2019 6 Nations Round 2 Review

Scotland 13 – 22 Ireland

Scotland began at a ferocious tempo, unlucky not be rewarded with a try as Tommy Seymour was tackled just short of the line, but an early penalty gave the home side an early advantage. Orchestrated brilliantly by the half-back combo of Grieg Laidlaw and Finn Russell, the Scots continued to pile on the pressure, only for all their hard work to be undone on 10 minutes when Tommy Seymour failed to deal with a Jacob Stockdale kick, attempting a quick offload but instead chucking the ball over the head of Sean Maitland as if he played for France and leaving Connor Murray in the clear. The scrum-half registered the first try of the match, although Johnny Sexton, who had already taken a number of big hits, missed a seemingly straightforward conversion, as the fly-half seemed to be already nursing several injuries. Sexton put his body on the line just a few minutes later as he was on the receiving end of another massive tackle, but not before playing a clever inside pass to the onrushing Stockdale, whose cleverly timed run and lightning pace carried him all the way to the try line to grow Ireland’s lead to 9. It did however prove to be the end for Sexton, and his replacement Joey Carberry had a nightmare start when his pass was intercepted by Russell, who looked as if he might score before being dragged to the ground by Keith Earls only a handful of metres short. When the crisis seemed to have been momentarily averted, Russell showed the Murrayfield crowd just why he is being touted as one of the best fly-halves in Europe as the Racing 92 man popped the ball up off the ground, his perfectly-weighted pass taking the Irish defence by surprise and gifting Sam Johnson his first international try. It was just reward for a Scotland side who had dominated the opening exchanges, largely thanks to Russell and his array of passes and kicks that kept Ireland on the ropes, but no further scores came and Ireland went into half-time with a slender 12-10 lead.

Into the second half and Scotland’s wonderful attacking fluidity began to be disrupted by unforced handling errors, back-row Josh Strauss being the main culprit as the No 8 single-handedly ended two successive Scotland attacks and put Ireland back in control. We began to see more of Connor Murray, who despite his try had been subdued, and Joey Carberry amended his previous error in spectacular style when he surged through two Scotland tackles before sprinting half the pitch, then perfectly executing a looped pass over the rapidly chasing Blair Kinghorn that left Keith Earls with a clear run to the line. Ireland’s dominance on the scoreboard still seemed unfair on the scots, although as the game wore on the creativity evaporated out of the team, as Ireland’s fitness and experience of winning assured that there was no way through for Russell and Co. An exchange of penalties between Laidlaw and Carberry did nothing to erode into Ireland’s healthy lead, and a late surge for a losing bonus point came to nothing as yet another knock-on meant Gregor Townsend’s men ended the game empty-handed. The game certainly seemed to peter out as Scotland were unable to maintain the electric pace of the first half, and slip from 1^st to 3^rd in the overall table, albeit still above Ireland. Joe Schmidt meanwhile will be pleased that his side have bounced back after the disappointing loss to England in Dublin, but Ireland were nowhere near their best and capitalised on Scottish errors without creating many opportunities for themselves. Trips to Paris for Scotland and Rome for Ireland wait, as Ireland will be praying that Sexton is able to recover in time for the clash with Italy.

Italy 15 – 26 Wales

A much-changed Wales team stuttered to a reasonably narrow win over Italy, as Warren Gatland was forced to wait until the hour mark for his side to draw comfortably clear. Italy’s early ill-discipline was punished as Dan Biggar, looking to prove himself after being omitted from the starting side against France, slotted home 4 straightforward penalties to give Wales a 12-0 lead. Despite the dominance from the kicking tee, there were few chances for the backs as the majority of the play went through the forwards, with Liam Williams being restricted to just a couple of darting runs forwards and sideways. As Wales continued to probe for the first try of the game, Italy began to grow into the game and ended up striking first, Braam Steyn powering over from a handful of yards out to pull the deficit back to just 5. A missed penalty attempt from Tomasso Allan took some of the wind out of Italy’s sails just on the stroke of half-time as the Italians seemed galvanised by their try. They had to wait till after the break to get more points on the board, as Allan was successful in his 2^nd attempt at goal. Wales, who had been expecting to romp this game much like in previous years, suddenly found themselves sleepwalking into a potential shock defeat at the hands of the Azzurri. Gatland realised he had to do something and introduced talismanic captain Alun Wyn Jones, although the second-row had very little to do with Wales’ first try of the match, as Liam Williams finally broke through the resolute Italian defence before offloading to winger Josh Adams, who raced in to score his first try of the tournament. Williams had looked like he could go alone, but the Saracens full-back likely had last week’s game in his mind when he had the chance to assist a certain Jonathan Davies try but instead failed in his own attempt to score. Gareth Anscombe’s introduction in place of Dan Biggar also seemed to revitalise a stagnant Welsh attack, as the fly-half exploited the huge dead-ball areas at the Stadio Olimpico as a delicate chip kick over Italian back line was dotted down by Owen Watkin for the centre’s first try in a Welsh shirt. It had taken until the 70^th minute for there to be clear daylight between the two sides, although Italy took some of the shine off of the scoreboard when Allan’s line break and miss pass to Padovani at least gave Italy a small consolation. Wales’ failure to secure the 4-try bonus point will be noted by other teams, as will Italy’s much improved defence, with Eddie Jones and Joe Schmidt unlikely to make the same decision as Gatland to rest the majority of the squad following the difficulty his makeshift side faced in Rome.

England 44 – 8 France

Jonny May has scored some very quick tries in an England shirt, scoring after 2 minutes against Wales and Australia in 2018 and taking just 91 seconds to score against Ireland last week, but the Leicester wing reached new heights against France. Fullback Elliot Daly’s weaving run and kick caught France off-guard, and May’s searing pace made a mockery of Morgan Parra and Damien Penaud as he overtook three French players in his pursuit of the ball, finally reaching it just as it crossed the try line 65 seconds into the game. England seemed to have continued where they left off against Ireland, and constant line breaks from the forward pack, Tom Curry the main protagonist, put England just a metre away from the try line. After a switch in direction from Ben Youngs, a wondrous pass from Owen Farrell took most of the French defence out of the game, and left May in a one-on-one situation with opposite number Penaud. From a standing start, May’s sublime footwork bamboozled Penaud and created the space for England and May’s 2^nd try of the match. France were incapable of coping with England’s main tactic of kicking and chasing the ball, and when a Henry Slade kick wasn’t dealt with by Morgan Parra, Chris Ashton adopted the role of fly-half and exploited both the advantage played by referee Nigel Owens and the acres of space in behind the French defence with a grubber kick for May to chase down and score a phenomenal hat-trick inside half an hour. With the score at 23-3, the England victory already seemed inevitable, but France showed a glimmer of their attacking promise when makeshift full-back Yoann Huget broke through 3 English tackles then sent Penaud on his way to the try line with a well-timed pass. Ashton came mighty close to pushing the French wing into touch, but a quick consultation with the TMO confirmed the try. However, France quickly sank back into defensive mode, but were once again undone by a kick through which was gathered by Ashton, and one phase later Henry Slade secured the bonus point before half time.

After failing to capitalise on the momentary swing in momentum in the first half, Jacques Brunel looked to take back control tactically with a half-time substitution, bringing on Thomas Ramos in an attempt to rejuvenate the French attack. The opposite occurred, and the France pack continued to succumb to the bulldozing English forwards, and a slow French attack was punished when Henry Slade correctly predicted Camille Lopez’s pass and gathered it gratefully, racing away then kicking the ball downfield. A moment of controversy followed, as Chris Ashton looked destined to score his first 6 Nations try in 6 years, only for Gael Fickou to haul down the Sales wing before he had gathered the ball. Nigel Owens awarded a penalty try, Fickou was sent to the si bin and England stretched their advantage to 29, with France’s sole aim for the remainder of the game to limit the damage. However, a rampant England team could not be suppressed for long, and a quick tap-and-go penalty from Ben Youngs some 70 metres from the try line kick-started a scintillating move, as first Youngs then Farrell drove deep into French territory. Jonny May was centimetres away from getting on the end of Farrell’s kick through, but confusion in the French ranks as to whether there was a knock-on left Farrell in the open to touch down his own kick. The fly-half’s try capped off a mercurial display that had seen the captain dominate the game with his kicking, and orchestrate the attacks with his pin-point passing. Mass substitutions and the win being guaranteed meant the game stalled in the closing stages, but France were unable to make any further progress on the scoreboard as the match finished 44-8 to the hosts. England will now head to Wales with a Grand Slam now definitely on the cards after 10 tries in just 2 games, while France have some serious soul-searching to do before their home match against Italy following 2 successive defeats.