A second-half Danny Care try helped England to a 13-10 victory over Ireland in a thrilling encounter at Twickenham Saturday to keep their Six Nations rugby championship hopes very much alive.
Duncan Weir was the hero for Scotland in the day’s other match as his last-gasp drop goal gave his side their first victory of the campaign, 21-20 against Italy in Rome.
England should have had a try as early as the sixth minute but Jonny May had the ball ripped from his hands by Conor Murray when poised to score. However the home side still went in ahead at the break thanks to an Owen Farrell penalty.
Ireland came out the stronger and Rob Kearney cut through the English defence two minutes after the restart to score the first try of the game with Jonny Sexton slotting over the resultant conversion to move the visitors 7-3 in front.
The sides exchanged penalties in a bruising encounter before a Mike Brown line-break eventually set up Care to score under the posts.
Farrell kicked the conversion to put England 13-10 ahead although Ireland exerted significant pressure in the final ten minutes, England remained firm to seal the win.
The result leaves England, France, Wales and Ireland all tied on four points at the top of the Six Nations table although Ireland have a considerable points-difference advantage of +42, compared to +21 for England, +6 for Wales and +1 for France. Defending champions Wales trounced France 27-6 in the Friday night game.
Earlier Saturday, Scotland prevailed in the probable Wooden Spoon encounter against Italy thanks to Weir’s late heroics.
Italy led 13-3 at the break thanks to a Tommaso Allan try just before the half-time whistle, with the Italian fly-half also converting and kicking two earlier penalties.
Scotland’s only points of the first period came from the boot of Greig Laidlaw, who reduced the deficit further with another penalty before Alex Dunbar powered over in the right corner on 54 minutes for Scotland’s first try of the tournament.
Laidlaw missed the chance to level the scores when his conversion attempt drifted wide but Scotland moved in front for the first time with another Dunbar try on 67 minutes, which Weir successfully converted.
The lead lasted just two minutes, however, as Joshua Furno crossed over in the corner for his first try for Italy, with replacement Luciano Orquera slotting over the conversion to open up a 20-18 lead.
However, Weir broke the home side’s hearts with his drop goal effort to secure the narrowest of wins.
