Ashton breaks Scottish hearts
1 Oct 2011
Chris Ashton scored a late try to give England a 16-12 win against Scotland in Auckland.
With three minutes remaining, England put a kickable penalty into touch and won the lineout. Their forwards set up the driving maul, before the ball was sent wide to replacement flyhalf Toby Flood, whose perfectly-timed double-skip pass put Ashton over in the right-hand corner.
It was a heart-breaking moment for the Scots, who had needed to win this game by eight points or more and deny England a bonus point in order to leapfrog their arch-rivals on the Pool C log. They now need Georgia to upset Argentina on Sunday, which is unlikely.
There may have only been one try, but this was a gripping encounter.
Scotland suffered an early setback when flyhalf Ruaridh Jackson limped off with a hamstring injury, but it proved to be a blessing. The kicking game of his replacement, Dan Parks, was ideal for the wet and windy conditions and he controlled the game well.
It was Parks who kicked a long-range penalty into the wind to give Scotland a 6-0 lead, following an earlier strike from Chris Paterson.
Jonny Wilkinson came into this match with a 50% goal-kicking success rate in the tournament and missed his first three penalty attempts. He finally found the target with his fourth, but a Parks drop goal gave Scotland a 9-3 lead at the break.
The Scots dominated the set pieces in the first half, winning four scrums against the feed (with Euan Murray embarrassing Matt Stevens) and stealing three opposition lineout throws. They also didn’t miss a single tackle in 40 minutes, while England slipped six.
When the second half kicked off, the wind had dropped and the rain had stopped. England played with a lot more urgency and their pack regained some confidence when they won a tighthead with a solid hit.
The Scots, though, briefly regained the ascendancy and almost scored when left wing Simon Danielli kicked into the England 22. Fullback Ben Foden knocked the ball back and Scotland replacement Nick de Luca failed to collect it with the tryline in sight.
Scotland then won yet another scrum penalty, which Paterson kicked to make it 12-3, but they crucially failed to deal with the restart and Wilkinson slotted a drop goal with his right foot (having missed one with his left from in front earlier in the half).
The England flyhalf added a penalty at the start of the final quarter to reduce the deficit to three, but his following attempt fell short.
It didn’t matter, though, as Ashton’s try snatched the win and set up an England-France quarter-final.
By Simon Borchardt
340 Comments
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1 Oct 2011, 14:54 pm
@Tartan(Tartan)-296: Its also a big problem when a guy like Parks is the source of 80% + of our points in. The last 20 or so games, take him out and we have no chance!to have guys like the Lamonts and Max Evans and be utterly impotent in attack is just awful as well
1 Oct 2011, 15:04 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-299:
I don’t know about pathetic, more desperate. What do you suggest?
SA get 48% of the SANZAR income and get to play all games when they like.
NZ gets around 30%, on the condition they schedule their games when it is comfortable for the offshore audience.
Aus get the dregs because they don’t have to prop up a domestic comp.
1 Oct 2011, 15:08 pm
The real wingers are making the difference in close games. Ashton and Habana.
1 Oct 2011, 15:10 pm
@Brads(Brads)-302: If prices were less then more people would go, surely. Weather also plays a factor. It’s 25 and sunny in Durban in winter.
And the costs of a pint in NZ, would cause war here.
I am leaving now for Sharks vs Western Province. Will be a smaller crowd, maybe 25000 at a push (more like 15 I think) but the restaurants will be full, the bbqs after in the carpark will rock (people come down after the game for the party sometimes rather than the match!)
It’s a whole different world. Here we watch Super Rugby from 8:30am on a Saturday all the way through going to a game in the afternoon and another later at night. It all works out because of time zones.
1 Oct 2011, 15:10 pm
Vincent Clerc has 10 WC rugby tries. He was a star platyer in the u21 rugby WC held in SA.
In my books he is the only winger i can select with Habana for the tightest games.
The two have been the best wingers over the last 7 years.
1 Oct 2011, 15:13 pm
@Brads(Brads)-302:
As far as I’m aware, everyone now gets an equal share from SANZAR. We’re still wondering, in SA, how SARU caved in to O’Neil on that one, because it came mainly from SAs share..
1 Oct 2011, 15:16 pm
@Brads(Brads)-302: no, SA’s share of tv rights moneys INCLUDING it’s domestic competitions amounts to 48% get it right.
1 Oct 2011, 15:18 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-304:
“the bbqs after in the carpark will rock (people come down after the game for the party sometimes rather than the match!)”
I hear you, but it is a bit hard to rouse up an after partry atmosphere when EVERY top game finishes after 10.00pm.
For the blame, I suspect it has something to do with the gouging you Saffa’s have done on the SANZA income front.
1 Oct 2011, 15:19 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-307: And I have seen it, observed it with my own eyes, South Africans watch more rugby, devour it, live it more thane even the kiwis.
I didn’t realise how rugby mad we are until I went there.
1 Oct 2011, 15:20 pm
@Brads(Brads)-308: Yes, times are stupid I agree, our latest finish would be 8:30 or thereabouts.
Profits are equal now I believe.
1 Oct 2011, 15:21 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-307:
Isn’t that what I said?
SA gets 48%
1 Oct 2011, 15:26 pm
@Brads(Brads)-311:
SAs domestic TV income is not part of the SANZAR/Newscorp income. That’s divided 3 ways equally.
1 Oct 2011, 15:34 pm
@David(David)-312:
I wasn’t aware of that.
What are the numbers ? In terms of the overall income, is it 5% 10%, 20%
Must say I am surprised that there is an actual income stream from local TV.
How is that possible?
1 Oct 2011, 15:37 pm
@Brads(Brads)-313:
sorry, I meant how is it possible that a local TV broadcaster could operate in direct competition to the main sponsor..
1 Oct 2011, 15:40 pm
@David(David)-312:
The SANZAR/NewsCorp is divided equally 3 ways. Our domestic competitions TV rights were sold to Supersport, our pay TV station, which also bought the S15/3N broadcast rights from Newscorp..
1 Oct 2011, 15:44 pm
@David(David)-315:
Newscorp only holds the broadcast rights for the 3N and S15, which they paid to SANZAR. Local competitions don’t fall into the SANZAR basket. They’re owned by the individual country.
1 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
scotland played like men possessed in 1st half, but then could almost not believe and tried to hold in 2nd, no way to play, the Boks do it too.
1 Oct 2011, 15:58 pm
@cab(cab)-317: you think that those are instructions from the coaches or the players just get into a “just hold them off” mode on their own?
apparently the boks missed only 2 tackles in the 1st half but finished the game with a stat of 27 missed tackles…bizzare if u ask me
1 Oct 2011, 16:03 pm
@David(David)-316:
Sorry, you are confusing me.
I said 48% of the SANZAR income goes to SA.
Is this right or wrong.
1 Oct 2011, 16:06 pm
We chatted about this the other day.
Super 15 and 3 nations I s equal.
Domestic comps AND inbound tours packaged seperately.
Currie Cup alone is valued at 58 million US.
Compared to NZs domestic comps which was about 20 million US.
Added to that is the money from inbound tours and EOYT etc.
1 Oct 2011, 16:17 pm
@Brads(Brads)-319:
Wrong. It’s only 33%.
1 Oct 2011, 16:20 pm
@cab(cab)-317:
England were the men possessed for the 10 minutes of the second half.
Then they started their fibbly fumble routine and the Scots got back in the game. the 2nd half was a display of wannabe champions. Both teams were poor, the Scots were more than poor for a long while..
Jonny had a bad day at the office. Tough titties. His errors kept the Jocks in it and they should of held out, but for a brain explosion.
Sorry, I don’t know who it was, but one of the backs collected the ball and instead of clearing it downfield he did the up and under miracle .
The resulting play from that brain **** moved England from facing NZ in the first playoff, back to the easy road on the other side of the draw.
I was really up beat about playing England. Now we go back to Argentina. Tough guys, but they have something missing for me…. maybe hatred… nah that is too strong, but something close.
1 Oct 2011, 16:27 pm
@Brads(Brads)-322: Talk about easy road to the semi! Tonga, Japan, France B, Canada, Argentina (shadow of the 07 team). Mmmmmm.
1 Oct 2011, 16:31 pm
@David(David)-321:
Sorry David we must still be talking cross purposes
The old agreement for all TV income was 38% for SA
SARU squeezed its partners in the 3N and Super 15 up to 48% in the latest deal.
This is television rights only!.
.
1 Oct 2011, 16:33 pm
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-323:
Agreed, too easy.
I was relishing the thought of our boys playing England next week.
Scots let me down!
1 Oct 2011, 16:35 pm
@Brads(Brads)-325: England only slightly better than Arg, but they tend to lift their game in play-offs. Think England will beat France, but then again the French still has to play that ONE BIG game.
1 Oct 2011, 16:40 pm
England over France by 5
NZ over Arg by 20
Ireland over Wales by 3
SA over Aus by 4
1 Oct 2011, 16:41 pm
England 21 – 16
NZ 29 – 9
Ireland 19 – 16
SA 22 – 18
1 Oct 2011, 16:41 pm
@Brads(Brads)-324:
No, it was Australia that squeezed SARU for an extra 15%, I think it was. We were pretty pissed at that. In fact O’Neil managed to whinge a number of concessions out of the new SANZAR/NewsCorp deal.
1 Oct 2011, 16:44 pm
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-326:
I was looking at from a differenct persective.
Aside from Ireland. England are the only credible team on the other side of the draw.
Had they lost today and come second in their pool, they would be on our side of the ledger come playoffs.
That being the case the knockout would have involved the 4 previous winners who just happen to also be the 4 most likely winners this tournament.
Didn’t happen!
1 Oct 2011, 16:46 pm
@Brads(Brads)-330: Very unbalanced the knock-out round.
1 Oct 2011, 16:49 pm
@Brads(Brads)-330: Aussies faarked everything up
1 Oct 2011, 17:03 pm
@Brads(Brads)-324:
Here’s the complete breakdown and explanation from an Aussie paper.
1 Oct 2011, 17:03 pm
@David(David)-333:
Sorry!
Under the last SANZAR agreement, the ARU received 29% ($US93M) of total revenue with NZ and SA getting 33% ($US107M) and 38 % ($123M) respectively. As part of the protracted negotiations surrounding the awarding of the new Super 15 franchise, all SANZAR Nations agreed to split revenue from the new deal equally as each country would have 5 teams.
The trade off for this concession to the ARU was that the new broadcast deal only included Super 15 games and Tri-nations tests with each Nation being able to negotiate its own deals for rights to their respective in-bound international test and domestic competitions. When these revenues are added to the bottom line, things look decidedly paltry for the ARU.
It has been estimated that with Currie Cup and in-bound tests, SA Rugby has been able to negotiate an extra $US58M, an increase in revenue of 46% on the old agreement. The NZRU, whose NPC is estimated to be worth $US20M, will increase revenue by 13%, even before in-bound test revenue is factored into this figure.
With no third-tier competition to hock, the ARU stands to only increase revenues by 7% or $US7M before in-bound test revenues are considered, not a great prospect given the poor TV ratings of this year’s tests.
What is clear from these estimates is the ARU has very little scope to earn significant revenue outside of what it receives from its share of the SANZAR deal. Although the ARU increased its earnings from sponsorships and gate receipts by almost $A9M from 2007 to 2008, this increase included the sugar hit provided by the first overseas Bledisloe.
1 Oct 2011, 17:41 pm
@David(David)-334: if brad still doesn’t understand after this post, then he never will
1 Oct 2011, 17:57 pm
England will be a different prospect in the play-offs sadly. They have that arrogance that creates belief in their abilities, no matter how limited.
1 Oct 2011, 17:57 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-335:
1 Oct 2011, 20:51 pm
Fcking ******* fckity fckn fkrs…..
1 Oct 2011, 21:16 pm
@JockBok(JockBok)-338: Hamish I am so sorry. That s a tough loss, you had the game for 78 minutes. Oi vey. Hard. But your boys did very well.
Big Hit. Congratulations. A wins a win, and we know all about that.
Apologies to all of you, but Wales are the best of all the Northern Hemisphere teams.
NZ Vs Wales Final. 2 Kiwi coaches.
1 Oct 2011, 23:13 pm
@TheAgent(TheAgent)-328: I hope you are right.
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