Ireland kept their chances of retaining the Six Nations title alive by downing Wales 27-12, while England’s slim hope flicked out in a dour 15-15 draw against Scotland on Saturday.
Ireland’s first win over Wales at Croke Park meant they could still take the Triple Crown for beating all other British Isles sides and could even retain their Six Nations title depending on the outcome of the match between unbeaten leaders France and Italy, or the France-England game next weekend.
Ireland were pumped up for captain Brian O’Driscoll’s 100th cap, but in outscoring Wales by three tries to none they only got the first two of those touchdowns when Wales were reduced to 14 men.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Following fullback Lee Byrne’s yellow card in the 25th minute, Keith Earls and Tomas O’Leary scored within seven minutes to boost Ireland from 6-3 to 16-3.
Earls touched down again midway through the second period to prevent the sort of comeback that brought Wales’ victory over Scotland and almost overturned big deficits against England and France.
Byrne’s 10 minute exit for deliberately killing the ball decided a scrappy game that was frequently whistled for injuries and referee Craig Joubert’s tight regulation of the breakdown.
As soon as Byrne left, the Irish seized the man advantage.
Wales were penalized near the right corner flag and Ireland took the penalty quickly. O’Driscoll slipped a pass to Earls, whose angle took him through the defensive line and over for the try.
Jonathan Sexton missed the extra points, but Ireland were quickly over again. Following a line-out take, lock Paul O’Connell offloaded in the tackle and O’Leary broke through into space where Byrne would have been and raced in to score.
Having won the second half against all three of their previous opponents, Wales started brightly from 16-6 behind, but lingering hopes of victory ended from another Irish line-out when O’Leary sidestepped to find space on the break and slipped the ball wide for Earls to bounce over in the corner, despite a tackle from wing Shane Williams.
Sexton missed the conversion again, but at the end he hit a long-range drop-goal to show his confidence wasn’t affected.
The game between Scotland and England was even more of a mess of passes dropped and missed, though tension wasn’t lacking as the score remained close and play was physical.
All 30 points at Murrayfield came from the boot. Dan Parks struck four penalties and a drop-goal for Scotland, while Jonny Wilkinson kicked three penalties for England before leaving the field injured. His replacement, Toby Flood, kicked England’s remaining points with two more penalties.
Flood had a chance to snatch victory after his forwards engineered a drop-goal opening in the last move, but his kick was charged down.
Scotland’s two best try-scoring opportunities started with two Parks penalty attempts in the second half hitting the same right-hand post.
“What you saw today was an improvement from Italy. [A win] will come,” Scotland coach Andy Robinson said.
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