Saturday saw the end of the elongated 2020 Six Nations championship and next week sees the start of the one-off Autumn Cup. Ireland and Italy started last week as they were catching up with the rest of the teams as Italy went into lockdown before everyone is in the competition. Ireland turned over Italy 50-17 leaving them at the top of the table on points difference and left it as a three-horse race between Ireland, England and France. Earlier in the day Wales and Scotland were playing not at Cardiff's Principality Stadium but at Llanneli's Scarlets stadium and want to finish off what has been a terrible Six Nations tournament for both teams. Wales were celebrating one legend as Alun Wyn Jones ran out for his record 149th test match but also mourned the loss of another legend in JJ Williams who passed away at the age of 72 in the week. Both teams had to contend with swirling winds and sporadic showers. This showed as they struggled with the lineouts as they couldn't keep the ball straight. Scotland took the lead after Hogg's kick also caused chaos for Wales.
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| Scotland scoring the final try |
Then Wales took the lead on the half-hour after running in from the maul after a Scottish miscue on the lineout and Wales used it to their advantage courtesy of Rhys Carre. Scotland made it 7-6 at halftime after Hastings kicked the ball through the middle from 22 metres out. The second half was all Scotlands's, and they showed it as they scored the try on the hour after Stuart McInally with the help of the Scottish team driving the Welsh back from a lineout and then decided it right at the end after Hogg kicked a penalty after the 80th minute to secure Scotland's first win in Wales since 2002.
The second game was in Rome as England looked to secure their stake at the top of the table before the final game. England took that at the start and scored the first try of the match five minutes in as Owen Farrell sliced the Italian defence open and played in centurion Ben Youngs to score under the posts. Then 8 minutes later Farrell scored a penalty kick to make it 10-0 then it was all Italy for the rest of the 1st half. English-born Jake Polledri used his pace to beat the English defence and scored the try in the corner to make it 10-5 and Garbisi missed the conversion. England then lost Jonny Hill to a sin bin offence on Eduardo Padovani However right at the end of the half Polledri was sin-binned himself for making a play while being offside.
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England running to victory
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The second half was barely a minute old when Youngs scored his second try after Hill chased down an error by Fischetti and Farrell converted it to make it 17-5, then 11 minutes later it became 24-5 after Jamie George capitalised on confusion in the Italian half and scored the try on his 50th cap for England. It became 29-5 after Tom Curry slipped past the blindside on Italy's right-hand side to score the all-important bonus try which placed Ireland in a situation where they have to get a bonus point themselves. Then England scored another try with 8 minutes to go after Henry Slade collected the grubber kick. At fulltime with the score being 34-5 England it put Ireland either having to win by a bonus point or at least beat France by 7 points.
In the last match in Paris France started early by scoring the try from Antoine Dupont. Then France had Anthony Bouttier sin-binned after he deliberately knocked the ball out of play and the referee Wayne Barnes said it wasn't enough to be deemed a penalty try. Then in the 19th minute, Cian Healy scored the try to make it level and Sexton kicked the extra points to tie the match. Ireland scored a penalty kick in the 26th minute to make it 10-7 Ireland. Ireland had a sin-bin from Caelen Doris and France scored a penalty try as Doris tackled Francois Cros. Ireland got another penalty and Sexton kicked it to make it 14-13 France. On the stroke of halftime, France kicked their own penalty kick from Ntamack to make it 17-13 France.
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| Dupont scoring France's first try |
France scored their 3rd try fro Ntamack 4 minutes into the second half after clever moves from Dupont. France got a penalty kick in the 48th minute to make it 25-13. Then Ntamack had another penalty kick converted to make it 28-13. On the hour Ireland scored their second try from Robbie Henshaw after he ran down the wing and Sexton kicked the points to make it 28-20 France. France scored the bonus point try with 10 minutes to go from Virimi Vakatawa to make it 35-20 France. After that Ireland couldn't win the tournament but scored a try at the 80th minute and made it 35-27. This meant that England won the Six Nations Championship on points difference.
I will be back with more soon.
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