England and Wales emerged from the first round of the Six Nations with comfortable wins, and bonus points to boot, while Ireland’s victory in Paris was more seat-of-the-pants stuff.
Italy 15 England 46
England ran in seven tries as they thrashed Italy 46-15 in Rome yesterday afternoon to set up a mouthwatering clash with Wales on Saturday.
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Two tries each for wing Anthony Watson and No.8 Sam Simmonds, plus scores from Jack Nowell, Owen Farrell and George Ford, eased England to a bonus-point victory in the Stadio Olimpico against an Italy side who were far from outclassed in the first hour.
It was the introduction of the English substitutes in the final quarter that made the difference as the visitors scored three tries in the final 13 minutes.
“It was very positive,” said coach Eddie Jones, who’ll have some tricky selection decisions to make this week given the way his subs played. “We knew that they were going to hang in there, but we ran away with it in the end… we will enjoy the win and start looking ahead tomorrow.”
Farrell caught the eye with a try and a try-scoring pass for Ford, and the Saracens centre echoed his coach’s upbeat comments.
“It’s good that we built through the game and got better and better,” he said. But Farrell acknowledged that England were rusty in one or two areas. “We’ll improve. It’s a good start to the campaign, now we go away and work for next week… we have a lot to work on and we’ll make sure we do that.”
The only downside of England’s win was a serious knee injury to scrum-half Ben Youngs, which is likely to rule him out of the rest of the tournament.
Wales 34 Scotland 7
Wales stunned Scotland in Cardiff with a bonus-point win that leaves them level on points with England at the top of the Six Nations table.
The two sides meet at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon and England will be tested severely if Wales produce the same disciplined and dynamic performance that they did against the Scots.
The visitors arrived in Cardiff as slight favourites but they were blown away by the pace and ferocity of the Welsh, who scored two tries in the first 14 minutes, and comfortably gave coach Warren Gatland his 50th win as Wales coach.
“We’ve got a bonus-point win and go next week to a venue where we’ve had a lot of success in the last ten years,” said Gatland. “I’m looking forward to it.”
No one played better than Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny, who crossed for two tries and also succeeded with six attempts at goal.
“His positional play and the way he does things and his work-rate is absolutely phenomenal,” said Gatland of Halfpenny. “So it’s pleasing to see him get some confidence from an attacking perspective.”
Scotland’s confidence was shredded by the end of a match in which little went right, and coach Gregor Townsend has to somehow lift his battered squad before the visit of France to Edinburgh on Sunday.
“We should be criticised for today’s performance,” admitted Townsend. “We know that was well short of what is required playing for Scotland.”
The only positive Scotland can take from the opening round of the tournament is that their next opponents, France, will also be low on confidence after the extraordinary denouement to their match at home to Ireland.
France 13 Ireland 15
For 70 minutes at the Stade de France the rugby was as bleak as the Paris weather, with both sides working hard in defence but finding little inspiration in attack.
But, with Ireland leading 12-6, the game exploded into life when French wing Teddy Thomas scorched through the visitors' defence to score a brilliant solo try.
There were still nine minutes to go but the tail of the French cockerel was up and their supporters roared them on as the game ticked past 80 minutes. Ireland had possession, however, and, showing ice-cool composure in a red-hot atmosphere, fly-half Jonathan Sexton dropped a monster goal from 42 metres with the last kick of the match.
It was an astonishing coup de grace, a gut-wrenching one for the French, who are now without a win in their last seven Test matches.
“It is hard to explain how you feel when you think the game has gone away, you have let it slip and suddenly you have grabbed it back,” said Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, who described Sexton’s moment of magic as “inspirational”.
Nonetheless, Schmidt conceded it had been an otherwise stodgy display against a limited French side. “We can’t leave matches in the balance,” he said. “You’ve got to make the most of advantages and get the points you need. One freakish event, and one freakishly good player in Thomas, and his try can undo all that hard work.
“That’s something we’re disappointed with and we’ve got to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen next week [against Italy].”
