Well the penultimate weekend of the Six Nations has been and gone but it probably wasn't the most memorable of rounds. We had two boring games on Saturday, in which the referee dominated one of them and on Sunday, England had a bit of a scare from the Italians. It does mean though that we know the 2013 Six Nations title will be decided between England and Wales next week.
The first game saw us visit Murrayfield, but many of us can be forgiven if that puts us off visiting again, the game featured 26 penalties and will probably be remembered for whistle-happy Craig Joubert and his poor management at scrum time. Leigh Halfpenny put Wales in front with a penalty before Greig Laidlaw equalised straight after the restart. The Welsh were looking to attack around the breakdown and were gaining yards but Scotland took the lead through another Laidlaw penalty after Matt Scott's great kick got them into good field position. High ball after high ball up was put up by Dan Biggar and Scotland started to give away silly penalties, but Halfpenny missed three easy kicks in succession. George North then made a break through the Scottish line and Richard Hibbard finally trundled over for the Welsh, Halfpenny getting the conversion. Laidlaw scored another two penalties but things started to look worse for Scotland as Richie Gray had to be stretchered off following a hamstring injury. Penalty machine Jim Hamilton then gave yet another three points away, as Halfpenny gave Wales a narrow 13-12 lead at the break.
The second half continued in the same way as the first, with penalty's constantly being given away by both sides. First, Halfpenny kicked one, then Laidlaw, then Halfpenny again. By now, it was evident that Wales' back-row was dominating, Sam Warburton putting in a hell of a shift to prove his numerous critics wrong. It was also evident that Scotland and Joubert weren't getting on, Halfpenny got another three penalties with Laidlaw slightly reducing the damage after the first of them. After these, Scotland eventually started to play and they finally attacked the Welsh line but to no avail, the Welsh defence held out and the whistle went. Final score, 28-18. No Scottish player stood out as they looked like a team from the Andy Robinson era but in addition to Warburton, the Welsh were solid and had standout players in Ian Evans and Ryan Jones.
Ireland then hosted the schizophrenic French in a game that probably meant more to the head coaches futures than it did to the tournaments final standings. The weather conditions were awful in Dublin and Ireland made the most of it, Jamie Heaslip scored first through a rolling maul which Paddy Jackson converted. Freddie Michalak reduced the deficit with a penalty for the French but the game started to become scrappy, especially the scrums. Ireland made the most of it though and scored another six points through the boot of Jackson. Louis Picamoles carried well but Conor Murray and Jackson's territorial kicking was great, constantly causing the French to play out of their 22.
The sides went in 13-3 at half-time and when they both came back out, nothing had changed, they were still scrappy and neither showed any attacking threat. The Irish back-row of Heaslip, Sean O'Brien and Peter O'Mahoney impressed in both attack and defence but the game remained scoreless until the 74th minute. Sustained French pressure led to a penalty which Picamoles took quickly and scrambled over, Michalak converted to bring the score level. The Irish thought they could have had a penalty try with minutes to spare when Keith Earls got barged off the pitch whilst trying to dive on a loose ball but the TMO quite rightly ruled it out. Final score, 13-13.
The theme of penalties continued on Sunday when Italy visited England, who made five changes to their starting XV. Toby Flood broke the deadlock early on as he scored a penalty before Mike Brown charged down a clearance kick but the ball rolled over the dead-ball line. Italy were on the back-foot from there on out as England shipped the ball wide and sent in crash runners, but the Italian defence held firm. Flood got another penalty before Luciano Orquera replied with one of his own. Italy attacked well through Sergio Parisse and Alessandro Zanni before England should have scored after good hands from Mako Vunipola and Chris Ashton opened up space for the backs but Flood and Alex Goode got in each others way and Italy escaped. It was clear that this was the Italy team that won against France and not the one that lost against Scotland, and even though they were being dominated and they lost Edoardo Gori to the sin-bin, they didn't cave in. But just before the break, Flood scored a couple more penalties so they could go into the changing rooms 12-3 up.
Flood and Orquera got a penalty each in the second half, before Danny Care sliced a box kick, Italy gathered it up and Orquera chipped through for Luke McLean to score. Orquera missed the conversion but it was all Italy for the remainder of the half. Andrea Masi and Giovanbattista Venditti carried well and Parisse was everywhere. Orquera pulled the strings and McLean was making yards every time, no surprise that his opposite man was Ashton. Flood managed to get a penalty to make it a personal count of 18 points but Italy carried on throwing everything at the English. They were patient in attack and carried hard but England absorbed it well and they escaped with a 18-11 victory, setting up a great showdown in Cardiff next week.
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