England racked by injury Six Nations
England 19 Wales 26
The 2008 Six Nations Rugby tournament got off to an intriguing start, as long as you are not an England supporter! Rugby World Cup 2007 finalists, England, were routed by Wales 26-19 in their first outing of the competition, probably one of the biggest upsets of the decade.
The performance by England was frighteningly reminiscent of their first round World Cup thrashing at the hands of the South African Springboks, but let’s face it Wales is not in the same league as the burly World Champions.
To add insult to injury, the English had to suffer the humiliating defeat on the hallowed home turf of Twickenham, but all is not lost, they did have moments of brilliance in the first half, and there is no reason why they cannot bounce back to the levels of excellence that we all witnessed in the final rounds of the World Cup.
England take on relative minnows, Italy at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome on Sunday 10 February, but it will not all be done and dusted until the final whistle blows - England has had to make four enforced changes to the team that take on Italy, and the latest casualty is loosehead prop, Andrew Sheridan - Wasps forward, Tim Payne is his replacement. Other changes due to injury are:
- Jamie Noon will replace Mike Tindall at centre
- Lesley Vainikolo will run on instead of David Strettle at wing
- Flankers Lewis Moody and Tom Rees will be replaced by Michael Lipman and Nick Easter respectively.
Ireland 16 Italy 11
In an uninspired performance Ireland managed to keep heart and soul together, and walked away with the narrowest of victories, not necessarily on the score board, but certainly on the field at Croke Park, Dublin.
Three changes have been made to the Irish team who meet France at the Stade de France on Saturday the 9th - Jamie Heaslip comes in for Simon Easterby, the injured Gordon D’Arcy will be replaced by Andrew Trimble and Bernard Jackman will start in place of Rory Best.
Scotland 6 France 27
Scotland had a dismal outing against defending champions, France at the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff in the opening round of the Six Nations. Coach, Frank Hadden has admitted that he may have been remiss to have rested some of his key players for a bit too long. Eight of the star players had not had any match practice for three weeks, and it showed.
Scotland will take on Wales in Cardiff with only two changes – full back Chris Patterson replaces the injured Rory Lamont and Kelly Brown will run out instead of Dave Callam.
