italians and gave to Jamie Noon.  The centre handed to mark Cueto and the wing had a straight run to the posts.  Hodgson converted.  10-0 to England after nine minutes.

The floodgates then creaked close and not even a huge England scrum near the Italian line produced a score.

Hodgson missed an easy penalty but Gert Peens, the Italian fullback, kicked the drop-out straight out.  England attacked from the scrum, Joe Worsley doing good work, until eventually big hooker Steve Thompson was forceful in the tackle and got the score.  Hodgson converted.  17-0 after 36 minutes.

On half-time England attacked again and Mark Cueto accepted a run-in on the left wing for England's third try.  22-0 to England at half-time.

Italy had the better of the first part of the second half and scored first.  They had a good maul off a line-out and hammered at the England line until scrum-half Alessandro Troncon picked up, handed off Graham Rowntree and enjoyed scoring.  Gert Peens, who had hit the woodwork with a penalty in the first half, converted.  22-7 after 45 minutes.

Italy attacked but lost the ball in the England 22.  England kicked downfield, chased.  Italy missed the ball which Cueto picked up.  His pass to Josh Lewsey was forward, as the touch judge suggested, thus preventing a try.

Italy were penalised eight times in this half, seven times at the tackle/ruck.  England turned one into a five-metre line-out which they lost.

A massive maul stuttered, gained momentum and was then stopped under the use-it-or-lose-it law just when a try was certain.

It was at this stage that scrums were eviscerated.

From a scrum five metres from the Italian line, England moved the ball the width of the field.  Balshaw came in and scored in Nitoglia's tackle.  27-7 after 60 minutes.

Four minutes later England again went wide, this time from a line-out.  Again Balshaw came in, this time freeing up Cueto for his hat-trick try.  32-7.

Replacement hooker Andy Titterrell had a great break in the manner of a class centre, and then Orquera and Masi did clever things to get within three metres of the England line.

Time was up when -- from broken play -- replacement Andy Hazell was given a run at the line for his first points for England.  Andy Goode was on for Hodgson for his first cap and he capped the occasion by converting the try, his first points for England.  39-7 -- and the final whistle went.

Man of the Match:  Martin Corry, captaining England for the first time, was all things strong, noble and committed.  Iain Balshaw did much to provide sparkle.  But our man-of-the-match is Alessandro Troncon of Italy.  In a losing side the veteran showed great skill, determination, strength and fine judgement.

Moment of the match:  There was one which will be remembered.  From deep in England territory with Italy on attack, Iain Balshaw kicked a long, long ball down towards the Italian corner.  As the ball rolled towards the Italian line, Balshaw easily outstripped all Italians.  He caught up with the ball as it slowed down.  Half a metre from the line, with no Italian in sight, Balshaw waited carefully.  The ball stood up gently -- and went back through Balshaw's legs!  Without the ball he crashed on his face in the Italian in-goal.

Villain of the match:  Iain Balshaw -- see above!

The scorers:

For England:
Tries:  Cueto 3, Balshaw, Hazell
Cons:  Hodgson 2, Goode
Pen:  Hodgson

For Italy:
Try:  Troncon
Con:  Peens

England:  15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Jamie Noon (Ollie Smith, 66), 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Josh Lewsey, 10 Charlie Hodgson (Andy Goode, 74), 9 Harry Ellis (Matt Dawson, 51), 8 Martin Corry (captain), 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Joe Worsley (Andy Hazell, 74), 5 Ben Kay, 4 Danny Grewcock (Steve Borthwick, 62), 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Steve Thompson (Andy Titterrell, 66), 1 Graham Rowntree (Duncan Bell, 66).

Italy:  15 Gert Peens, 14 Roberto Pedrazzi, 13 Matteo Barbini (Walter Pozzebon, 28) 12 Andrea Masi, 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Alessandro Troncon, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 David Dal Maso (Silvio Orlando, 40), 6 Aaron Persico, 5 Marco Bortolami (captain), 4 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 3 Salvatore Perugini (Martin Castrogiavanni, 53), 2 Fabio Ongaro (Giorgio Intoppa, 20 -- Mario Savi, 62), 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Unused replacements:  19 Santiago Dellape, 21 Paul Griffen.

Referee:  Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Nigel Williams (Wales), Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)
Assessor:  David Kerr (Scotland)
Television match official:  Rob Dickson (Scotland)

France shatter Irish dreams

Dominici claims a brace of tries

Two tries from Christophe Dominici helped France to beat Ireland 26-19 at windy Lansdowne in the Six Nations on Saturday, leaving Irish dreams of Grand Slam glory in tatters.

The clean sweep is now out of the question, but Ireland could yet win the championship -- as could France.  That will all be decided next week.

France showed their hand right at the start.  They ran the first ball they got with fullback Julien Laharrague in the backs.  They mauled their first line-out and rushed it forward.  It was a complete performance.  They dominated up front and they dominated out wide.

Their long line of defence was far more impenetrable than the Maginot line ever was, except for one glorious O'Driscoll moment that kept Ireland's hopes alive.

Wind at their backs, Ireland scored first when Sébastien Bruno was penalised at a tackle, and Ronan O'Gara goaled.  3-0 to Ireland after seven minutes.

When Simon Easterby was penalised at a tackle, France made it a line-out.  They made that a maul -- a running maul metres down the field.  The ball came back to Yann Delaigue who kicked a dropped goal.  3-3 after ten minutes.

When Delaigue tackled high, O'Gara kicked the goal.  6-3 to Ireland after 18 minutes.

Three minutes later Easterby was penalised for being off-side and Yachvili kicked a longish goal into the wind.  6-6.

Bruno infringed but O'Gara's place-kick faded away.  When Marconnet was penalised, the kick swung but this time got inside the upright.  O'Gara then became the highest points' scorer in Ireland's rugby history.  9-6 to Ireland after 24 minutes.

That was Ireland's bundle for the first half, but not France's.

Laharrague had almost worked an overlap for Cédric Heymans but a hand got in the way.  Then as France went right he passed inside to Heymans whop gave outside to Christophe Dominici who handed off Denis Hickie to score in the corner.  France led 11-9 after 28 minutes.

Surprisingly France were giving Ireland a tough time in the line-out.  Yannick Nyanga pinched an Irish ball, palming it back quickly.  Jérôme Thion gave to Yannick Jauzion who gave to debutant Benoît Baby just inside France's half.

The young centre pinned back his ears and simply ran the 52 metres to score a sensational try.  Yachvili converted.  18-9 to France and they were full value for their lead, wind or no wind.

In the second half Ireland were into the wind and outscored France, but it was just not enough.

O'Gara kicked a penalty when Baby was guilty of a ridiculous headbutt.  18-12.  But at this stage O'Gara was kicking into the wind a great deal and for no profit.

With 19 minutes to go Yachvili kicked a goal for a tackle infringement.  21-12 to France.

To their credit and honour, Ireland were not done and were attacking more now, eschewing kicks at goal in search of tries but finding a way through hard against the blue defence.

Then Paul O'Connell won an Irish line-out.  He won it in the No.2 position which gave field width but also room for loose forwards to defend.  Forget all that.  Brian O'Driscoll tucked the ball under an arm and raced past replacement Frédéric Michalak whose attempted tackle had no force.  O'Driscoll swept past Heymans and scored under the posts.  O'Gara converted.  21-19 to France with seven minutes.

But those seven minutes belonged to France as they kept Ireland pinned in their own territory.  At a tackle/ruck the referee told Peter Stringer to play it.  Instead Serge Betsen homed in on the ball.  Brave Malcolm O'Kelly managed to recover the ball but Betsen got the ball off him and smuggled it to Sylvain Marconnet.  The big prop gave the pass to Dominici who had a free run  for the line.  That made it 26-19 to France with two minutes to play.

France played those two minutes well in Irish territory.

Man of the match:  Brian O'Driscoll scored a great try, and so did Benoît Baby but he later blotted his copybook.  Yannick Nyanga won valuable line-out ball for France.  One of his wins provided the ball for Baby's try.  But our choice is between hyperactive, calm, relatively new man Julien Laharrague and, our eventuaL choice as man-of-the-match -- darting, wholehearted Christophe Dominici.

Moment of the Match:  There were two -- Benoît Baby's try and Brian O'Driscoll's try.  O'Driscoll's try required greater effort and is our choice.

Villain of the Match:  It was well-mannered match at a well-mannered ground, which made Benoît Baby's action on O'Driscoll all the sillier.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Try:  O'Driscoll
Con:  O'Gara
Pens:  O'Gara 5

For France:
Try:  Baby, Dominici
Con:  Yachvili
Pen:  Yachvili 3
Drop:  Delaigue

The teams:

Team:  15 Julien Laharrague, 14 Christophe Dominici, 13 Benoit Baby, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 Yann Delaigue (Frédéric Michalak, 69) 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Yannick Nyanga, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Jérôme Thion, 4 Fabien Pelous (Pascal Papé, 71), 3 Nicolas Mas (Pieter de Villiers, 41), 2 Sébastien Bruno (Dimitri Szarzewski, 77), 1 Sylvain Marconnet.
Unused replacements: 20 Pierre Mignoni, 22 David Marty.

Ireland:  15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Girvan Dempsey, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Kevin Maggs, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Anthony Foley (Eric Miller, 70), 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Reggie Corrigan (Marcus Horan, 70).
Unused replacements:  16 Frankie Sheahan, 18 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Guy Easterby, 21 David Humphreys, 22 Gavin Duffy.

Referee:  Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges:  Paul Honiss (New Zealand), Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Ian Scotney (Australia)
Television match official:  Roy Maybank (England)

Ireland deny England in Dublin

World champs edge closer to wooden spoon

An inspired performance by Ireland subjected England to a 19-13 defeat at Lansdowne Road on Sunday -- the world champion's third loss of the 2005 RBS Six Nations.  It was a seesaw match in which the lead changed seven times.

After the Welsh victory over France on the Saturday, this Sunday match meant so much for Ireland's hopes.  The championship title remains a possibility for Ireland, but not by much.  England's disappointing run persisted, also not by much.

Picking a winner beforehand was possibly easier than deciding afterwards who deserved to win.  There was a try apiece and in the end kicks counted.

Ireland had more chances to score as the penalty count was 10-3 inch their favour.  Ironically, in view of the events at Twickenham in the England-France match, Hodgson did not miss a kick at goal while Ronan O'Gara of Ireland missed three kicks at goal.

The Irish line-out generally functioned smoothly, the English one iffishly.  The England scrummaging was stronger.  The tackle-ball for both sides was generally on the slow side.

Ireland played into the breeze in the first half but ended it leading 12-10, thanks to four Ronan O'Gara kicks.

For the first part of the half, Ireland dominated and had better opportunities, but in the end England were on the surge.

Ireland were close early on when Brian O'Driscoll, who had his thigh rubbed in public before the match, flipped a pass to Shane Horgan who grubbered down towards the corner-flag on England's right.  Jason Robinson saved but went into touch doing so.

That gave Ireland a fiver-metre line-out but they turned it into a shambles.  They recovered and O'Gara dropped a soaring goal.  3-0 to Ireland after four minutes.

Then came a surprising try.  The referee was playing advantage in England's favour.  Lewis Moody charged and went down in a heaped tackle area.  Suddenly Martin Corry picked up and charged 35 metres, straight ahead, unchallenged.  Charlie Hodgson converted.  7-3 to England after six minutes.

The try was not without its talking point as the opening for Corry seemed to have been created when Danny Grewcock tackled O'Gara who was stationed in defence.

John Hayes charged after England had yielded a turnover.  England went off-side in front of their posts.  O'Gara goaled.  7-6 to England after eight minutes.

O'Gara set up and scored.  He dummied, broke strongly.  Steve Thompson went into the side of the tackle/ruck and O'Gara kicked an easy goal.  9-7 to Ireland after 12 minutes.

The sucrose refused to settled down.  Hodgson kicked a wobbly diagonal to Mark Cueto who played back to Jason Robinson.  Ireland survived.  But England had their chance when Simon Easterby did illegal things with his hand at a tackle/ruck and from the half-way line, admittedly in front of the posts, Hodgson easily cleared the crossbar.  10-9 to England after 24 minutes.

England had a half chance when Foley lost the ball in a heavy tackle but a penalty took Ireland to a five-metre line-out.  Again they messed it up and again O'Gara dropped for goal.  From the left, the ball hit the right upright and bounced inwards and over.  12-10 to Ireland after 32 minutes.  There was a a clever little interplay by Harry Ellis and Josh Lewsey.  Hodgson kicked diagonally for Cueto who got ahead but was called for being ahead of the kicker.

Ireland led 12-10 at half-time.

England started the second half with a rumble.  A Hodgson grubber produced a six-metre line-out to Ireland.  Ireland cleared.

Ellis obstructed but O'Gara missed the kick.  Ireland had as good patch of attack till a long, long kick by Hodgson made Ireland throw in at a line-out five metres from their line.  Ireland survived but now it was England's turn to attack.  Jamie Noon broke sharply and got to three metres from the Irish line.

Hodgson dropped high for goal.  It bisected the uprights.  13-12 to England after 56 minutes.

Ireland got back into the England half and then came splendour.  Denis Hickie, from the left wing, broke at outside centre going right.  Geordan Murphy sold a convincing dummy to Hodgson and then got a pass to O'Driscoll who was on the tight touch-line.  It was not a comfortable pass but O'Driscoll put a left hand back and hauled the ball in to surge over in the corner and round for the try.  O'Gara converted.  19-13 with 22 minutes to play.

There was heaps of hectic activity in those 22 minutes but not a single score.

Hodgson kicked a diagonal for big Ben Kay, but he slapped it ahead and Anthony Foley was unhand to clear the Irish line.

O'Driscoll set Ireland on the attack with a long kick downfield and then Ireland drove a maul a long way towards the England line.  O'Gara dropped with his left foot -- and missed.

Hodgson charged down an O'Gara clearance in the Irish 22, but Murphy saved and Ireland cleared.

Hodgson kicked his third diagonal kick.  Cueto caught.  Hickie tackled Cueto.  Cueto popped the pass back to Lewsey.  Hickie tackled Lewsey.  Lewsey gave to Cueto.  Murphy tackled Cueto as Irish reinforcements arrived.

There was a defining moment with six minutes to go.  England made a penalty into a five-metre line-out which they made into a maul which they nudged at the Irish line where things fell down.  The ball was buried in a heap, and the referee awarded a scrum to Ireland five metres from their line.  They cleared.

England went sweeping down on the right with long passes and at speed but there was a forward pass.  Ireland won the scrum and Peter Stringer hoofed the ball into the crowd.  The final whistle went.

It was a breathlessly tense match.

Remarkably there were only two substitutions in the match -- Matt Dawson for Harry Ellis and Marcus Horan for Reggie Corrigan.

O'Gara's third kick took him to 500 points in Test rugby.

Man of the Match:  Not easy.  Mark Cueto had strong and eager moments.  Charlie Hodgson gave his side every chance to win.  But Martin Corry was the Englishman who really stood out.  There was Geordan Murphy, strong on defence, creative on attack.  There was the bustling power of Anthony Foley.  Denis Hickie made a try and saved a try.  But our choice is Ronan O'Gara -- two dropped goals, some great clearances especially into the wind in the first half, pin-point passing and one clean break.

Moment of the Match:  There the sight of Martin Corry galloping bewilderingly off towards the line.  There was Brian O'Driscoll's try.  There was the England maul that stopped at the Irish line with the subsequent scrum to Ireland.  But our moment of the match was provided by Denis Hickie as twice within seconds he saved a certain try with two decisive tackles.

Villain of the Match:  There were tiny moments of emotion and some grimaces of disapproval but composure did not slip into villainy.  No award.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Try:  O'Driscoll
Con:  O'Gara
Pens:  O'Gara 2
Drops:  O'Gara 2

For England:
Try:  Corry
Con:  Hodgson
Pen:  Hodgson
Drop:  Hodgson

The teams:

Ireland:  15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Girvan Dempsey, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Shane Horgan, 11 Dennis Hickie, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Anthony Foley, 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Reggie Corrigan (Marcus Horan, 67).
Unused replacements:  16 Frankie Sheahan, 18 Donncha O'Callaghan, 19 Eric Miller, 20 Guy Easterby, 21 David Humphreys, 22 Kevin Maggs.

England:  15 Jason Robinson (captain), 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Olly Barkley, 11 Josh Lewsey, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Harry Ellis (Matt Dawson, 69), 8 Martin Corry, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Joe Worsley, 4 Danny Grewcock, 5 Ben Kay, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Graham Rowntree.
Unused replacements:  16 Andy Titterrell, 17 Duncan Bell, 18 Steve Borthwick, 19 Andy Hazell, 21 Andy Goode, 22 Ollie Smith.

Referee:  Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Touch judges:  Joël Jutge (France), Eric Darrière (France)
Assessor:  Michel Lamoulie (France)
Television match official:  Huw Watkins (Wales)

Wales stun France in Paris

The Williams and Jones show leaves Paris open-mouthed

Wales recorded one of the greatest victories of their illustrious history in Paris on Saturday, producing a stunning fightback to beat France 24-18 at the Stade de France -- and remain on course for the 2005 RBS Six Nations grand slam.

Rugby matches do not come more gripping!  It was a splendid match at magnificent Stade de France on Saturday evening as Wales continued on their merry way.

Wales simply turned the match on its head in the second half with one of the greatest fightbacks of recent times.  It was a great display of character and skill.

It was thrilling, gripping, adventurous -- the best of rugby football.  Forget the half-time score, France were all over Wales in the first half.  They were all over Wales for much of the second half but when Stephen Jones turned his back on the French and booted the ball over his own dead-ball line to end the match Wales were the winners.

Not allowed to wear the beer brand BRAINS on the jerseys, Wales wore BRAWN instead.  There was brawn -- and a lot besides ... like brain, sinew and heart.

It was a great day for rugby football and all that is best in the game.

What a start!  The speed and the intensity of that first half were high and France ran left and right and all over the field.

Suddenly the French were the French that everybody, especially the French, want the French to be.  They ran onto icy Stade de France and were on fire from the start.  Had their opponents been lesser mortals than the Welsh the score would have been lots, lots more than 15-6 at half-time.

The revelation was fullback Julien Laharrague, usually a wing for Brive.  He is 26 and making his very first appearance for France.  A secret weapon kept in reserve for just such an occasion.  He was fast and skilled and caused the Welsh defence much anxiety.

Laharrague was part of an attack down the left wing that came back towards the right.  The ball came back quickly to Dimitri Yachvili who dummied to pass right, swivelled and came left, sold another dummy and just swept through for a try which he converted.  7-0 after four minutes.

And the French kept on attacking.  Yann Delaigue was playing a more varied game than he had managed in the first half.  He ran to his right on the break and gave to Jauzion who slipped past a falling Gavin Henson.  He gave to big, strong, fast Aurélien Rougerie who stormed ahead and managed to twist and force his way over as three Welshmen sought to stop him.  12-0 after just eleven minutes!

It looked as if a hiding was on the way,

Wales were being destroyed in the scrum.  Rougerie and Laharrague and Traille and Jauzion were running free, but somehow the Welsh kept plugging the holes, till they had a chance to break out down the right.  Rougerie was forced to kick a grubber out.  From the line-out Sylvain Marconnet was off-side and Stephen Jones made it 12-3.

Traille had a great run but Gareth Thomas stomped him dead in full flight.

Yachvili goaled a penalty.  15-3 after 25 minutes.  A French victory seemed a formality.  Their forwards and backs attacked again and again with Serge Betsen and Yannick Nyanga prominent.  Marconnet just put a left foot into touch as he went over in the corner.  Rougerie thumped off Shane Williams but Wales countered off a French knock-on and surged into French territory.  When Jérôme Thion did wrong things at a tackle, Stephen Jones made it 15-6.

Two different teams came out for the second half.  The players wore the same names and clothes, but they were changed.

Now the Welsh were the ones running free, and it started when France seemed to be doing a de rigeur attack.  The ball went loose and Stephen Jones raced 50 metres down the field to the French 22 on the right.  Back the ball came left to Shane Williams on the left wing.  He darted and played inside to Martyn Williams who crossed far out and then ran round to the posts.  Stephen Jones converted.  15-13.

Shane Williams sparked the next Welsh rush and Wales moved the ball from touch-line to touch-line.  France were penalised seven metres from their line.  Wales tapped and charged.  France were penalised five metres from their line.  Wales tapped and charged and Martyn Williams reached out a telescopic arm to score in the corner.  Wales led 18-15 and a phoenix miracle was on the cards as they carried on with their marvellous madness.

In their own 22 they tapped a penalty and ran till they knocked on on the French 22.

The French were not finished and attacked hotly till Frédéric Michalak kicked the drop that made it 18-all with 19 minutes to play.

Three minutes later Betsen was penalised and Stephen Jones made it 21-18.  The thrill of it!

France got a penalty in their 22 and ran.  Rougerie bumped off Kevin Morgan and replacement Imanol Harinordoquy surged ahead but fell wrongly and Wales turned the ball over.  Madly, they did not kick.  Instead replacement scrum-half Gareth Cooper broke.  The Welsh ran.  A grubber.  Rougerie scrambled it out.  A line-out.  A drop -- and the drop bisected the uprights.  24-18, and all the druids and choirs must have been singing from Paris via the Rhondda to eternity.

There were still nine minutes to play, and France attacked for every one of those 540 seconds.

A scrum collapse led to a line-out six metres from France's line.  The French bashed.  William Servat was stopped three metres out.  Jean-Philippe Grandclaude was stopped by the length of his name from the Welsh line.  Grégory Lamboley was stopped three metres out.  Servat was stopped three metres out, and the ball became unplayable.

The scrum was five metres from the Welsh line.  Wales were penalised.  France opted for another scrum.  Wales were penalised.  France opted for another scrum.  But this time Harinordoquy failed to control the ball and Cooper scrambled it away.  But back came France with every weapon in their amoury till Grandclaude lost the ball.  Scrum to Wales -- a fragile scrum which somehow they won.  Cooper gave to Stephen Jones who turned his back and kicked it dead.

Man of the Match:  Shane Williams sparked things, Aurélien Rougerie was endlessly threatening, young Yannick Nyanga was skilful -- but our man-of-the-match was calm, effective Stephen Jones who did more than anybody else to win the match.

Moment of the Match:  There were glorious moments -- more than the tries but probably the moment was when Stephen Jones turned his back and booted the ball high into the stand behind his dead-ball line.  Then joy!

Villain of the Match:  Nobody.  All those people on the field should be enshrined forever.  They were the way the game should be conducted and played.

The scorers:

For France:
Tries:  Yachvili, Rougerie
Con:  Yachvili
Pen:  Yachvili
Drop:  Michalak

For Wales:
Tries:  M Williams 2
Pens:  S Jones 3
Con:  Jones
Drop:  Jones

The teams:

France:  15 Julien Laharrague, 14 Aurélien Rougerie, 13 Yannick Jauzion, 12 Damien Traille (Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, 46), 11 Christophe Dominici, 10 Yann Delaigue (Frédéric Michalak, 49), 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Julien Bonnaire (Imanol Harinordoquy, 59), 7 Yannick Nyanga, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Jérôme Thion (Grégory Lamboley, 74), 4 Fabien Pelous (captain), 3 Nicolas Mas (Olivier Milloud, 49), 2 Sébastien Bruno (William Servat, 41), 1 Sylvain Marconnet.
Unused replacements:  20 Pierre Mignoni.

Wales:  15 Gareth Thomas (Rhys Williams, 41), 14 Kevin Morgan (Ceri Sweeney, 53-67), 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Gavin Henson, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Dwayne Peel ( Gareth Cooper, 67), 8 Michael Owen, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Ryan Jones (Jonathan Thomas, 77), 5 Rob Sidoli, 4 Brent Cockbain, 3 Adam Jones (John Yapp, 67), 2 Mefin Davies (Robin McBryde, 65), 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Unused replacements:  19 Robin Sowden-Taylor.

Referee:  Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Alain Rolland (Ireland), Dave Pearson (England)
Assessor:  Jim Irvine (Ireland)
Television match official:  Carlo Damasco (Italy)