England have produced one of their best performances for years to crush hapless Wales by a record 68-14 scoreline to finish the Six Nations on a high but it wasn’t enough as France overcame a controversial sin-bin call conquered Scotland in the final match to claim the crown.
The England victory ensured the title would be decided in the last fixture of the tournament between France and Scotland on “Super Saturday.”
“Maybe I’ll start singing ‘The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond,’” England captain Maro Itoje smiled — referring to the famous Scottish ditty — when asked what he’ll be doing during the France-Scotland game. “What will be, will be. We did our job.”
But in the end, France’s class was too much for the Scots, who took the contest to their more-fancied opponents at Stade de France in Paris.
France’s win did not come without controversy. Holding a 10-0 lead early, hooker Peato Mauvaka pounced on Scotland’s Ben White while he was on the ground and it looked like a straight red card as his head pounded into his opponent.
However, he was only shown a yellow card for a 10-minute stint on the sidelines.
“That’s a straight red card. The whistle has gone. It’s direct head contact – I cannot agree with this process,” former Scotland hooker Fraser Brown bemoaned on BBC Radio.
The incident was not upgraded to a red card even though referee Matthew Carley says there was “a high degree of danger”.
Former Scotland forward Johnnie Beattie was furious: “You can’t fly across the ground and headbutt someone. We do not want to see that in our sport. Ramos starts the entire thing, and Mauvaka lunging at someone head first, he is very lucky that hasn’t been upgraded to a red card.”
Darcy Graham scored to bring the gap back to three points by half-time but when Louis Bielle-Biarrey touched down early in the second term, France led 23-13.
Bielle-Biarrey equalled the record of England’s Cyril Lowe in 1914 and Scotland’s Ian Smith in 1925 when the tournament was the Five Nations.
A penalty goal shaved the margin back to seven before France took control and fullback Thomas Ramos converted his own try near the hour mark. Ramos scored 20 points to move on to 450 overall and overtake Frederic Michalak (436) as his country’s all-time leading scorer.
With the pressure off, Gael Fickou set up midfield partner Yoram Moefana for his second try to make it 35-16 and start the celebrations.
France scored four tries to set a tournament record with 30, one more than England in 2001.
England were in total control from the start and tries by Maro Itoje, Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman – who became the first Englishman to score in all five rounds of the competition – Chandler Cunningham-South and Will Stuart put them 33-7 ahead at halftime.
Debutant 20-year-old flanker Henry Pollock came off the bench to score two tries and Alex Mitchell, Joe Heyes and Cunningham-South crossed after the break to take the tally to 10.
England easily surpassed their previous biggest victory margin in Cardiff, the 43-9 success in a 2003 World Cup warm-up, and their previous highest score, 44-15 in 2001.
The Welsh have now lost all of their matches for two straight campaigns, as they succumbed in an international for a record-extending 17th time in a row.
Hooker Dan Sheehan has scored a hat-trick of tries as champions Ireland laboured to a 22-17 bonus-point victory over hosts Italy but their hopes of winning the title were torpedoed by England’s win in the later game.
Fullback Hugo Keenan also crossed for a try as Ireland failed to finish numerous other entries into the Italy 22 in a scrappy display that was a last in international rugby for retiring loose-forward Peter O’Mahony and scrum-half Conor Murray.
Italy played for half an hour with 14 players after yellow cards for Michele Lamaro and Giacomo Nicotera, and a 20-minute red for Ross Vintcent, but managed tries through Australian winger Monty Ioane and scrum-half Stephen Varney in a spirited end to their campaign.
“Relief is the overriding feeling,” Ireland captain Caelan Doris admitted afterwards.
“It was a proper battle that went down to the wire. We knew it would be tough, we were ready for it. Right to the last five minutes they tested us.
“You talk about ugly wins and finding a way when things are not going your way and we did that. We got the five points and the rest is out of our hands now.”
Italy scored first as flyhalf Paolo Garbisi’s perfect grubber kick sat up for Ioane to gather and cross in the corner, but Ireland responded with a simple backline move from a five-metre scrum that sent Keenan over the tryline.
Tommaso Allan’s long-range penalty gave Italy the advantage again, but Ireland led 12-10 at halftime as, after Lamaro’s deliberate knock-down at a ruck and subsequent yellow card, the visitors mauled their way over for Sheehan to score.
Ireland camped in the Italy 22 at the start of the second period and were rewarded with a second score – a carbon copy of their first – as Sheehan was at the back of a rolling maul.
Vintcent received a yellow card, later upgraded to a 20-minute red on bunker review, for head-on-head contact with Keenan as the replacement flanker was too upright in the tackle.
Sheehan scored his third try when he collected Australian Mack Hansen’s tap-back from a Jamison Gibson-Park kick to complete his hat-trick.
Ireland should have been out of sight, but Jack Crowley’s three missed conversions kept their hosts in the game.
And when Varney scored Italy’s second converted try following a brilliant break from Ange Capuozzo, the gap on the scoreboard was only five points with 18 minutes remaining but Ireland hung on for the win.
© AAP
