Italy 13 v Ireland 37

Another professional away win by the Irish – a sentence you would have rarely witnessed in days of old. The game panned much the same as their first against Scotland: weather the early Italian onslaught; do the basics right; win the battle up-front; expose their defence having retained the ball through a number of phases and score the points.

It was a good all-round team effort with Murphy impressive at fullback, Humphreys excellent after a dodgy first five minutes and the pack supreme. It was 4 tries to 1 in the end with Brian O’Driscoll crossing for his 18^th try and breaking the record set by Brendan Mullins in the 80’s.

Talking points from the game:

• The ball – the Italians tried to pull a fast one using a mitre ball that took the Irish a while to get used to (if at all). If you see any highlights watch some of the kicks.  O’Driscoll dropped the ball – no honestly he did, must have been the ball’s fault!
   
•  John Kirwan’s pre-match interview with Uncle Festa. In it he says he didn’t care so much about the result, but more about the performance - and wanted it to be everything Italian. He qualified this by saying they must be “passionate, physical and full of love”. Maybe he was thinking he was being interviewed about a porno he intends to produce. Now I think about it he also mentions that the ‘fatties must do the work up-front first”. Hmmm…

Wales 9 v England 26

I must admit I didn’t see this game – I had to wash my hair!  :-)

However the Welsh put up a very committed performance and really got stuck into the English. It was only 6-9 at half-time with the English scoring 2 tries in the second half to run out comfortable (if bruised) winners and didn’t put on the hatful of points most expected.

Talking points from the game:

•  Where was the Welsh commitment last week and can they step forward again against Scotland?

France 38 v Scotland 3

Well this was another workmanlike rather than spectacular performance by the French. They ran in 4 tries to 0, bossed most of the game and sent the Scots packing. However, the game was ruined by idiotic refereeing by Mr. Ego himself (oops I haven’t whistled for 30 seconds, people will focus on the rugby), Peter Marshall. At 3-3 he penalised the Scots for a non-existent penalty, which the French scored a try from – game over!

Talking points from the game:

•  Marshall – will someone put us out of our misery and rid him from the whistling ranks. 
   
•  Gelez is recalled to 1^st five after his disaster against the All Blacks in November and duly won man of the match – he must have changed his boots!

How bad are the Scots? 9 pts from 2 games. Laney switched to 1^st five and replaced.

And so to the week ahead and what does it hold?

It’s a well-deserved week off this weekend, to rest the weary bones after back-to-back internationals. What have we learned about the sides in this time? Much of what has gone on was as expected. Ireland, England and France are in the top half of the table, leaving Italy, Scotland and Wales at the bottom.

The remainder of the tournament is set up to decide what will be the finishing order will be. Ireland next host France at Landsdown Road in the game of the round, and will be a true test of how much Ireland have improved. Meanwhile England will surely be to strong for Italy who will look to keep things respectable and Scotland take on Wales in what is looking likely to be the wooden spoon game already!

But that’s all in a fortnight’s time… In the meantime lets bask with Ireland looking down from the top – long may it last!  :-)