Round 2 of the Six Nations Championship will be played this weekend. Our Superbru Predictor of the Week EEE, leads the pack on 6.5 points. Get your predictions in before the cut off on Saturday 12 February, game starts at 16:30 SA time.
History stacked in England’s favour
England will look to extend their unbeaten run against Italy when the two sides meet at Twickenham on Saturday.
There have been 16 Test matches involving the nations since 1991 with the Azzurri yet to taste success. Indeed, England are the only team among those competing in the Championship that Italy have never beaten.
Italy came close to ending that run in Rome last year where England laboured to a 17-12 victory – Italy’s second best result in the history of the fixture. Italy’s last visit to Twickenham will be remembered for flanker Mauro Bergamasco’s disastrous spell at scrum-half, which gifted England their 36-11 Twickenham victory.
England’s 80-23 triumph at Twickenham during the 2001 Six Nations is the highest score and biggest winning margin of the series. The result also stands as the record score for any International Championship match.
Italy’s 23 points that day is their highest score against England, though their best result was the four-point (19-23) defeat in Rome in 2008.
England’s 10 tries at Twickenham in 2001 is the most by a team in a match in this series. The best Italian try return is three at Twickenham in 1996.
Jonny Wilkinson set the mark for the highest individual score in a match. He gathered 35 points at Twickenham in 2001 to set the current individual record for most points by a player in any International Championship match. Diego Dominguez scored 15 points for Italy at Huddersfield in 1998.
Austin Healey scored the first of the three try hat-tricks by England in the matches, crossing in Rome in 2000. Jason Robinson repeated the feat in Rome in 2004 and Mark Cueto at Twickenham in 2005. No Italian player to date has scored two tries in a match.
Jonny Wilkinson heads the list of overall scorers in the series with 142 in eight appearances. Diego Dominguez, who played seven times against England, holds the corresponding record for Italy with 51.
Austin Healey is the leading overall try scorer with six. Three Italian players have collected two tries in the series.
England-Italy results in the Six Nations:
2000 Italy 12-59 England (Rome)
2001 England 80-23 Italy (Twickenham)
2002 Italy 9-45 England (Rome)
2003 England 40-5 Italy (Twickenham)
2004 italy 9-50 England (Rome)
2005 England 39-7 Italy (Twickenham)
2006 Italy 16-31 England (Rome)
2007 England 20-7 Italy (Twickenham)
2008 Italy 19-23 England (Rome)
2009 England 36-11 Italy (Twickenham)
2010 Italy 12-19 England (Rome)
In 1986, a full-strength England XV were held to a 15-15 draw in Rome in a match that only Italy recognised as a cap match.
The Azzurri also gave caps for three matches against England under-23 sides between 1975 and 1982, and for the match in 1985 against England B. The results of these games were as follows: 1975 England u-23 29-13 (Gosforth); 1979 Drawn 6-6 (Brescia); 1982 Italy 12-7 (Padua); 1985 England B 21-9 (Twickenham).
Neither the RFU nor the FIR awarded caps for the Italy XV – England XV game in Rovigo in 1990, even though the teams fielded were of Test standard. The English won 33-15.
Scotland eye return to winning ways
This weekend’s meeting between Wales and Scotland at Murrayfield is the 116th cap match between the sides since 1883.
Wales lead by 64 wins to 48 and the matches of 1885(at Glasgow), 1922 (at Inverleith in Edinburgh) and2001 (at Murrayfield) were drawn. Wales have won seven of the last eight matches, including a World Cup warm-up game at Cardiff in 2003 and last year’s thrilling meeting at the Millennium Stadium.
Although Scotland won by four goals and eight tries to nil in 1887, that result was before scoring by points was introduced. Their 35-10 result at Inverleith in1924 is the biggest win and their highest score of the series.
Wales set the record for the highest score in their best win of the series at Murrayfield in the 2005 Grand Slam season. They won 46-22.
Neil Jenkins made the highest individual contribution to a match in the series, collecting 23 points at Murrayfield in 2001. Chris Paterson scored 21 (all penalties) for Scotland at Murrayfield in 2007.
The only player who has finished a match in this series with a full house of scoring actions to his name is Craig Chalmers. He scored a try, conversion, penalty goal and dropped goal for Scotland at Murrayfield in 1991.
George Lindsay’s five tries for Scotland in the 1887 match is a tally that still stands as the record for any game in the International Championship. Reggie Gibbsrecorded the only try hat-trick for Wales, at Inverleith in 1911.
Ian Smith scored most tries in the rubber: eight for Scotland in eight matches between 1924 and 1933. For Wales, Willie Llewellyn crossed seven times in only six matches between 1899 and 1905.
Chris Paterson heads the overall scorers in the matches. He has collected 101 points to date. Stephen Jonesis the leading overall scorer for Wales with 111 points.
Billy Trew (in the early 1900s) and JPR Williams (from 1969 to 1981) each played in a dozen matches for Wales, the series record. The corresponding record for Scotland is shared between Jim Renwick and Scott Hastings, who each played 12 times.
Wales-Scotland results in the Six Nations:
2000 Wales 26-18 Scotland (Cardiff)
2001 Scotland 28-28 Wales (Murrayfield)
2002 Wales 22-27 Scotland (Cardiff)
2003 Scotland 30-22 Wales (Murrayfield)
2004 Wales 23-10 Scotland (Cardiff)
2005 Scotland 22-46 Wales (Murrayfield)
2006 Wales 28-18 Scotland (Cardiff)
2007 Scotland 21-9 Wales (Murrayfield)
2008 Wales 30-15 Scotland (Cardiff)
2009 Scotland 13-26 Wales (Murrayfield)
2010 Wales 31-24 Scotland (Cardiff)
France look to break new ground
Ireland and France are set to meet in a major Test for the 87th time since 1909 when they go head-to-head at the new Lansdowne Road in Sunday.
The game will be the 35th meeting of the two sides at Irish rugby’s traditional home – where France have won 17 times but it will their first experience of the re-vamped stadium.
France lead the overall series by 52 wins to 29 thanks to their 33-10 victory in Paris last year with the last of the five drawn matches taking place in 1985. France have won eight of their nine most recent encounters, including the Rugby World Cup matches of 2003 (in Melbourne) and 2007 (Paris) but lost on their last visit to Dublin in 2009.
France hold the record for the highest score of the series. They won 45-10 in Paris in 1996. The record winning margin, also held by France, was set in their 44-5 Paris victory in 2002.
Ireland’s highest score came in their 31-43 defeat at the Stade de France in 2006 – an extraordinary game in which the Irish trailed 43-3 early in the second half before scoring 28 late points without reply. Ireland’s best win was in the early years of the fixture – 24-0 in Cork in 1913.
Thierry Lacroix, with 26 points for France at Durban in the 1995 Rugby World Cup quarter-final involving the countries, holds the record for most points scored in a match.
There have been five try hat-tricks in the series, two by Ireland and three by France. Joe Quinn scored three tries for Ireland in 1913 and Brian O’Driscoll did so in 2000. France’s first hat-trick was scored by their left-wing Christian Darrouy in Dublin in 1963, David Venditti repeated the feat in Dublin in 1997 and Vincent Clerc did so in Paris in 2008.
Darrouy heads the list of try scorers for the overall series, crossing eight times. O’Driscoll is the leading Irish try scorer with eight to date.
Irishmen hold the other major records for the matches: Ronan O’Gara has scored 109 overall points (compared with 50 for France by Didier Camberabero), and Willie-John McBride and Fergus Slattery each played 15 times in this fixture. Philippe Sella appeared 13 times for France.
Note: During the popular series of “Victory” internationals in 1946, France beat an Irish XV 4-3 in Dublin. Only France count that match as part of their Test record.
Ireland-France results in the Six Nations:
2000 France 25-27 Ireland (Paris)
2001 Ireland 22-15 France (Dublin)
2002 France 44-5 Ireland (Paris)
2003 Ireland 15-12 France (Dublin)
2004 France 35-17 Ireland (Paris)
2005 Ireland 19-26 France (Dublin)
2006 France 43-31 Ireland (Paris)
2007 Ireland 17-20 France (Dublin)
2008 France 26-21 Ireland (Paris)
2009 Ireland 30-21 France (Dublin)
2010 France 33-10 Ireland (Paris)