15th March 2010

Results
13 March 2010
14:30 GMT Ireland 27 – 12 Wales Croke Park, Dublin
17:00 GMT Scotland 15 – 15 England Murrayfield, Edinburgh
14 March 2010
14:30 GMT France 46 – 20 Italy Stade de France, Paris


The action kicked off again on Saturday as Ireland took on Wales at Croke Park. In reality Ireland now only have a triple crown to chase this year and sucessfully brought up the second leg of it as they dispatched Wales with ease. Keith Earl had another good match with two trys, Tomas O'Leary was good value for his man of the match award and 'Captain Courageous' Brian O’Driscoll survived another battering to celebrate his hundredth match in style. The match was rigidly refereed by South African Craig Joubert who gave the teams a crash course ( or should that be a whistle-stop tour) of the Southern Hemisphere interpretation of the rules. From the first try the match was never really in doubt, as Ireland are a cut above Wales at the moment.

In the second match of the day, Scotland took on England for the Calcutta Cup. The highlight of this uninspiring match was the Scottish crowd singing 'O Flower of Scotland' at the start and while they didn't quite 'And sent him homeward, Tae think again' they did their best. On the pitch the highlight was the performance of the excellent Scottish loose trio, the Killer B's of Brown, Beattie and Barclay. The match was a battle of attrition as the playing styles, the pitch, the injuries, the scrum resets and the ref gradually strangled the life out of the game. England put in their standard lethargic performance, from the land that brought you Noddy, this was Mr Plod as you've always seen him before. Scotland tried hard but never had the cutting edge and in fairness they only have two first class teams to pick their national squad. England, with 12 first class teams have no such excuse, their cutting edge seems to have been removed for health and safety reasons.

Finally, on Sunday, France cantered to an easy win over Italy. This was the sound of the soprano clearing his throat, France never gave it full power but still had way too much for Italy. The Italians managed a late flurry of tries to put a gloss on the score when the French gave up trying.