Post by leonardo on Feb 3, 2008 9:42:54 GMT
Wales came from behind to defeat their old enemy in a most thrilling game yesterday.
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Wales wins at Twickenham to derail England's Six Nations hopes
14 hours ago
LONDON - Wales derailed England's hopes of winning the Six Nations on Saturday with a 26-19 win at Twickenham in the teams' opening match.
While Ireland survived a poor performance to beat Italy 16-11 at Croke Park, England let slip a 16-3 first-half lead as Wales rallied to its first win at Twickenham for 20 years.
England had showed glimpses of the attacking style that coach Brian Ashton has his team striving for, but second-half tries by Lee Byrne and Mike Phillips spurred Wales to a comeback led by James Hook's 16 points.
Man-of-the-match Hook landed two conversions and four penalties, as well as setting up Byrne's score with a quick sidestep, to put in doubt England's chances of winning the tournament after just one match.
England has just one more home match left, and has to travel to tournament favourite France, improving Scotland and Italy.
England's game next week is at Italy, which unsettled Ireland with its fierce forward power, and it will be hampered by injuries to David Strettle, Lewis Moody, Tom Rees and Mike Tindall, who all had to leave Saturday's game, the latter on a stretcher.
But Wales, under coach Warren Gatland, can contemplate the possibility of a first title since its 2005 Grand Slam.
"I can't put it into words," Wales captain Ryan Jones said. "It's the most fantastic day of my career. We knew we were good enough, it was just down to putting all the things we're good at into practice."
England had looked set to dominate Wales, which continually lost ball in the turnover and seemed to be tiring as it trailed 16-6 at halftime.
Strettle's early injury with the scores at 3-3 hadn't seemed to hurt England, since it led to a debut for Lesley Vainikolo. The Tongan-born wing, who has played 12 times for New Zealand's rugby league team, was instrumental in setting up his new team's opening try in the 22nd.
Vainikolo leapt high over Mark Jones on the left wing to grab Jonny Wilkinson's cross-field kick from the air and, although he stumbled over Jones when he landed, the big wing slipped an inside pass to centre Toby Flood, who touched down.
Wilkinson converted and, after Hook got three points back to make it 16-6, the game seemed to hinge on a disallowed try for Paul Sackey.
The England wing was hauled down short of the line and rolled over the tacklers to get there, but replays could not prove conclusively that he had grounded the ball, and Wales withstood pressure to get to halftime.
Moody's replacement, Rees, had to go off injured at halftime and could only be replaced by lock Ben Kay. Although Wilkinson kicked another penalty to stretch the lead, England looked increasingly disjointed and Wales, seemingly encouraged by the fact that it had not conceded further tries, started to encroach into home territory.
Hook kicked to make it 19-9 and a dropped ball from Andy Gomarsall then put England in trouble and led to a penalty that Hook converted.
England centre Tindall, England's steadiest back, was carried off to be replaced by the attacking Danny Cipriani and Wales made the most of the weakness with two tries in two minutes.
Hook set up the first for Byrne on the left and Phillips added the second in the same corner after charging down an attempted clearance by fullback Iain Balshaw.
Hook converted both to send Wales seven points clear for the last 11 minutes, most of which Wales spent inside England's 22.
But Wales won't be celebrating too hard, with a match against Scotland seven days away.
"We've got a big game next week, so it's home early and up in the morning," Jones said.
While England is in deep trouble already, Ireland's performance in Dublin suggested that it will struggle to win the northern hemisphere's top tournament for the first time since it was expanded to six teams in 2000.
Ronan O'Gara and halfback partner Eoin Reddan, who was picked ahead of the established Peter Stringer, directed play comfortably, but Ireland still struggled to rebound from its disappointing first-round exit at last year's World Cup.
Girvan Dempsey scored a first-half try and O'Gara kicked 11 points, but Ireland made mistakes throughout with passes going astray, the ball being knocked on and simple opportunities spurned.
Italy captain Sergio Parisse drove over for a try midway through the second half.
And Ireland is set to be without Gordan D'Arcy for next week's trip to France, after the centre had to be replaced by Robert Kearney with a stress fracture of the right arm.
"We lacked a bit of accuracy and had we taken a couple of those chances it would have made our job easier," Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan said. "It was a performance that turned ugly as it often has in the past against Italy and we had to dig out an ugly win.
"It wasn't the display I wanted because it wasn't polished but it's the first day of the championship and it can happen that way."
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Source
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Wales wins at Twickenham to derail England's Six Nations hopes
14 hours ago
LONDON - Wales derailed England's hopes of winning the Six Nations on Saturday with a 26-19 win at Twickenham in the teams' opening match.
While Ireland survived a poor performance to beat Italy 16-11 at Croke Park, England let slip a 16-3 first-half lead as Wales rallied to its first win at Twickenham for 20 years.
England had showed glimpses of the attacking style that coach Brian Ashton has his team striving for, but second-half tries by Lee Byrne and Mike Phillips spurred Wales to a comeback led by James Hook's 16 points.
Man-of-the-match Hook landed two conversions and four penalties, as well as setting up Byrne's score with a quick sidestep, to put in doubt England's chances of winning the tournament after just one match.
England has just one more home match left, and has to travel to tournament favourite France, improving Scotland and Italy.
England's game next week is at Italy, which unsettled Ireland with its fierce forward power, and it will be hampered by injuries to David Strettle, Lewis Moody, Tom Rees and Mike Tindall, who all had to leave Saturday's game, the latter on a stretcher.
But Wales, under coach Warren Gatland, can contemplate the possibility of a first title since its 2005 Grand Slam.
"I can't put it into words," Wales captain Ryan Jones said. "It's the most fantastic day of my career. We knew we were good enough, it was just down to putting all the things we're good at into practice."
England had looked set to dominate Wales, which continually lost ball in the turnover and seemed to be tiring as it trailed 16-6 at halftime.
Strettle's early injury with the scores at 3-3 hadn't seemed to hurt England, since it led to a debut for Lesley Vainikolo. The Tongan-born wing, who has played 12 times for New Zealand's rugby league team, was instrumental in setting up his new team's opening try in the 22nd.
Vainikolo leapt high over Mark Jones on the left wing to grab Jonny Wilkinson's cross-field kick from the air and, although he stumbled over Jones when he landed, the big wing slipped an inside pass to centre Toby Flood, who touched down.
Wilkinson converted and, after Hook got three points back to make it 16-6, the game seemed to hinge on a disallowed try for Paul Sackey.
The England wing was hauled down short of the line and rolled over the tacklers to get there, but replays could not prove conclusively that he had grounded the ball, and Wales withstood pressure to get to halftime.
Moody's replacement, Rees, had to go off injured at halftime and could only be replaced by lock Ben Kay. Although Wilkinson kicked another penalty to stretch the lead, England looked increasingly disjointed and Wales, seemingly encouraged by the fact that it had not conceded further tries, started to encroach into home territory.
Hook kicked to make it 19-9 and a dropped ball from Andy Gomarsall then put England in trouble and led to a penalty that Hook converted.
England centre Tindall, England's steadiest back, was carried off to be replaced by the attacking Danny Cipriani and Wales made the most of the weakness with two tries in two minutes.
Hook set up the first for Byrne on the left and Phillips added the second in the same corner after charging down an attempted clearance by fullback Iain Balshaw.
Hook converted both to send Wales seven points clear for the last 11 minutes, most of which Wales spent inside England's 22.
But Wales won't be celebrating too hard, with a match against Scotland seven days away.
"We've got a big game next week, so it's home early and up in the morning," Jones said.
While England is in deep trouble already, Ireland's performance in Dublin suggested that it will struggle to win the northern hemisphere's top tournament for the first time since it was expanded to six teams in 2000.
Ronan O'Gara and halfback partner Eoin Reddan, who was picked ahead of the established Peter Stringer, directed play comfortably, but Ireland still struggled to rebound from its disappointing first-round exit at last year's World Cup.
Girvan Dempsey scored a first-half try and O'Gara kicked 11 points, but Ireland made mistakes throughout with passes going astray, the ball being knocked on and simple opportunities spurned.
Italy captain Sergio Parisse drove over for a try midway through the second half.
And Ireland is set to be without Gordan D'Arcy for next week's trip to France, after the centre had to be replaced by Robert Kearney with a stress fracture of the right arm.
"We lacked a bit of accuracy and had we taken a couple of those chances it would have made our job easier," Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan said. "It was a performance that turned ugly as it often has in the past against Italy and we had to dig out an ugly win.
"It wasn't the display I wanted because it wasn't polished but it's the first day of the championship and it can happen that way."
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Source