Scots win is marred by injuries
Scotland 17 France
14
Alex Spink
MANU TUILAGI inspired England to their biggestever win over Ireland - despite being only 80 per cent fit.
So claimed Eddie Jones after his wrecking ball centre rolled back the years with a devastating display of pace and power at sun-scorched Twickenham.
Tuilagi touched down one of England’s eight tries and either punched the hole or provided the decoy for the rest as Jones’s team hammered out a World Cup warning.
And boss Jones revealed: “Manu is only about 80 per cent fit at the moment, we’ve still got a little bit left to go with him.
“When he gets there he’ll be a handful. It will be scary if you have to mark him.”
Tuilagi’s performance inspired his teammates against opponents who fell off 34 tackles and ended the game humiliated.
Joe Cokanasiga, who answered his critics with two tries a week after firing blanks against Wales, said: “When you see Manu carry like that and want to get involved in the game as he did, it inspires you to do the same same. He was my idol growing up – I messaged him on Facebook to tell him that when I was 15 – and today he was back to his best.”
Mockery
England’s ruthless display, marrying power with precision, made a mockery of t he opportunity Ireland had to go top of the world rankings.
Eight tries to two scarcely does justice to the superiority they enjoyed a week after being shut out by Wales at the Principality Stadium.
Jones’s selection of ‘Kamikaze Kids’ Sam Underhill and Tom Curry produced the desired effect at the breakdown – whilst Owen Farrell and George Ford combined expertly to transform ball won into scoring opportunity.
Nobody benefited more than Cokanasiga, who had been publicly challenged to get himself into the game after being marginalised by the Welsh.
“Eddie tried to get a reaction from last week when I obviously got targeted,” he said. “The way it went was very satisfying.”
He took just 13 minutes to get on the scoresheet, finishing off a move brilliantly crafted by Ford and Farrell. An hour later he was still hunting chances and, with Tuilagi providing the dummy run, collected a Ford pass to bullock away for a second.
Ireland had long since been beaten, collapsing to a defeat bigger than the previous record 50-18 in the 2000 fixture – and by a margin eclipsing the 42-6 in 2003.
“I don’t think we were nearly good enough,” admitted coach Joe Schmidt. “Thirty-four missed tackles: you just can’t do that. We looked dishevelled.”
For England there was just one negative – prop Mako Vunipola lasted just 17 minutes on his return from a l ong- t erm hamstring injury before re-aggravating it. But even that could not dampen the post-match joy as England, buoyed by further tries from Elliot Daly, Maro Itoje, George Kruis and Luke Cowan-dickie, left Twickenham with cheers ringing in their ears. SCOTLAND’S moraleboosting World Cup warm-up over France was marred by injury setbacks.
Gregor Townsend’s men avenged last week’s rout by staging a comeback
But it came at a cost as Tommy Seymour, Blade Thomson and Sam
Skinner were all forced off.
Head coach Townsend said: “I was pleased with the physical level and skill level to win that game.
“The disappointing thing for us is the injuries because it’s not great to see guys going off so close to the World Cup.
“But we’ll have to wait and see how they are.”
A week on from a 32-3 collapse, the Scots’ horror start in Nice was repeated as Damian Penaud went over within the first two minutes before later adding a second try.
Sean Maitland’s score just before the break jolted the Murrayfield crowd into life to build on Greig Laidlaw’s penalty.
And Chris Harris crashed over the line with 20 minutes to play to clinch victory.
Captain Laidlaw said: “It was a great opportunity for us after last weekend and winning makes it all the sweeter.
“You’re always under pressure playing for this jersey and the fans demanded a performance.
“We never started well, but we dug in deep and had trust in the group.
“Our defence went a long way to winning the game – and international rugby is all about winning.”
The Scots now face a double-header with Georgia, starting in Tbilisi next week, before heading to Japan where they open against Ireland on September 22.