England remain on course for a Six Nations Grand Slam after a nervous 25-21 defeat of Wales yesterday while Ireland ran in nine tries in a 58-15 rout of Italy to register their first win in this season’s championship.
England led 16-0 at the break at Twickenham thanks to a converted Anthony Watson try and three penalties from Owen Farrell. A Dan Biggar try for Wales reduced the deficit before two further Farrell penalties looked to have secured a comfortable win.
However, late tries by George North and Taulupe Faletau set up a nail-biting finish but England held on grimly for the win.
The fourth successive victory for England under new coach Eddie Jones now sets up a Grand Slam and probable championship decider against France at the Stade de France next Saturday. But first France need to defeat Scotland at Murrayfield today to keep their slim title hopes alive.
“It was pretty tough, especially the last 20 minutes. Thank God we managed to see it through,” man of the match Maro Itoje told ITV.
“We talked through the different scenarios in the week and luckily we had enough time to see it through.”
England’s early dominance against Warren Gatland’s side was rewarded by three Farrell penalties while Dan Cole came close to scoring a try on 14 minutes but he was deemed to have been held up on the line.
However, an Itoje break eventually led to Watson touching down in the corner after 32 minutes for the game’s first try.
Farrell moved England further in front with another penalty four minutes after the restart before Wales finally sprang to life, laying siege to the English line with a number of scrum penalties.
The English defence held firm but just as the danger seemed to have passed, George Ford’s clearance kick was charged down by Biggar, who touched down under the posts.
Biggar slotted over the resultant conversion to move Wales within 12 points and although the visitors continued to pressure the English defence, the home side weathered the initial storm.
England slowly reasserted control of the game and were rewarded on the scoreboard by two further penalties from Farrell but were forced to play the last 10 minutes with 14 men when Cole was sent to the sin-bin. North touched down with six minutes remaining for what seemed a consolation score but when Faletau breached the English line again a minute later, the hosts found themselves hanging on for the win.
Earlier, Jamie Heaslip scored a try in each half as Ireland demolished Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Ireland’s other tries came from Andrew Trimble, Jack McGrath, Jared Payne, CJ Stander, Sean Cronin, Ian Madigan and Fergus McFadden.
David Odiete and Leonardo Sarto scored tries for Italy in the second half. In a dominant display, Ireland opened the scoring after just seven minutes when Sarto tapped the ball back past Odiete and into the path of Payne who offloaded for Trimble to score in the corner.
McGrath burrowed over for the home side’s second try after 15 minutes before Stander powered his way over the Italian line on the half-hour mark to move Ireland further ahead.
The try of the match came a minute before the break from Heaslip. He finished off a slick Irish passing move that started in their own 22-metre area following an initial line break by Simon Zebo to send Joe Schmidt’s side into half-time leading 25-3.
Any slim chances of an Italian comeback ended four minutes after the restart when Payne intercepted Edoardo Padovani’s long pass to touch down beneath the posts.
Further quick tries from Heaslip and replacement hooker Cronin extended Ireland’s lead before Odiete finally breached the Irish line.
Continued Irish pressure saw replacement Madigan touch down with Sarto then scoring Italy’s second try before McFadden completed the rout with Ireland’s ninth try two minutes from time.