Top Three Tries - Six Nations Round 5

What a day of rugby!

Sun, 22 Mar, 2015 - 00:00

Steve Neville

In stark contrast to rest of the Championship, the final day saw tries being scored from all over the pitch.

Wales racked up 60 points against Italy, but Ireland’s 40-10 victory over Scotland was enough to secure the Championship, with a little help from France, who kept England’s victory to only 20 points in a 55-35 win for the Chariot.

After Yoann Maestri won the vote last week, who scored the best try on the final day of Six Nations action?

Sam Warburton (Italy V Wales)

The second 40 minutes of this game was all Wales as the Italian concentration fell away and the Welsh racked up seven second half tries. Italy were stubborn in defence and impressive in attack in the first half, but Wales were of a different class after the break.

The tries were flowing freely including George North getting a 10 minute hat trick, but Sam Warburton’s try was most deserving of being highlighted. The move began inside the Welsh half and following some fine offloading, Warburton gathered on the Italian 10 metre line and showed the pace of a winger, beating three Italian defenders, including full back Luke McLean to get over the line.

Jared Payne (Scotland v Ireland)

Perhaps we’re looking through a pair of green tinted glasses for this one, but Jared Payne’s first try for his adopted nation was a fine one. In the game Sean O’Brien scored two brilliant barrelling tries and Finn Russell also scored a fine effort for the Scots. But after enduring a difficult week, getting criticism from certain corners, Payne came up trumps.

A lovely inside pass from Jonathan Sexton saw Payne take a superb line and crash over underneath the posts for his first Irish try. Wasn’t it good to see an Irish number 13 cutting up a defence again?

Benjamin Kayser (England V France)

Arguable the best game from a neutral point of view, with England throwing the kitchen sink at France in a rush to get tries, and France playing possibly their best rugby all Championship. They seemed to thrive in the chaos of it all.

Kayser’s try was far (very far) from the best try of the game, but it was perhaps the most important. With England seconds away from being back to a full complement, James Haskell’s sin bin was almost complete, Kayser crashed over after a rolling maul to bring France’s score to 35. It meant England needed two converted tries to win, with the clock against them. Thankfully for Joe Schmidt and Co., the clock ran out on England’s title hopes.