While France had already secured the Women's Six Nations title with victory over Grand Slam-chasing England on Friday, there were still plenty to play for in terms of final positions in both the 2016 standings and the World Rugby Women's Rankings for Ireland, Italy, Wales and Scotland on Sunday.
Ireland, the 2015 champions, finished with a flourish against Scotland, scoring eight tries in an emphatic 45-12 victory at Donnybrook to secure third place in the standings and avoid a potential two-place fall to sixth in the rankings.
Italy then edged a title battle with Wales at the Talbot Athletic Ground to triumph 16-12, a victory that lifts them one place to eighth in the rankings but was not by a margin big enough to secure fourth place in the Six Nations standings at the expense of their hosts.
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The Italians had needed to a 17-point winning margin to climb above Wales in the standings and it looked like they may get that when they established a 13-0 lead late in the first half.
Italy had come out firing and were rewarded when fly-half Beatrice Rigoni finished off a flowing move by their backs in the 10th minute, only for Wales to then come back at them with captain Rachel Taylor impressing again.
However just as Wales looked threatening, Rigoni pounced again, scooping up a loose ball to run 80 metres down field to double Italy’s lead to 10-0, despite the valiant chase of Elen Evans (main picture). That advantage grew to 13-0 when Michela Sillari kicked a penalty after missing both conversion attempts, but a yellow card for replacement Ilaria Arrighetti just before half-time would prove costly for the Italians.
Number eight Sioned Harries cut the deficit immediately when a Welsh driving maul proved unstoppable for the Italians and within minutes of the restart the same tactic yielded a second try for the same player to cut the deficit to 13-12 after Robyn Wilkins’ conversion.
Sillari eased the pressure with 25 minutes to go with a penalty and, try as Wales did, there was no way through the determined Italian defence marshalled superbly by captain Sara Barattin and the visitors secured a third win in a row over the Welsh.
“They punished us when we made mistakes and we were chasing the game quite early which was disappointing,” said Wales head coach Rhys Edwards. “We got ourselves back into the game after giving them a big head start but we made simple errors and we have to cut them out of our game to stay in these sort of games.
“This squad is capable of doing some really good things, we’ve shown it in glimpses, our challenge now is to be consistent against all the teams. We've beaten everyone over the two years – apart from Italy – so it’s our challenge to be consistent and win when we are under pressure.”
IRELAND TOO HOT FOR SCOTLAND TO HANDLE
A hat-trick of tries by winger Alison Miller and a brace for captain Niamh Briggs meant that Ireland were never in danger of missing out on third place in the standings on a sunny day in the Irish capital.
With Irish President Michael D Higgins in attendance at Donnybrook, it took Ireland just four minutes to open the scoring, Paula Fitzpatrick going close from a driving maul before Miller darted over.
Briggs added the conversion – the only one she would in the match – and minutes later sent Liz Burke over for her first international try after a flowing move.
With the Irish backs able to puncture holes in the Scottish defence at will and the visitors unable to handle the hard running of centre Sene Naoupu and Claire Molloy, a third try wasn’t long in coming with flanker Ciara Griffin scoring her first for her country.
Briggs added a penalty before getting her own name on the try-scoring list to make it 25-0 at the half-hour mark, only for scrum-half Jenny Maxwell to open Scotland’s account with a great solo try, sniping clear from a ruck.
It took just 67 seconds into the second half for Ireland to resume the scoring through Miller, back in the 15s jersey after missing the early rounds while on sevens duty, and a strong hand-off from Briggs then saw her grab her second of the match.
Scotland had two players sin-binned in quick succession in the final quarter in prop Tracy Balmer and flanker Jemma Forsyth, and Ireland took full advantage with the impressive Naoupu sending Miller through to complete her hat-trick before Sophie Spence added number eight.
The Scots have been much improved under new coach Shade Munro and had the final say of the match, a quick tap from Maxwell ultimately seeing teenager Rhona Lloyd over on the left wing. Their quest for a win now stretches to six years, but they have been more competitive and scored as many tries this year as they have in the four previous Championship combined.
Photo credit: Gareth Everett/Huw Evans @ Fotosportit
