| |
Welsh in the way England aims to complete Grand Slam at Wembley
Posted: Sunday March 21, 1999 03:41 PM
LONDON (AP) -- After victories over Scotland, Ireland and France, England can complete the Five Nations rugby union Grand Slam at an unusual venue -- the home of English soccer. The English finish with an away game against the Welsh, who are using Wembley as a home ground while their own stadium in Cardiff is being rebuilt for the rugby World Cup in October. And, although England hasn't played anywhere near its best, Clive Woodward's players should have too much pack power to lose to Wales, even though the Welsh followed up their unexpected win in France with a 60-21 crushing of Italy on Saturday. "We created enough chances to have scored a lot more points," England captain Lawrence Dallaglio said after his team's one-sided 21-10 victory over France at Twickenham. "We have to look at our finishing, our rounding-off moves. We ran out of numbers. But we have beaten one of the top five sides in the world. I am delighted with the result, if not the performance." Despite outshoving the French back and having plenty of possession, the English failed to score a try. All the points came from the boot of teen-age center Jonny Wilkinson who kicked seven penalties, a record in England-France games. "We have again got a superb goal kicker in Jonny," said Dallaglio. "He never looked like missing. It made sound sense to keep on using him, the one weapon on the day that we could rely on." Wilkinson has been described by his teammate and Newcastle's director of rugby Rob Andrew, England's record-breaking kicker until he retired from international rugby two seasons ago, as rugby's Michael Owen in a reference to the 18-year-old star of English soccer. Although he's playing at center, Wilkinson is being groomed as a future fly half which was Andrew's position. At Wembley in three weeks time, the English will have to watch out for the boot of Neil Jenkins, who elevated himself up to No. 2 in the all-time list of international points scorers with 745. "It is always a huge game when Wales play England and every one of us in the Welsh side will be looking forward to Wembley," said Jenkins, who remains well short of the 911 points owned by Australia's now retired Michael Lynagh. "I just hope that England think they can turn up and win and that they don't take us seriously," the Welsh fly half said. "England are a great side and a very difficult team to beat, but we will give it our best shot." If the Welsh score an upset win, then the Five Nations title may go to Scotland, which outplayed Ireland 30-13 on Saturday and finishes with a game against France in Paris. Fly half Gregor Townsend scored one try and set up two more in a standout performance by the Scots and has the ability to conjure a victory in Paris. Now playing for Brive in the French league, Townsend says his form has improved because he's playing regularly at fly half instead of center. The Scots were forced to move him to the No. 10 position because of an injury to Duncan Hodge. "It was an unlucky break for Duncan Hodge hat I got back in but, because that I'm playing at fly-half every week, I fell confident about my overall play," Townsend said. The Irish have slipped to last after going so close to beating the French in the opening game. They led until the French kicked a late penalty for a 10-9 win.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
