Baptiste Serin has scored what could be try of the Six Nations against Italy after coming on to replace Anthoine Dupont.
The game was all but over at the time, but he did come on and expose the Italians and will enjoy taking this try, his first since the Rugby World Cup against the USA.
The final game of the Six Nations sees France take another win to lead the table and are now joint top with Ireland following a bonus-point victory over Italy.
Italy had a good initial start, but France started the scoring with a try from Teddy Thomas after a delicate kick through from Romain Ntamack.
Italy did have their own periods of pressure and did perform a lot better than last week. Frustratingly they have the ability to cause teams issues, more than a lot of other 2nd tier teams. But, will they ever discover the ability to consistently see out a game.
France should be disappointed with the performance as an 80-minute performance from what they managed last week. They do have weaknesses mentally, but can the new team keep them going into the tricky 3rd game as the pressure starts to mount of the favourites tag now with them.
With the French going away to Wales in the next game it will prove a stern test for this team that’s for sure, with 16:45 KO on a Saturday night in Cardiff is a world away from Paris.
England has taken a narrow victory in a game which mother nature dominated at Murrayfield in the Calcutta Cup, claiming back the victory for the first time in 3 years.
The game finally ended 3-10 to England with the away side finally crossing the line through Ellis Genge, the Tigers prop coming on to make the difference in this tight affair.
With such difficult weather conditions, this was never going to come close to the thriller at Twickenham in 2019 which will be talked about for years to come. This match, though different certainly had plenty of niggle in it for the players.
In the first half England showed skills in the conditions to force the Scotland errors, and if it wasn’t for kicking conditions being so appaling England would have gone in to the sheds at half time with a health lead, but not even Farrell could bring the ball under his control from the tee. With players having to hold it still for him to even have an attempt at goal, he managed to slot 1 penalty giving them just a 3 point advantage at the break.
In the second half, Scotland did make some inroads into the England defence, with Adam Hastings bringing the game level at 3-3 during this dominance.
The decisive moment came from a clearing kick from Farrell that left captain Stuart Hogg managing as the ball went back toward his try line. With the England chase bearing down on him he had to hurry the grounding of the ball on between the posts just on the try line. But as he dived on the ball it popped out leaving England to dot the ball down next to the floundering Hogg. Review from TMO showed he got the pressure down on the ball, but it was enough to finish the game off for the Scots. With the TMO judging Hogg to have carried the ball over his try line in his rush to get it grounded, England was given a 5m scrum which ended up with Genge taking a try to seal the win for the visitors.
With Scotland chasing the game Farrell slotted another penalty to confirm victory minutes later and Eddie Jones and his squad are back on track and Scotland continue their losing run and have returned the Calcutta Cup back to England.
We won’t know if England have really improved from the French game until conditions improve, but their battle and heart was there today and energy levels looked better.
Scotland can’t put the demons of the Ireland match to bed and will be left wondering how they can stop from turning into another dismal Six Nations campaign.
Genge is turning into a rugby star to rival his front row team mate Joe Marler these days.
The Six Nations is upon us next week, let’s have a look at the most important article of clothing in the supporter’s arsenal, the jersey.
For me, getting on the England shirt and getting to the pubs around Twickenham or at the local is a great time of year and i cannot wait for it to get started.
Below are the links to get yourself sorted for those upcoming matches, so get kitted out whilst this great competition is still about because it may not be forever.
Loads of options here for the England Fan, whether you want the classic or the replica jersey.
England shirts are currently produced by Canterbury who are a great name in the world of rugby and throughout sports. These jerseys are solidly made and will server the supported well.
There are even more ranges available to choose from if you want to mix it up over the 5 game tournament, including hoodies for the winter climate you may be in if you’re lucky enough to be heading to the stadium to watch the game.
The French rugby shirt made by Le Coq Sportif may be the shirt to see Les Bleus finally put their stamp on the Six Nations after such a long time as an also-ran team. But can they keep it together and not fall apart like previous campaigns.
You’ve asked for it, so here it is. Our review for the best rugby kicking boots in our opinion.
For us, though others would argue otherwise, it has to be the Adidas Predator Malice Control for the best rugby kicking boots around. This comes as no surprise when you start looking around the professional game and see so many of the players wearing the latest Predator boots. The likes of George Ford who steered England around the park with his kicking during the World Cup favours the Predator.
The thought and design process that goes into these boots has been ongoing now since the ’90s, no stone is unturned and a lot of R&D goes into these boots they are hard to beat when it comes to the best rugby kicking boots.
The Predator Malice Control Rugby Boot is crafted with a synthetic forefoot for a super comfortable and tailored fit, along with rubber razors that help to enhance the power and kicking accuracy that you need on the ball.
They have a new sole plate designed from lightweight nylon, with a mixed stud pattern that gives both stability and speed on soft ground pitches.
There are many iterations of the Predator malice boot, the more expensive the better quality you are going to get, but places like Lovell Rugby that we choose when buying are stuff have plenty of options and prices, with normally an offer or two.
If you want alternatives for boots then check out what else Lovell have to offer, the Nike Tiempo range would the our next choice to go for without a doubt.
Let’s just clear one thing up though, kicking is down to technique, if you can’t do it, the boots aren’t going to do it for you. There is sadly only one way to get better, that is practice. If it was easy, we’d all be doing it.
Wasps continued with another victory in the premiership after defeating Harlequins in the last round. They have now helped themselves to another 5 points away at Bristol at a packed Ashton Gate.
Result – Northampton Saints 33-26 Gloucester Rugby
HT 13-7
In a thriller at Franklin’s Gardens it was the home team who take the spoils. Gloucester defeated against Saints despite a hat-trick for Louis-Rees Zammit.
The Gloucester man takes his tally to 5 in 2 games, but it wasn’t enough for Gloucester, with the penalty count at 13 against just 5 for Northampton costing them in the scoreline come full time.
Finishing the game, the Saints now sit at top spot in the league on Saturday evening, with their main rivals Exeter Chiefs set to play on Sunday.
Northampton Saints’ Cobus Reinach said: “December was a tricky old month but any win is a good win, so we’ll take it. It’s a good Christmas present to everyone here.
“We know as a team that we need to control territory and possession. We’ve been lacking that a bit over the last few weeks. Going out there, we knew it was about not leaving anything out on the field.
“We just want to build game by game and win every match. We’re focusing on the little processes in our team every week.”
Gloucester boss Johan Ackermann said: “We didn’t deserve more from the game because of the way we played in the first half.
“We made mistakes in that first half but we were much better in the second.
“We closed the gap but we made silly errors and in hindsight we’ll probably take the two points.
“If we’d played like we did last week from the first minute we could have come away with more.”
Result – Bath Rugby 16 – 14 Sale Sharks
HT – 6-0
Bath continue to build their season with a result against a top 4 contender in Sale Sharks.
The home side have made it back-to-back wins for the first time this season as they start to build, all this led by fly-half Rhys Priestland who gave the crowd a masterclass at the Rec to sign off 2019 giving hope to the Bath faithful as they head into 2020.
Jonathan Joseph scored the only try of the game for the Somerset team, with Priestland kicking the further 11 points
One other note from this game was the return of Taulupe Faletau after an 11 month absence. What a player to get back, we’re all fingers crossed he can get back to fitness for Bath, a class player.
Result – Exeter 14-7 Saracens
Exeter put a stranglehold on Saracens for much of this match and showed what a force they can be against
Wasps are once again on the end of a win as they snatch victory at Bristol on a Friday evening post Christmas.
In front of a bumper 23,078 crowd again at Ashton Gate, the second half was in stark contrast to the first half, with six tries coming in a frenzied second 40 that saw Wasps come out on top.
Nizaam Carr’s stunning try in the last minute followed on from Jacob Umaga, Malakai Fekitoa and Matteo Minozzi all going over for the away team.
Although Wasps remain 10th in the table, they are now 7 points clear of 11th placed Leicester Tigers.
Following the loss, Bristol Bears remain in 3rd with 18 points, 2 points less than front runners Exeter Chiefs with the rest of the fixtures still to come this weekend.
Bears head coach Pat Lam had this to say to BBC Radio Bristol following the game.
Extremely disappointed – obviously, like all Bristol fans will be, because let’s be fair we didn’t play that well, especially in the first half.
“We turned over too much ball, we gave away silly penalties – all the things we didn’t want to do – because we did not have enough respect for the ball to control it when it’s slippery out there.
“With two minutes to go, we put ourselves in with a chance to win. To allow them to break out was unacceptable.”
You can check back to find the links to the highlights when they are released.
David Flatman and Tom Shanklin have a catch up with each other and give their opinions on the weeks rugby.
These two are great mates and know the game well. You get an insight into the media side of things with some great banter and stories.
Yes it might be a complete ramble at times, but it’s great rugby chat that keeps you entertained on the commute.
You can find Flats and Shanks podcast available to download on the link below and probably any other place you can download a podcast.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1151928348
Andy Goode and Jim Hamilton are always good value, probably the most rugby banter you can get in a podcast.
The guys have plenty of guests on throughout the year, with a few frequent visitors such as Harlequins Joe Marler and Ulsters Darren Cave.
James Haskell and Mike Tindall invariably turn up to run a podcast and YouTube show with host Alex Payne to attempt to talk about rugby.
Rugby doesn’t always take centre stage in this show, with Alex Payne trying to control the narrative as Hask fires off on tangents at frequent intervals.
Another good pod for rugby banter if you can get on board with James and Mike Tindall. The pod regularly features different guests with people such as Ben Ryan regularly joining to put a different spin on things, they also do a lot to bring focus on to the womens game with some of the special episodes they’ve released in the last year.
Great episodes include some of Joe Marler’s visits who get on Alex Paynes last nerve almost immediately.
Initially developed with Chris Jones and Ugo Monye, the cast of this successful podcast now regularly features current players Chris Asthon and Danny Care as part of the team.
I would say the tone has changed with more people involved now, it was a very serious POD with just Chris Jones and Ugo Monye on the show, but Danny Care and Chris Ashton bring a more relaxed atmosphere.
You should be able to get hold of these Podcasts from wherever you download your podcasts. Link below for the iTunes podcasts.
Here are the current England rugby shirts for ladies available to buy. This is their standard home kit, as opposed to England World Cup kit which was released earlier this year. The England official kit supplier is Canterbury, and there CCC logo is synonymous with rugby around the world. O2 are the current England official sponsor on the shirts, not a lot we can do about that if you’ve had a bad mobile phone experience. But if you’ve ever been to Twickenham before they throw a good party in their bar.
We choose Lovell Rugby as our supplier of choice. It’s always worth checking out their site as they normally have some great deals on. As i’m editing this page they have reduced the shirt below from £70 to £52 and throwing in a free T-shirt.
This shirt is 100% Polyester and is a straight supporter’s fit. The VapoDri technology reacts to changing body temperatures too so it will keep you cool and dry.
The shirt has the iconic red rose embroidered on the left and the CCC logo of Canterbury on the right.
This classic shirt is also available to give that iconic look before Polyester shirts took over the rugby world.
This is a hardwearing shirt that will last years, but has a soft feel fabric to keep you comfortable, whether you’re in Twickenham or at home.
Places like Lovell Rugby offer a great range of kit for all competitions around the World.
All the kits from Gallagher Premiership teams and accessories are available to buy for your rugby-mad loved ones. We love shopping with Lovell Rugby, who at the minute have a free postage offer for orders over £75.
There are some great buys out this year for the rugby fan, in no small part to the World Cup coming round and a changing of the guard in several major roles has clearly meant some book deals are flying round.
An unusual story here, Eddie Jones who is still in the England job has released a book going over the eventual defeat in Tokyo against South Africa, he even details his thoughts over the choices he believes he should have made in the World Cup Final.
Eddie is a headline act either way so this is sure to make a good read.
Sam Warburton is a star of the modern game, but ongoing injury issues has forced him into an early retirement. Which now means for us he can lift the lid on stories from his illustrious, if not shorter career than some. A good read for those fascinated with the ways of the modern game of rugby and it’s inner workings. Sam also gives great leadership advice in book.
Tackling is a big part of the sport, and getting the practice in for technique is crucial. This could be a big win for those kids who just love the sport.
