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, 11:11 am
Ashton and game over. Well done Poms.
1 Oct 2011, 11:12 am
That is it. Congrats to England (that is long as you did not cheat gain with ball swapping).
Scotland can look back on some poor options in the end game
1 Oct 2011, 11:12 am
@>^..^< katman(katman)-130:
yep.
he’s toast.
scots pancaking.
1 Oct 2011, 11:13 am
@Gunther(gunther)-153: eggsactly.
1 Oct 2011, 11:13 am
it wasn’t the AshSplah but it counts….jocks are gone.
1 Oct 2011, 11:14 am
Ashton is such a pillock. Not right that he got the try.
1 Oct 2011, 11:14 am
@chch(chch)-152: Poms have a clear path to the final .. with Flood as their play maker.
1 Oct 2011, 11:14 am
whoooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
oh yes, yes yes!!!
1 Oct 2011, 11:15 am
and it ends with another brain failure
surprised if the Scottish wingers can park a car given their judgement of gaps
1 Oct 2011, 11:15 am
Scots only have themselves to blame. England march on.
1 Oct 2011, 11:16 am
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-158:
1 Oct 2011, 11:16 am
I bet my left testicle and both my middle fingers that England will not win this WC
1 Oct 2011, 11:16 am
@RL(RL)-157:
Yep, they have France then Ireland
1 Oct 2011, 11:18 am
reckon it will be the winner of Ireland/Wales in the final against the All Blacks…
unfortunately that means a lopsided win to the keevies.
1 Oct 2011, 11:18 am
@>^..^< katman(katman)-154:
Shame really.
I was hoping they would give the poms a damn good whisking.
Now they just crying over spilt milk.
1 Oct 2011, 11:20 am
Jolly well done England. I thought Ben Youngs and Jonny Wilkinson were both awful today but the chaps showed a lot of pluck and grit to win. Hard cheese Scotland.
Now, where is that Francois chappie who lost the bet to me? Francois, your clock is ticking, old boy.
1 Oct 2011, 11:20 am
What English player did the late shoulder charge?
1 Oct 2011, 11:21 am
@chch(chch)-167:
It was Delon Armitage. He may be cited for that.
1 Oct 2011, 11:21 am
@Gunther(gunther)-165: Don’t beat yourself up about it.
I think omelette you get over this by yourself.
1 Oct 2011, 11:23 am
Brendan Venter is so far up England’s arse its not even funny.
1 Oct 2011, 11:23 am
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-158:
Congrates.
1 Oct 2011, 11:25 am
@>^..^< katman(katman)-169:
silly yolks like that won’t help.
I’m feeling shellshocked.
1 Oct 2011, 11:25 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-170: does that grate you?
1 Oct 2011, 11:27 am
If we had a back who could pick/run angles we would have got at least 3 tries in that game. Too many inside runs into traffic and players picking the wrong option.
England only turned up in the second half and only really looked like threatening the whitewash once Tindall and Wilkinson were off. They’ll be delighted they’re in the NH side of the draw, because in the SH side, they’d be on the first flight home.
1 Oct 2011, 11:27 am
Woody
What kind of question is that. Of course it bloody does. But Venter is a d*ck in general.
1 Oct 2011, 11:27 am
Scotland crying like babies, shame man. My heart bleeds for them.
1 Oct 2011, 11:30 am
I cannot stand these poms, farkit my hernia is getting a hernia listening to johnson with his cocky “kiwi like” comments
1 Oct 2011, 11:32 am
Scotland were fabulous Tourists and I’m sorry to see them go home tomorrow.
They engaged with the public in my home city with enthusiasm and were a credit to the game and their country.
To Jockbok and other Supporters,
Commiserations.
1 Oct 2011, 11:33 am
Brendon venter’s head looks like grasshoppers head
1 Oct 2011, 11:33 am
I just can’t stand England walking around with an attitude like they aren’t actually a minnow nation.
1 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
@Kitchener(Kitchener)-166:
Congratulations Carol, BH, Kitch.
1 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
Well played Scotland…..
E N G L A N D…Yeyyyyyyyyy
1 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-175: I guess not as bad as when Allan Donald, the boertjie from Bloem, was the NZ bowling coach (at the time they knocked us out of the WC nogal) or Smal currently the Ireland forward coach.
But Venter is not retained by England, he’s must surely have just been talking from experience of coaching on England.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Venter as next Bok coach.
1 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
@170. Tsc. At what point climbing up someones ****** does the comedy stop?
1 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
@ Tac
1 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-181:
Flipping hec Jock, your boys really had the bit between their teeth, gave me palpitations…
1 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-180:
Ow, suck it up cup cake!!
1 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
@cane(cane)-178:
Thanks bud, we gave it a shot but not to be. I hope Argentina win well tomorrow now and Scotland go home. It’s right that those two teams go through as the best in the group.
1 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
silly scots…
english tossers…
1 Oct 2011, 11:38 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-180: I don’t like England rugby, but they certainly aren’t minnows.
WC winners, and remember that period when they went unbeaten against us from 2000 to 2006 (including 53-3)? Man, that still rankles.
1 Oct 2011, 11:39 am
on England = in England
1 Oct 2011, 11:40 am
Woody
That’s similar to Wales’ golden era somewhere in the 70′s. Back to normal now.
1 Oct 2011, 11:40 am
1st RWC Scotland haven’t made the quarters.
1 Oct 2011, 11:41 am
I’m off to have beer, will leave you with dingo deans starting the mind games, he said they will be missing four starting backs? Great news…
Deans praises Boks
View 3 comments
22 minutes ago
Nelson – Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has given a big tick to likely World Cup quarter-final opponents South Africa but said the Australians need to raise their intensity several steps.
The Wallabies beat Russia 68-22 in their final pool match here on Saturday to qualify for the play-offs but their performance tailed off markedly in the second half after leading 47-5 at the turn.
In addition to a further injury, with Drew Mitchell pulling a hamstring and not expected to play again in the tournament, the Wallabies had problems with their set piece losing three lineouts and giving away a tighthead.
After the game Deans refused to discuss evident problems saying he was “looking ahead”, but agreed they would have to lift their intensity going into a quarter-final against either South Africa or Wales.
The opponent will be determined by the final Pool C match between Ireland and Italy on Sunday with Deans picking an Ireland win, which will mean a showdown with the Springboks.
“We got out of the (Russia) game what we sought, we’ve qualified for the play-offs,” Deans said.
“Clearly we’ll have to wait to see who we’re playing against but it appears most likely it’ll be South Africa and we’ll just push on from here.”
The Wallabies won both their Tri-Nations clashes with the Springboks this year, but Deans said the World Cup was different.
“South Africa are showing they’re very much World Cup exponents. They’re building nicely and they’ve shown they’ve got an ability to get up.
“The World Cup really suits their approach.”
One positive for the Wallabies was the kicking of James O’Connor, playing at fullback against Russia and landing nine of 10 conversion attempts.
Deans said with goal-kicking a central scoring element in the knock-out stages, O’Connor’s confidence would have been boosted by his performance.
There was no immediate decision made about a replacement for Mitchell but Deans indicated Lachie Turner would be in the frame.
Mitchell had scored two tries before he pulled up lame with a hamstring injury early in the second half and the early indication was that he would not play again in the tournament.
Australia have been hard hit by injuries and had difficulty cobbling together a fit squad of 22 to play Russia.
They had to play backrower Radike Samo on the right wing and when left wing Mitchell went off he was replaced by scrum-half Nick Phipps.
However, Deans expected four backs unavailable for the Russia game would be available for the quarter-finals.
1 Oct 2011, 11:41 am
@JockBok(JockBok)-188:
Yeah, congratulations to England and Argentina.
They took their chances and put away the other teams clinically.
You might be able to win a RWC final without scoring tries, but Scotland were never going to get out the group without them…
1 Oct 2011, 11:42 am
There are only 3 tier 1 nations. 4 if France pitch up in the right frame of mind.
The rest are minnows.
1 Oct 2011, 11:42 am
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-192: not quite.
In 32 tests SA have won 19, Eng 12 with 1 draw.
Hardly an overwhelming dominance one might expect to see over a “true minnow” such as Samoa or Georgia.
1 Oct 2011, 11:43 am
@NoRugbyGuru_0_(RugbyGuru_0_)-177:
i dont know who’s the bigger doos- between johnson and lievremont.
so ffucking arrogant and ccocky when the nations have ffuckall all to show for their coaches talk.
1 Oct 2011, 11:43 am
That up and under in the last play by the Scots rather than a kick to the end of the park was the killer.
Dumb, dumb. dumb.
Just like Donald in Hong Kong. Coaches don’t have the skills to remove the idiot out of some guys brain.
I was so looking foraward to England moving to our side of the playoffs. Meeting them in the first game of the knockouts would have gone a long way toward legitimising this tournament as a true relection of World supremacy.
1 Oct 2011, 11:44 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-193:
We’ve scraped through a few pools we probably “shouldn’t” have over the years. If anything, this might be an overdue wake-up call to the SRU. Unless of course they pull the “glorious failure” card, which wouldn’t really be accurate.
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