Scrumbag

Saracens use hovercraft to clear the Vicarage Road snow before their Ospreys clash...

It probably says a lot about me, but my favourite moment of the Heineken Cup weekend was a man dressed as a camel riding a hovercraft to clear some snow. Brilliantly the camel driven hovercraft cleared the snow in a jiffy, but I have so many questions about the whole thing.

1) Just who came up with this idea?

2) How did they know it was going to work?

3) Where do you get a hovercraft from at short notice?

4) How did they get it inside Vicarage Road?

5) Why does that camel wear a fez anyway?

If you know the answer to any (ANY!) of those five questions, please, please, please let me know...

Ashton, Wilkinson, Vainikolo... OUT! OUT! OUT!

Ughghghgh. Firstly congratulations to Scotland, Wales and whoever won in that third game. Now, onto the business of England's truly inept display. Rob Andrew must surely now get around to what he almost had the balls to do last year... sack grandpa Ashton.

England have by far the most talented players in the Six Nations yet they are consistently playing like a bunch of confused grumpy school boys. Wales meanwhile looked terrible on paper going into this tournament and look beyond fantastic now - they're solid, determined, faster than ferrets and utterly deserving of the Grand Slam which they'll hopefully pick up. It doesn't take a rocket scientist's brain surgeon to work out this is down to bad man management (Ashton) and superb man management (Gatland).

So now it's time for Ashton to go. And surely he can take Jonny Wilks and Vainikolo with him. Of course Jonny can come back, but the man needs a break to re-find his form without all this pressure. I can't honestly ever remember a worst England performance. Seriously. Ever. If only Cipriani hadn't of been so outrageously wreckless in having that orange juice 57 hours before the big game. It could have been so very different...

Rant. Over.

Rugby World Cup: Odds Lengthen on Ireland

BELFAST: Whether Ronan O'Gara did or didn't score a try on the stroke of full time, the simple truth of the matter is that Ireland will get nowhere near a World Cup if they play as they did last night in front of a home crowd. "We probably didn't deserve to get that try at the end", said coach Eddie O'Sullivan, "but we showed a lot of character to come back when a lot of teams would have gone home."

Aussie and Ulster back, Ryan Constable, was sitting in the commentary box with a less-than-objective Jim Neilly and ventured that "that's why you have these matches, to iron out the kinks". Well, that's one way to look at it. Another way to look at warm-up matches is as an opportunity to put the finishing touches to your technique and tactics; to trial players who've come through well in training; and as a confidence booster. I don't think that Eddie O'Sullivan and his team have got anything except an almighty boot up the backside from these games; and maybe more importantly, a punch in the face.

The evening was set up for Ireland to put 30+ points on the Azzurri. Ravenhill hadn't welcomed the full Ireland side back for an international since 1954; the late evening sun bathed the field for the first half. 14,000 spectators looked forward to seeing the Irish forwards climb into their opposing numbers and the backs put some air on the ball.

Dennis Leamy started proceedings with a break through the centre to put Ireland on Italy's 22; at this point, you would have guessed that the game would open up and Ireland would be putting a few tries on the board. Not so; from the following rucks, Peter Stringer got slow ball and popped it up to rear five forwards to bash up into the Italian midfield. The story of the first half was Ireland trying to break and probe, with Girvan Dempsey and Denis Hickie looking the class acts on the pitch but not quite getting through. The Italian pack counter-rucked well and ball remained slow; knock-ons abounded. At the half, the Irish had racked up 13 errors.

Eventually, the Azzurri were slow retiring and Ronan O'Gara put 3 points on the board. David Bortolussi, one of a fresh crop of Italian talent coming through, levelled with a 45 metre, textbook drop goal from a fluffed clearance out left. It's a pity that he had to go off at half-time; Scrumbag wanted to see more. In fact, Ireland's only try of the first half came from a Bortolussi fumble when Ronan O'Gara gave up with the back play and launched a huge Garryowen; it happens to the best full backs. Andrew Trimble gathered for the score.

At that point, it looked like the Irish would get on top; but the first half ended 13-10 to Italy, with Alessandro Troncon taking a quick tap from a penalty on the Irish 5 metre line to go comfortably over. Referee Nigel Owens referred it upstairs to Derek Bevan; he didn't need to. Bortolussi added the 2 points and a penalty to send Ireland into the changing room in an improbable position. You can take a good guess at what EOS said: put a structure on the game, we need the win first and we'll add the style later.

As soon as they came out for the second half, O'Gara started drilling the lines and, intially, this strategy seemed to be paying dividends as he levelled the score with a penalty. But Ireland just couldn't get on top at scrum time - the sides traded shunts against the head - and ball continued to be slow and behind the man. Ireland's best chance looked to be from turnover ball, but the Italian defence was well marshalled and had enough pace to cope with Irish break-outs. Andrew Trimble looked to be away in the 72nd minute, but Azzurri winger Kaine Robertson tracked him down.

With five minutes to go, the win was crucial and ROG took the sensible option of a field goal. 16-13 Ireland. But it wasn't over yet: Matteo Pratichetti capitalised on yet another Irish error, this time a fumble from Girvan Dempsey, to go over under the posts. Jim Neilly was apoplectic, claiming that Geordan Murphy was impeded going back for the ball, but the scoreboard said 20-16 and there was no time to come back for a desperately poor Ireland side.

Or not. Italy infringed with hands in the ruck on their own 22, Ireland took a quick one, the ball was shifted to Andrew Trimble and Brian O'Driscoll's understudy put Ronan O'Gara through a non-existent hole to go over the line and dot down. OK, it wasn't quite that simple - Trimble's shovel pass was suspect, ROG lost the ball about 17 times before finally touching it down - but the less said about Nigel Owen's decision to refer the score upstairs and the basis of the video referee's decision to award the try, the better. 23-20, Ireland win.

The Ireland coach was pretty open about the reasons for Ireland's lack of success "The key to our side is quick ruck ball, and we didn't get it... we didn't get the quick ball we wanted in the centre of the park".

Fair enough, Eddie. But you can't just turn up and expect the top sides to let you play your game. The Springboks, New Zealand, England, Australia and... Argentina and France have big packs which focus heavily on clearing out the opposition. This is the second international in a row where Ireland have clicked into "run the ball" mode without actually winning it first. As Wallaby coach John Connolly said recently: you have to earn the right to go wide.

The win market on Ireland has been as low as 12-1 in the past 6 months. It was 20-1 before the game last night, and bookmakers are now quoting 33-1. I wonder where Eddie O'Sullivan would buy his own team. The question left lingering from last night's victory and the Scotland defeat is, plainly, are Triple Crown champions Ireland as good as they think they are? Or have the rest of the European nations closed the gap? The worrying thing is that, with two dead rubbers against Georgia and Namibia to start the World Cup, Ireland might not find out the answers to those questions until they meet France and Argentina.

At least Eddie O'Sullivan isn't fooling himself. "It's probably a good thing, it focuses the mind. That might have been the wake-up call we needed tonight." Let's hope so.

Set the Video For: Peter Stringer's "hold me back, I'm going to hit the fecker!" after being bundled over off the ball by Sergio Parisse in the 22nd minute - tremendous fighty spirit from the human equivalent of a Jack Russell

Scrumbag Hero: The Italian pack, en masse - from 1 to 8, they had the knock on Ireland at the set piece and stopped the Irish from functioning

Ireland: Dempsey; G Murphy, Trimble, D'Arcy, Hickie; O'Gara, Stringer; M Horan, R Best, Hayes; O'Connell (c), O'Callaghan; Easterby, N Best, Leamy
Bench: Flannery, S Best, M O'Kelly, Quinlan, Boss, P Wallace, Carney

Tries Trimble, O'Gara Pens O'Gara 2 Conversions O'Gara 2 Drop Goals O'Gara

Italy: Bortolussi; Robertson, Canale, Bergamasco, Pratichetti; De Marigny, Troncon; Castrogiovanni, Ongaro, Perugini; Bortolami (c), Bernabo; Zanni, Barbieri, Parisse
Bench: Ghiraldini, Aguero, Sole, Vosawai, Griffen, Canavosio, Galon

Tries Troncon, Pratichetti Pens Bortolussi Conversions Bortolussi, de Marigny Drop Goals Bortolussi

Related Posts: Misfiring Ireland Meet Italy | Connacht Keep the Boks Boxed In

RWC 2007 Warm-up: Blinkers Stay On as France Ride England Home

MARSEILLES: We said it in our preview, and so it came to pass: England's midfield misfired again and the French pack put in a furious effort to subdue their visitors. We should probably rename the site Smugbag, but we got one thing wrong: we said France would win by 12, and the final score was 22-9. Ah well.

The difference between the sides before the half was paper-thin; in fact, in a bizarre reversal of roles, France looked like they were paying hommage to the English game by going for contact while England put some air on the ball, and the score was deadlocked for 35 minutes. Only English indiscipline allowed Jean-Bap Elissalde to keep the French in front. In fact, it all looked pretty positive for English fans; nice wrap-around moves, the ball turning up on the wing, Dan Hipkiss making some pretty little half-breaks and Andy Farrell looking vaguely threatening rather than like a big cuddly teddy bear.

Appearances can be deceptive. The simple truth of the matter was that France had been biding their time, measuring themselves against the English pack and probing in the backs. Yannick Jauzion and Christophe Dominici looked short of zip after their injuries; Freddie Michalak was trying to hard not to let his alter-ego, Frank Spencer, come to the surface.

A borderline high tackle put Simon Shaw in the sin bin - and Phil Vickery on the treatment table - on the stroke of half time. You don't need to guess what coach Laporte said in the changing room at the break. France perceptibly hit a higher gear, moving the ball from side to side and creating 2- and 3-man overlaps at will. England had been battering themselves in attack and defence with the vigour of a monk in a Dan Brown novel, and this finally started to tell as Yannick Nyanga almost crept in at the corner in the 46th minute, knocking on. France hit top gear, shunting the England pack back off the ball at the ensuing 5 metre scrum, and a neat little scissors between Michalak and Jauzion let the big centre stretch his arm out over the line for the game's only try.

After that, England were all application for the last 30 minutes, rugby by numbers; what they needed, though, was inspiration. France knew the pattern, assumed complete control and could have killed the game off in the 64th minute, but Imanol Harinordoquy ignored an overlap to go for the whitewash himself; in his defence, Joe Worsley had come on and Harry Ordinary might just have been taking the mickey.

So, England are played two, lost two against France and look well worth both results. If you don't score tries, you don't win big matches against good teams. It will be galling to England fans that, for the first half hour, the issues of the last month looked to have been addressed; in reality, England were flattering to deceive and well covered by the French defence. The problems remain the same and are deeply ingrained. Ball from the breakdown is still slow. The "five eighths" - Jonny Wilkinson in particular - are pointlessly holding onto ball which should be shifted wide, post haste, and allowing the opposition to close down the outside backs before they've even sniffed a pass. Dan Hipkiss was given man and ball almost every time; he needs at least a couple of feet to whirr his chunky thighs into action. Instead, players like Martin "Cannon Fodder" Corry are still popping up in places where they don't have the gas to prosper.

The French management will be purring this evening. Their side looked assured and seemed to have a huge amount of time on the ball, which is the mark of a good side. Let's not forget that nine of the positions in the run-on team are still up for grabs and players like Thierry Dusautoir were not first choice. We would say that he played his way ahead of Julien Bonnaire tonight. Similarly, Nyanga didn't let anyone down in defence and offers more than Serge Betsen around the park. Despite their excellent performance at the Vélodrome, this still doesn't look like the best French front five, but they should have enough to melt down the Welsh next weekend in Cardiff.

The biggest disappointment of the day for Scrumbag was that big softie Phil Vickery was knocked out early, as we had a strap line pencilled in: "Corniche Pastie takes Marseilles by Storm" (sorry, it's a Provence gag). Ah well, maybe another day.

Set the Video For: The scrum after Nyanga knocked on over the try line will tell you everything you need to know about this French team

Scrumbag Hero: Thierry Dusautoir did himself no harm at all, popping up everywhere to clear out English meat and punch the ball up - otherwise, a great fighting performance by the whole French eight

Boo, Hiss! Two people: the precocious six-year-old who designed England's strip, and the idiot at the RFU who signed off on it - it looked like Swindon Town had been on the pies

France: Poitrenaud; Dominici, Traille, Jauzion, Heymans; Michalak, Elissalde; Milloud, Ibanez (c), Poux; Pelous, Thion; Nyanga, Harinordoquy, Dusautoir
Bench: Bruno, Mas, Nallet, Bonnaire, Mignoni, Skrela, Rougerie

Tries Jauzion Pens Elissalde 5 Conversions Elissalde

England: Cueto; Lewsey, Hipkiss, Farrell, Robinson; Wilkinson, Perry; Freshwater, Regan, Vickery (c), Shaw, Borthwick, Corry, Rees, Easter
Bench: Mears, Stevens, Worsley, Dallaglio, Gomarsall, Barkley, Sackey

Pens Wilkinson 3 Cards Shaw (yellow, 40)

Related Posts: France to Blow Hot and Leave England Gasping

RWC 2007 Warm-up: Wales Win But Fail to Put Away Poor Pumas

CARDIFF, 2:34PM: The Royal Infirmary started booking in the first cases of squeakybumitis as Gareth Thomas floated a juicy pass across the Argentina back line and Ignacio Corleto galloped away to score. Gareth Jenkins was seen heading for the exit at approximately 2:36PM with a red dot playing over the back of his tight perm.

Half an hour later, he was back, Wales had opened up a 17 point lead and the Pumas looked like the catnip had kicked in. What goes around comes around; three months ago in Sydney, Australia gifted Wales 17 points in the first 20 minutes and then stormed back to win. James Hook wasn't about to hang around and took advantage of an open barn door in the Argentina midfield to redeem Gareth Thomas with a try, then Alun Wyn Jones went through some dismal tackling from 5 metres to dot down. A Pichot turnover brought another seven-pointer and Lucas Borges bought himself a yellow card by taking Kevin Morgan's legs in the air.

Match over with 28 minutes on the clock?

No chance. Wales switched off and the errors started to come. Lucas Borges, back on the pitch, picked the Welsh broken field defence apart and offloaded to give Corleto his second try of the day. Surely the Welsh would go into lockdown mode at this point? Actually, it was Argentina who started turning the screw, holding onto the ball, driving in the tight and releasing parsimoniously to the backs. And back they came, to 27-17, then 27-20. Wales found themselves on their own line in the 79th minute with Matthew Rees trudging off to the sin bin. On the stroke of full time, the Pumas crashed over the line for the try they needed - it went to the video ref and only a knock-on in grounding denied them.

Who will take most from this game? Probably Ireland. The "group of death" with France, Ireland and Argentina doesn't look so terminal any more. The prognosis for coach Marcelo Loffreda is that his team have to get better, and quickly. Some of his players - scrub that, most of his players - are not switched on to the pace of the World Cup yet. It was a rusty, error-laden, cantankerous performance. The lack of a training camp showed. Felipe Contepomi must replace Todeschini at fly half, if Argentina are going to put good sides under pressure.

Wales? They'll probably learn less from this mismatch than England did from munting a poor Welsh selection at Twickenham a fortnight ago. It was an efficient win against a sloppy side, but no points were made either by the forwards or backs; nothing that we didn't know before. Gareth Jenkins might be worried by the way his side switched off mentally after getting their noses well ahead; Gareth Thomas might inspire loyalty, but he will never inspire cool heads. Had Wales taken a page out of England's playbook and gone into "command and control" mode for 20 minutes round half time, they would have been out of sight after 70 minutes. This should have been a 20 point win.

The acid test has been put back to next weekend and the arrival of France. Cardiff Royal Infirmary is already clearing the beds.

Set the Video For: Moments of class were few and far between, but the way villain Lucas Borges stepped past Dwayne Peel to release Ignacio Corleto in the 50th minute was sublime

Scrumbag Hero: James Hook's calm assurance in finding his lines, kicking the goals and keeping the Puma inside defence interested were another reminder - if anybody needed one - that he's the most valuable player in the northern hemisphere

Wales: Morgan; D James, Shanklin, G Thomas (c), M Jones; Hook, Peel; D Jones, M Rees, A Jones; Gough, AW Jones; J Thomas, M Williams, Popham
Bench: R Thomas, G Jenkins, W James, Charvis, Phillips, Sweeney, J Robinson

Tries G Thomas, AW Jones, M Jones Pens Hook 2 Conversions Hook 3 Cards M Rees (yellow 79)

Argentina: Serra san Isidro; Borges, Gaitan, F Contempomi, Corleto; Todeschini, Pichot; Roncero. Ledesma, Scelzo; IF Lobbe, Albacete; Leguizamon, JF Lobbe, Longo
Bench: Basualdo, Bonarino, Alvarez, Durand, Vergallo, M Contepomi, Aguila

Tries Corleto 2 Pens Todeschini 2 Conversions Todeschini 2 Cards Borges (yellow 28)

Munster boss Declan Kidney tips Llanelli Scarlets for the Heineken crown

First in the queue to congratulate and talk up Llanelli Scarlets was Munster fly half Ronan O'Gara, now Munster head coach Declan Kidney has stepped forward to tip Llanelli for the Heineken Cup title. "Llanelli have won seven out of seven in Europe this season. They have momentum and they are brimming with confidence," he said.

"They are a skilful side, and while there are still six other good teams left in the tournament, I wouldn't put them too far down the betting list. They have the ability to win it."

 

As the first side to qualify for the semi finals of the Heineken Cup, Llanelli can sit back and watch this weekend's action and see who they'll come up against in the penultimate round of games. Llanelli will play the winner of tomorrow's Leicester Tigers vs. Stade Francais game. Considering Llanelli have something of a dark history concerning Leicester in this competition, I'd expect fireworks if the East Midlands side can beat the Paris fancies on Sunday.

Llanelli Scarlets 24 Munster 15: Match Reports

Unfortunately, due to Virgin Media being not very good, we here at Scrumbag Towers are without the Heineken Cup quarter finals on the TV. Sob! So we can't live blog, do proper match reports or anything. Thanks, Virgin, thanks a bunch. As it is, we know thanks to a very slow live blog that Llanelli beat Munster last night, and here's where you can find match reports (from people clearly not with Virgin Media):

Scarlets Official Website
ERC Report
Planet Rugby Report
BBC Rugby Report

Scotland 17 Italy 37

For a few years now, Italy have been threatening to do something like this.  In previous seasons, they've gone close to winning outside Italy in the Six Nations, not least in last year's draw with Wales.  Now, it's happened.  Not only have they won on the road, but they absolutely battered Scotland with a 20-point margin of victory, scoring the winning points while the game was less than seven minutes old.  Loose back play from the Scots enabled Mauro Bergomasco to charge down a Phil Godman kick less than 20 seconds in, chasing his own block to get the away side on the scoreboard before the first pints of Tennents had gone flat and rancid.

Perhaps it was the early score that made Chris Cusiter lose his head, as he tried to force passes inside his own half.  First Kaine Robertson and then Andrea Scanavacca were the men to profit, and if anyone had been experiencing a particularly stubborn toilet break at the start of the match, they would have missed Italy scoring more points than they had in the entire tournament prior to today.  As Scottish errors piled up and Chris Paterson spurned opportunities to kick for the posts, a Rob Dewey try on 12 minutes attenuated the gap.  Scotland, though, were to fail to build on this, and as the game moved into the second half, Italian mistakes went unpunished and the Azurri grew in confidence.  Scanavacca, a particularly wayward goalkicker prior to today, added points whenever possible, and when, a few moments from the end, Alessandro Troncon wriggled over, it was Italy's day.  Well done to them, and they must be taken seriously from now on.

England Hammered By New Zealand: 20-41

Now, we have a slight problem with the match report for the England/New Zealand game. You see, I'm too mentally damaged to write one. What the hell is going on with England at the moment? And whilst there were some promising moments, in general, the game was a great advert for how good New Zealand are at the moment. Oh, and I missed the first half. Which doesn't help from the reporting front either (I didn't realise the game was on BBC!). So instead, here's a round up of some other websites reports:

BBC Rugby
Planet Rugby
Official RFU (official tends to mean boring and biased, mind)
Scrum.com

But really, if you saw the game, would you really want to re-live it online? I think I'm happier burying my head in the sand, thanks...

New Zealand 18 Great Britain 14

The GB Lions lost their first match in this year's Tri-Nations tournament, but will feel cheated after Danny McGuire was denied a try by a controversial refereeing decision.  After Brent Webb had given the home side the lead, McGuire crossed the line but had the ball punched out of his grasp by Webb.  From there, the Kiwis stepped it up and added two more tries, and late scores from Paul Wellens and Gareth Ellis were for naught.

The good news for GB is that Adrian Morley was cleared of two counts of foul play, having been put on report by match ref Paul Simpkins for an apparent high tackle on Ruben Wiki, and then having appeared to punch the controversial Webb.  An adjudication panel believed that Wiki had ducked into the tackle, while any contact with Webb was minimal.

Rugby World Cup: Odds Lengthen on Ireland

BELFAST: Whether Ronan O'Gara did or didn't score a try on the stroke of full time, the simple truth of the matter is that Ireland will get nowhere near a World Cup if they play as they did last night in front of a home crowd. "We probably didn't deserve to get that try at the end", said coach Eddie O'Sullivan, "but we showed a lot of character to come back when a lot of teams would have gone home."

Aussie and Ulster back, Ryan Constable, was sitting in the commentary box with a less-than-objective Jim Neilly and ventured that "that's why you have these matches, to iron out the kinks". Well, that's one way to look at it. Another way to look at warm-up matches is as an opportunity to put the finishing touches to your technique and tactics; to trial players who've come through well in training; and as a confidence booster. I don't think that Eddie O'Sullivan and his team have got anything except an almighty boot up the backside from these games; and maybe more importantly, a punch in the face.

The evening was set up for Ireland to put 30+ points on the Azzurri. Ravenhill hadn't welcomed the full Ireland side back for an international since 1954; the late evening sun bathed the field for the first half. 14,000 spectators looked forward to seeing the Irish forwards climb into their opposing numbers and the backs put some air on the ball.

Dennis Leamy started proceedings with a break through the centre to put Ireland on Italy's 22; at this point, you would have guessed that the game would open up and Ireland would be putting a few tries on the board. Not so; from the following rucks, Peter Stringer got slow ball and popped it up to rear five forwards to bash up into the Italian midfield. The story of the first half was Ireland trying to break and probe, with Girvan Dempsey and Denis Hickie looking the class acts on the pitch but not quite getting through. The Italian pack counter-rucked well and ball remained slow; knock-ons abounded. At the half, the Irish had racked up 13 errors.

Eventually, the Azzurri were slow retiring and Ronan O'Gara put 3 points on the board. David Bortolussi, one of a fresh crop of Italian talent coming through, levelled with a 45 metre, textbook drop goal from a fluffed clearance out left. It's a pity that he had to go off at half-time; Scrumbag wanted to see more. In fact, Ireland's only try of the first half came from a Bortolussi fumble when Ronan O'Gara gave up with the back play and launched a huge Garryowen; it happens to the best full backs. Andrew Trimble gathered for the score.

At that point, it looked like the Irish would get on top; but the first half ended 13-10 to Italy, with Alessandro Troncon taking a quick tap from a penalty on the Irish 5 metre line to go comfortably over. Referee Nigel Owens referred it upstairs to Derek Bevan; he didn't need to. Bortolussi added the 2 points and a penalty to send Ireland into the changing room in an improbable position. You can take a good guess at what EOS said: put a structure on the game, we need the win first and we'll add the style later.

As soon as they came out for the second half, O'Gara started drilling the lines and, intially, this strategy seemed to be paying dividends as he levelled the score with a penalty. But Ireland just couldn't get on top at scrum time - the sides traded shunts against the head - and ball continued to be slow and behind the man. Ireland's best chance looked to be from turnover ball, but the Italian defence was well marshalled and had enough pace to cope with Irish break-outs. Andrew Trimble looked to be away in the 72nd minute, but Azzurri winger Kaine Robertson tracked him down.

With five minutes to go, the win was crucial and ROG took the sensible option of a field goal. 16-13 Ireland. But it wasn't over yet: Matteo Pratichetti capitalised on yet another Irish error, this time a fumble from Girvan Dempsey, to go over under the posts. Jim Neilly was apoplectic, claiming that Geordan Murphy was impeded going back for the ball, but the scoreboard said 20-16 and there was no time to come back for a desperately poor Ireland side.

Or not. Italy infringed with hands in the ruck on their own 22, Ireland took a quick one, the ball was shifted to Andrew Trimble and Brian O'Driscoll's understudy put Ronan O'Gara through a non-existent hole to go over the line and dot down. OK, it wasn't quite that simple - Trimble's shovel pass was suspect, ROG lost the ball about 17 times before finally touching it down - but the less said about Nigel Owen's decision to refer the score upstairs and the basis of the video referee's decision to award the try, the better. 23-20, Ireland win.

The Ireland coach was pretty open about the reasons for Ireland's lack of success "The key to our side is quick ruck ball, and we didn't get it... we didn't get the quick ball we wanted in the centre of the park".

Fair enough, Eddie. But you can't just turn up and expect the top sides to let you play your game. The Springboks, New Zealand, England, Australia and... Argentina and France have big packs which focus heavily on clearing out the opposition. This is the second international in a row where Ireland have clicked into "run the ball" mode without actually winning it first. As Wallaby coach John Connolly said recently: you have to earn the right to go wide.

The win market on Ireland has been as low as 12-1 in the past 6 months. It was 20-1 before the game last night, and bookmakers are now quoting 33-1. I wonder where Eddie O'Sullivan would buy his own team. The question left lingering from last night's victory and the Scotland defeat is, plainly, are Triple Crown champions Ireland as good as they think they are? Or have the rest of the European nations closed the gap? The worrying thing is that, with two dead rubbers against Georgia and Namibia to start the World Cup, Ireland might not find out the answers to those questions until they meet France and Argentina.

At least Eddie O'Sullivan isn't fooling himself. "It's probably a good thing, it focuses the mind. That might have been the wake-up call we needed tonight." Let's hope so.

Set the Video For: Peter Stringer's "hold me back, I'm going to hit the fecker!" after being bundled over off the ball by Sergio Parisse in the 22nd minute - tremendous fighty spirit from the human equivalent of a Jack Russell

Scrumbag Hero: The Italian pack, en masse - from 1 to 8, they had the knock on Ireland at the set piece and stopped the Irish from functioning

Ireland: Dempsey; G Murphy, Trimble, D'Arcy, Hickie; O'Gara, Stringer; M Horan, R Best, Hayes; O'Connell (c), O'Callaghan; Easterby, N Best, Leamy
Bench: Flannery, S Best, M O'Kelly, Quinlan, Boss, P Wallace, Carney

Tries Trimble, O'Gara Pens O'Gara 2 Conversions O'Gara 2 Drop Goals O'Gara

Italy: Bortolussi; Robertson, Canale, Bergamasco, Pratichetti; De Marigny, Troncon; Castrogiovanni, Ongaro, Perugini; Bortolami (c), Bernabo; Zanni, Barbieri, Parisse
Bench: Ghiraldini, Aguero, Sole, Vosawai, Griffen, Canavosio, Galon

Tries Troncon, Pratichetti Pens Bortolussi Conversions Bortolussi, de Marigny Drop Goals Bortolussi

Related Posts: Misfiring Ireland Meet Italy | Connacht Keep the Boks Boxed In

RWC 2007 Warm-up: Blinkers Stay On as France Ride England Home

MARSEILLES: We said it in our preview, and so it came to pass: England's midfield misfired again and the French pack put in a furious effort to subdue their visitors. We should probably rename the site Smugbag, but we got one thing wrong: we said France would win by 12, and the final score was 22-9. Ah well.

The difference between the sides before the half was paper-thin; in fact, in a bizarre reversal of roles, France looked like they were paying hommage to the English game by going for contact while England put some air on the ball, and the score was deadlocked for 35 minutes. Only English indiscipline allowed Jean-Bap Elissalde to keep the French in front. In fact, it all looked pretty positive for English fans; nice wrap-around moves, the ball turning up on the wing, Dan Hipkiss making some pretty little half-breaks and Andy Farrell looking vaguely threatening rather than like a big cuddly teddy bear.

Appearances can be deceptive. The simple truth of the matter was that France had been biding their time, measuring themselves against the English pack and probing in the backs. Yannick Jauzion and Christophe Dominici looked short of zip after their injuries; Freddie Michalak was trying to hard not to let his alter-ego, Frank Spencer, come to the surface.

A borderline high tackle put Simon Shaw in the sin bin - and Phil Vickery on the treatment table - on the stroke of half time. You don't need to guess what coach Laporte said in the changing room at the break. France perceptibly hit a higher gear, moving the ball from side to side and creating 2- and 3-man overlaps at will. England had been battering themselves in attack and defence with the vigour of a monk in a Dan Brown novel, and this finally started to tell as Yannick Nyanga almost crept in at the corner in the 46th minute, knocking on. France hit top gear, shunting the England pack back off the ball at the ensuing 5 metre scrum, and a neat little scissors between Michalak and Jauzion let the big centre stretch his arm out over the line for the game's only try.

After that, England were all application for the last 30 minutes, rugby by numbers; what they needed, though, was inspiration. France knew the pattern, assumed complete control and could have killed the game off in the 64th minute, but Imanol Harinordoquy ignored an overlap to go for the whitewash himself; in his defence, Joe Worsley had come on and Harry Ordinary might just have been taking the mickey.

So, England are played two, lost two against France and look well worth both results. If you don't score tries, you don't win big matches against good teams. It will be galling to England fans that, for the first half hour, the issues of the last month looked to have been addressed; in reality, England were flattering to deceive and well covered by the French defence. The problems remain the same and are deeply ingrained. Ball from the breakdown is still slow. The "five eighths" - Jonny Wilkinson in particular - are pointlessly holding onto ball which should be shifted wide, post haste, and allowing the opposition to close down the outside backs before they've even sniffed a pass. Dan Hipkiss was given man and ball almost every time; he needs at least a couple of feet to whirr his chunky thighs into action. Instead, players like Martin "Cannon Fodder" Corry are still popping up in places where they don't have the gas to prosper.

The French management will be purring this evening. Their side looked assured and seemed to have a huge amount of time on the ball, which is the mark of a good side. Let's not forget that nine of the positions in the run-on team are still up for grabs and players like Thierry Dusautoir were not first choice. We would say that he played his way ahead of Julien Bonnaire tonight. Similarly, Nyanga didn't let anyone down in defence and offers more than Serge Betsen around the park. Despite their excellent performance at the Vélodrome, this still doesn't look like the best French front five, but they should have enough to melt down the Welsh next weekend in Cardiff.

The biggest disappointment of the day for Scrumbag was that big softie Phil Vickery was knocked out early, as we had a strap line pencilled in: "Corniche Pastie takes Marseilles by Storm" (sorry, it's a Provence gag). Ah well, maybe another day.

Set the Video For: The scrum after Nyanga knocked on over the try line will tell you everything you need to know about this French team

Scrumbag Hero: Thierry Dusautoir did himself no harm at all, popping up everywhere to clear out English meat and punch the ball up - otherwise, a great fighting performance by the whole French eight

Boo, Hiss! Two people: the precocious six-year-old who designed England's strip, and the idiot at the RFU who signed off on it - it looked like Swindon Town had been on the pies

France: Poitrenaud; Dominici, Traille, Jauzion, Heymans; Michalak, Elissalde; Milloud, Ibanez (c), Poux; Pelous, Thion; Nyanga, Harinordoquy, Dusautoir
Bench: Bruno, Mas, Nallet, Bonnaire, Mignoni, Skrela, Rougerie

Tries Jauzion Pens Elissalde 5 Conversions Elissalde

England: Cueto; Lewsey, Hipkiss, Farrell, Robinson; Wilkinson, Perry; Freshwater, Regan, Vickery (c), Shaw, Borthwick, Corry, Rees, Easter
Bench: Mears, Stevens, Worsley, Dallaglio, Gomarsall, Barkley, Sackey

Pens Wilkinson 3 Cards Shaw (yellow, 40)

Related Posts: France to Blow Hot and Leave England Gasping

RWC 2007 Warm-up: Wales Win But Fail to Put Away Poor Pumas

CARDIFF, 2:34PM: The Royal Infirmary started booking in the first cases of squeakybumitis as Gareth Thomas floated a juicy pass across the Argentina back line and Ignacio Corleto galloped away to score. Gareth Jenkins was seen heading for the exit at approximately 2:36PM with a red dot playing over the back of his tight perm.

Half an hour later, he was back, Wales had opened up a 17 point lead and the Pumas looked like the catnip had kicked in. What goes around comes around; three months ago in Sydney, Australia gifted Wales 17 points in the first 20 minutes and then stormed back to win. James Hook wasn't about to hang around and took advantage of an open barn door in the Argentina midfield to redeem Gareth Thomas with a try, then Alun Wyn Jones went through some dismal tackling from 5 metres to dot down. A Pichot turnover brought another seven-pointer and Lucas Borges bought himself a yellow card by taking Kevin Morgan's legs in the air.

Match over with 28 minutes on the clock?

No chance. Wales switched off and the errors started to come. Lucas Borges, back on the pitch, picked the Welsh broken field defence apart and offloaded to give Corleto his second try of the day. Surely the Welsh would go into lockdown mode at this point? Actually, it was Argentina who started turning the screw, holding onto the ball, driving in the tight and releasing parsimoniously to the backs. And back they came, to 27-17, then 27-20. Wales found themselves on their own line in the 79th minute with Matthew Rees trudging off to the sin bin. On the stroke of full time, the Pumas crashed over the line for the try they needed - it went to the video ref and only a knock-on in grounding denied them.

Who will take most from this game? Probably Ireland. The "group of death" with France, Ireland and Argentina doesn't look so terminal any more. The prognosis for coach Marcelo Loffreda is that his team have to get better, and quickly. Some of his players - scrub that, most of his players - are not switched on to the pace of the World Cup yet. It was a rusty, error-laden, cantankerous performance. The lack of a training camp showed. Felipe Contepomi must replace Todeschini at fly half, if Argentina are going to put good sides under pressure.

Wales? They'll probably learn less from this mismatch than England did from munting a poor Welsh selection at Twickenham a fortnight ago. It was an efficient win against a sloppy side, but no points were made either by the forwards or backs; nothing that we didn't know before. Gareth Jenkins might be worried by the way his side switched off mentally after getting their noses well ahead; Gareth Thomas might inspire loyalty, but he will never inspire cool heads. Had Wales taken a page out of England's playbook and gone into "command and control" mode for 20 minutes round half time, they would have been out of sight after 70 minutes. This should have been a 20 point win.

The acid test has been put back to next weekend and the arrival of France. Cardiff Royal Infirmary is already clearing the beds.

Set the Video For: Moments of class were few and far between, but the way villain Lucas Borges stepped past Dwayne Peel to release Ignacio Corleto in the 50th minute was sublime

Scrumbag Hero: James Hook's calm assurance in finding his lines, kicking the goals and keeping the Puma inside defence interested were another reminder - if anybody needed one - that he's the most valuable player in the northern hemisphere

Wales: Morgan; D James, Shanklin, G Thomas (c), M Jones; Hook, Peel; D Jones, M Rees, A Jones; Gough, AW Jones; J Thomas, M Williams, Popham
Bench: R Thomas, G Jenkins, W James, Charvis, Phillips, Sweeney, J Robinson

Tries G Thomas, AW Jones, M Jones Pens Hook 2 Conversions Hook 3 Cards M Rees (yellow 79)

Argentina: Serra san Isidro; Borges, Gaitan, F Contempomi, Corleto; Todeschini, Pichot; Roncero. Ledesma, Scelzo; IF Lobbe, Albacete; Leguizamon, JF Lobbe, Longo
Bench: Basualdo, Bonarino, Alvarez, Durand, Vergallo, M Contepomi, Aguila

Tries Corleto 2 Pens Todeschini 2 Conversions Todeschini 2 Cards Borges (yellow 28)

Munster boss Declan Kidney tips Llanelli Scarlets for the Heineken crown

First in the queue to congratulate and talk up Llanelli Scarlets was Munster fly half Ronan O'Gara, now Munster head coach Declan Kidney has stepped forward to tip Llanelli for the Heineken Cup title. "Llanelli have won seven out of seven in Europe this season. They have momentum and they are brimming with confidence," he said.

"They are a skilful side, and while there are still six other good teams left in the tournament, I wouldn't put them too far down the betting list. They have the ability to win it."

 

As the first side to qualify for the semi finals of the Heineken Cup, Llanelli can sit back and watch this weekend's action and see who they'll come up against in the penultimate round of games. Llanelli will play the winner of tomorrow's Leicester Tigers vs. Stade Francais game. Considering Llanelli have something of a dark history concerning Leicester in this competition, I'd expect fireworks if the East Midlands side can beat the Paris fancies on Sunday.

Llanelli Scarlets 24 Munster 15: Match Reports

Unfortunately, due to Virgin Media being not very good, we here at Scrumbag Towers are without the Heineken Cup quarter finals on the TV. Sob! So we can't live blog, do proper match reports or anything. Thanks, Virgin, thanks a bunch. As it is, we know thanks to a very slow live blog that Llanelli beat Munster last night, and here's where you can find match reports (from people clearly not with Virgin Media):

Scarlets Official Website
ERC Report
Planet Rugby Report
BBC Rugby Report

Scotland 17 Italy 37

For a few years now, Italy have been threatening to do something like this.  In previous seasons, they've gone close to winning outside Italy in the Six Nations, not least in last year's draw with Wales.  Now, it's happened.  Not only have they won on the road, but they absolutely battered Scotland with a 20-point margin of victory, scoring the winning points while the game was less than seven minutes old.  Loose back play from the Scots enabled Mauro Bergomasco to charge down a Phil Godman kick less than 20 seconds in, chasing his own block to get the away side on the scoreboard before the first pints of Tennents had gone flat and rancid.

Perhaps it was the early score that made Chris Cusiter lose his head, as he tried to force passes inside his own half.  First Kaine Robertson and then Andrea Scanavacca were the men to profit, and if anyone had been experiencing a particularly stubborn toilet break at the start of the match, they would have missed Italy scoring more points than they had in the entire tournament prior to today.  As Scottish errors piled up and Chris Paterson spurned opportunities to kick for the posts, a Rob Dewey try on 12 minutes attenuated the gap.  Scotland, though, were to fail to build on this, and as the game moved into the second half, Italian mistakes went unpunished and the Azurri grew in confidence.  Scanavacca, a particularly wayward goalkicker prior to today, added points whenever possible, and when, a few moments from the end, Alessandro Troncon wriggled over, it was Italy's day.  Well done to them, and they must be taken seriously from now on.

England Hammered By New Zealand: 20-41

Now, we have a slight problem with the match report for the England/New Zealand game. You see, I'm too mentally damaged to write one. What the hell is going on with England at the moment? And whilst there were some promising moments, in general, the game was a great advert for how good New Zealand are at the moment. Oh, and I missed the first half. Which doesn't help from the reporting front either (I didn't realise the game was on BBC!). So instead, here's a round up of some other websites reports:

BBC Rugby
Planet Rugby
Official RFU (official tends to mean boring and biased, mind)
Scrum.com

But really, if you saw the game, would you really want to re-live it online? I think I'm happier burying my head in the sand, thanks...

New Zealand 18 Great Britain 14

The GB Lions lost their first match in this year's Tri-Nations tournament, but will feel cheated after Danny McGuire was denied a try by a controversial refereeing decision.  After Brent Webb had given the home side the lead, McGuire crossed the line but had the ball punched out of his grasp by Webb.  From there, the Kiwis stepped it up and added two more tries, and late scores from Paul Wellens and Gareth Ellis were for naught.

The good news for GB is that Adrian Morley was cleared of two counts of foul play, having been put on report by match ref Paul Simpkins for an apparent high tackle on Ruben Wiki, and then having appeared to punch the controversial Webb.  An adjudication panel believed that Wiki had ducked into the tackle, while any contact with Webb was minimal.

Leicester 19 Munster 21

Munster moved into the box seat in Pool 5 by winning at Welford Road in a tense game which was slightly spoiled by driving rain.  The defending champions were thankful for the boot of Ronan O'Gara, which stroked over a penalty kick from halfway to snatch victory off the Tigers.  Former Munster fly-half Paul Burke, selected to start against his old club, missed two very kickable penalties and will not have done anything to convince Declan Kidney that he made a mistake in letting him go.

Two tries by Munster saw them lead 15-6 at the half-time mark.  The first opened the scoring after nine minutes in which the home side had had the edge.  Donncha O'Callaghan swept up a loose ball at around half-way and pinned his ears back.  In one of the slower foot-races I've seen, O'Callaghan beat opposite number Ben Kay to score an enthralling try.  A conversion from wide was missed by O'Gara, before Burke narrowed the gap with a simple penalty.

An opportunistic drop-goal by O'Gara reinstated the five-point margin, and then two penalty misses from Burke proved costly as, with the first half in injury time, a midfield move saw the ball passed from O'Gara to Kelly, Kelly to Halstead, and finally from Halstead to flanker David Wallace who touched down despite the close attention of Leo Cullen.  There was still time for the Irish side to give away a stupid penalty for crossing, converted by Burke, before going in at half-time.

The penalty was to be Burke's last action in the match.  Pat Howard had preferred the much-travelled Irishman to Andy Goode on account of the effect Burke has had on the Leicester back-line, allowing them to play a freer game.  However, the monsoon conditions, an integral part of autumn in the East Midlands, had begun to close in and it became clear that territory was going to be more important.  Goode's ability with the boot saw him come on for the second half, and along with a purposeful line-out gained Leicester a foot-hold in the game.  After penalties were swapped, Leicester got a scrum going within spitting range of the Munster line.  After it had been re-set three times, Munster again infringed and Nigel Owens awarded the penalty try.

When the ensuing restart went out on the full, it was written in the stars that Munster would again infringe on the opposition's put-in.  From distance, Goode banged it over to give Leicester their first lead.  With five minutes left on the clock, it threatened to be a decisive kick.  But that was to reckon without some idiotic backchat from a Leicester player when penalised ten yards inside Munster territory.  The ten-yard penalty brought the kick just inside O'Gara's scope, and he held his nerve to ensure a winning start to Munster's title defence.

Guinness Premiership Week 4: Friday Night's Games

The first fixtures from the fourth week of Guinness Premiership rugby went largely as expected, although both were tightly-contested affairs.  Sale continued their run of victories with a 34-26 victory over Saracens, with Charlie Hodgson's accurate kicking again playing an important part, the England fly-half landing five penalties and a pair of conversions to add to tries from Mark Cueto, Mark Taylor, and Mark Fernandez Lobbe (OK, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe.  Damn you and your details).  Though Brad Penney, Ben Johnston and Glen Jackson touched down for the away side, Jackson didn't quite match Hodgson with the boot, making only one conversion.  This, and a lack of discipline which saw two of Sarries' first-choice front row sharing the sin-bin while Cueto went over, were deciding factors.

In the night's other game, Newcastle hosted London Irish.  Again, accurate kicking proved crucial in this game, as Barry Everitt hit seven penalties for the Exiles.  Riki Flutey, possibly relieved to be off kicking duties, scored Irish's only try.  A late Mayerhofler try for Newcastle brought them to within two points, but Matt Burke missed his conversion, which left Irish still in the lead.  A final penalty from Everitt widened the gap, and the final score was 26-21 to last year's Premiership semi-finalists, who will be glad to have got last week's nightmare defeat at Bristol out of their system.