Six Nations stunner as Scotland fry France & Italy shock England

The romance of the Six Nations reached a peak in Rome when Italy beat England for the first time & in Edinburgh Scotland fried France’s Grand Slam.

What joy for the Italians, the biggest movers in world rugby in the past three seasons.

They won 23-18, having led 10-5 in the 39th minute, then trailed 18-10, only to find something out of the ordinary in 23 year-old midfielder Tommaso Menoncello who scored a spectacular try and made an equally imposing break as the try-assist for the winner in the 73rd minute.

England had beaten Italy 32 times in succession, gone past 50 on nine occasions and blanked the Italians twice in the past 35 years, but in Rome history was there to be written, given England’s Six Nations slump, and Italy duly rewrote history.

It was glorious for the Italians and equally mesmerising for the rugby neutral. This was a win that has been building for a bit. Italy, this season, won against Scotland in Rome, were in touching distance of toppling Ireland in Dublin and trailed France 19-11 with 10 minutes to go in Lille.

France, in scoring three late tries, won more comfortably than the first 70 minutes played out, and Italy took those painful lessons and applied them in Rome. They played until the 81st minute, refusing to cave to expectation or implode in what is among their biggest wins in history.

Italy have won against the Springboks once and Australia a couple of times. They have beaten France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but never England and the All Blacks. Now that list is down to just the All Blacks.

England, in the last month, have gone from a team unbeaten in 12 matches, to one shell-shocked with three successive defeats, hammerings to Scotland (away) and Ireland (home).

Now this result in Rome and France in Paris still to come next weekend.

Their next Test is on the 4th July against the world champion Springboks in Pretoria.

A month ago the English were pleading to play the Boks the next weekend. The ‘Bring on the Boks’ chorus is now on mute.

Scotland, beaten in the opening round in Rome, responded with a comprehensive home win against England before a late seven pointer in the 75th minute downed Wales in Cardiff.

On Saturday, at Murrayfield, Scotland were irresistible in scoring 40 unanswered points in as many minutes in the last 20 of the first half and the first 20 of the second half to turn a 14-7 deficit into a 47-14 lead. France scored two tries in the back end to bring it back to 47-26 with less than 10 minutes to go. Finn Russell kicked a penalty to bring up the 50 and in a bizarre finish to the Test, France scored two more tries in the last three minutes to force a scoreline of 50-40, which was everything but how the match had played out for 65 minutes.

Scotland travel to Dublin in next weekend’s final round with the hopes of winning the title, should France stumble at home to England.

Ireland can also win the title if they beat Scotland and France lose to England.

SIX NATIONS: EVERY MATCH REPORT, PLAYER STAT AND TEAM STAT FROM ROUND 4

*Ireland, on Friday night needed a late try to beat Wales 27-17 in Dublin in what was the round of the tournament.

SIX NATIONS: ROUND 3 REMINDER

SPRINGBOKS LEAD LATEST WORLD RANKINGS AND ENGLAND DROP TO 6th 

1 South Africa 93.94

2 New Zealand 90.33

3 Ireland 88.89

4 France 87.03 (-1.37)

5 Argentina 84.97 (+1)

6 England 84.34 (-1.28) (-1)

7 Scotland 83.08 (+1.37)

8 Australia 81.53

9 Fiji 81.14

10 Italy 81.09 (+1.28)