Snow in Rome, no go in Paris, and no luck for the Scots

Fat lot of good that did (picure http://bit.ly/ziiqqF )

Snow in Rome for the Six Nations match between England and  Italy... and the snow on the pitch was a lot prettier than the match that was played on it. Easy to  be cynical from a warm dry couch, but you’re not likely to see three more shambolic international tries in a hurry. There was lots of aimless kicking, interspersed with plenty of earnest but ineffectual bashing up the pitch, scrum resets and failed line-outs. But frankly what were we expecting, it was cold and wet, Italy are the least skilful team in the 6N and England has a young inexperienced team. As hard as England tried to throw the game away, Italy just went that extra mile to hand it back to back to them on a plate, with charge down Charlie providing the final coup de grace.

To put it all into perspective, the first match of the day was the pinnacle of organisation compared to events in Paris that evening. So the Italians, where rugby is complete minority sport, laugh off the first snowfall in Rome in 27 years and get THEIR show on the road, while the French, moneybags of the world of rugby, call the match off two minutes before kickoff in front of a packed stadium because of a frozen pitch? Ireland didn’t lose on Saturday night, so at least that was some good news.

Wales saw off the Scots on Sunday in a gritty encounter.  Is there any description of Scottish rugby that doesn’t involve the word gritty somewhere? The Scots managed to drag the game down into an arm wrestle in the first half, then an error from the kick off led to a Welsh try, and after that, the Scottish yellow cards ended the match as contest, as the Welsh scored first against 14, then against 13. Scotland finished the stronger, and got a try, their first in 5 games. Wales could be going for the slam now, they didn’t play as well as they did against Ireland, and they are shipping injuries at an alarming rate, but they have momentum.
RBS Six Nations

Italy 15 - 19 England
Wales 27 - 13 Scotland