6 Nations results - Sacre bleu! It's easy to hate the French when they break your heart like that

Chris Aston 6N diving champion Picture from http://bit.ly/dPaQZ3

RBS Six Nations

Saturday , February 12

England 59 - 13 Italy

Scotland 6 - 24 Wales

Sunday , February 13

Ireland 22 - 25 France


England 59 - 13 Italy
Italy has a good match last weekend, running Ireland close in Rome, and losing by only two points in the end. Nick Mallet, the former springbok coach now in charge of Italy, analysed the team and made a few key tweaks at scrum half and fly half to try and go one further and come up with an unexpected win. He also opted for a more expansive game plan. This new approach was entirely successful for all of the first two minutes. After this things turned poorly for the Italians as the English ran riot and clocked up 8 tries including four for try machine Chris Ashton. England came up with their biggest win since they beat Italy 80–23 in 2001, and underlined their status as serious contenders for the title. They’ve always had big forwards, but now they’ve added mobility to that size, and on top of that have some deadly attacking options behind them. Toby Flood is a revelation this season, and even old codgers like Mike Tindall are scoring trys these days. Chris Ashton was apparently warned not to repeat his scoring dive, which he only neglected to remember four times. I was hoping for a bit of variety as well – could he not try a half pike or a tuck with quarter roll for instance?


Italys most successful defensive period was when prop Castrogiovanni was sin binned and the Italians only conceded one try – maybe when they get annoyed they try harder? They even managed a push over try as well of their own. But this was one for Italy to forget.

Scotland 6 - 24 Wales
Some teams play better when they are underdogs – in fact most teams in the 6 Nations seem to play better when they are underdogs – what’s the problem with being an overdog you have to wonder? The Scots obviously have some issues with being favourites. Anyway, they got that monkey off their back for this tournament in some style, ensuring they won’t be considered favourites for any of their remaining matches. But will Dr Andy Roibinson, their coach, be able to relieve the symptoms of choking with a heinrich maneuver, or any kind of maneuver? His hair is all pulled already out I’m afraid. So in summary, Scotland were pretty woeful, after a decent performance last week, suddenly they couldn’t catch the ball pass the ball, kick the ball or find the try line.

Wales started brightly enough themselves with a good try, and played better than they have for ages, and managed to win for the first time in ages too. It was all happening in the first half, tries, yellow cards – two off for Wales at the same time, during which time Scotalnd only scored 3 points, even a punch up, though even that was hardly handbags, more like a sequined clutch bag (@Flintaxe ©). The second half unfortunately soon descended into mediocrity, and the match was crying out for a try, or failing that, an all out brawl. In the end, Wales delivered a try and put the game out of it’s misery. Back to the drawing board for Scotalnd, and a step in the right direction for Wales.

Ireland 22 - 25 France
Things went from green to blue at the Aviva stadium as Ireland turned their form around and nearly put in a winning performance against a French team which on paper is streets ahead in quality. Ireland got off to the perfect start with an early try, but penalties let the French back in until Ireland went in with another try to lead at the break. After that, things turned blue, a blue tide of players swarming all over Ireland, the air turned blue in my lounge, and then the mood turned blue at the final whistle. Ireland won the try count three to one, they showed more heart, but at the end they came up just short, including coming agonisingly close to scoring a try in the last minute. What can you say, Ireland gave all they had to give, and lost to a better team. God, it’s easy to hate the French!