Week Two of RBS 6 Nations Rugby Finished

After a fairly competitive week one, the second round of the RBS 6 Nations kicked off at Twickenham Stadium with the home team England facing off against Italy. And like last week, Italy remained in the match early and England started off fairly slow: the latter is becoming a pressing issue, as they gave up a try in the opening three minutes and did not score until the 20th.

Luckily for them, once the floodgates opened it was all England, who scored six tries — four of which came in the  second half in less than 15 minutes. In reality, the blowout was even worse than the 47-17 final score as Italy scored a bogus try in the last minute. It looks like Italy, for another year, will have a hard time winning a game: they have already achieved the wooden spoon award in ten of their first fifteen tournaments.

In a match filled with fantastic defense Ireland vs. France was the perfect counterbalance to England vs. Italy. Unlike the previous offense-heavy match, this was all about hard fought rugby and the power of a fantastic boot. And like most defensive bouts, the team who is more disciplined will almost always win. Legendary fly-half Jonathan Sexton punished France by converting five penalties to secure a tight 18-11 win.

But as many analysts have suggested, France was the dominant team for majority of the match; and finally at the 70th minute, reserve Romain Taofifenua scored France’s first try of the tournament and the only one of the match. After Camille Lopez missed the conversion, France gave an all out effort to tie the game, but Ireland’s defense proved too much and secured the fairly narrow victory.

And the final match of the weekend had two one-loss teams vying for relevancy at BT Murrayfield. With so much on the line, Scotland vs. Wales really did not disappoint. It was Wales first on the board with fullback Leigh Halfpenny putting a penalty kick through the uprights at the sixth minute mark. He would hit four penalty kicks and two conversions during the course of the match — Scotland’s sloppiness was also a big factor in their loss to France one week ago.

Even though Wales did not play a technically sound game, the Scots’ mistakes kept Wales ahead, as Jonathan Davies nearly put the game away early in the second half. But as the clock was winding down, Scotland was knocking on Wale’s try line: and in the 73rd minute, it looked like they might actually pull off a comeback as Michael Bennett scored. But it was quickly called back as reserve scrum half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne knocked on the ball after being tackled. They would eventually score, but a scuffle following the try would result in it being the final play of the game: securing Wales’ 26-23 victory.

As of right now, England sits on top with two wins and a point differential of 35, while Ireland sits closely behind undefeated with a point differential of 30: this makes their eventual meet up on March 1 that much more anticipated.

Article by Anthony Falco