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These are your evening rugby headlines on Sunday, February 22.
Wales star addresses ‘gut-wrenching’ moment
Wales star James Botham has addressed the “gut-wrenching” moment Darcy Graham caught the Welsh defence napping to score a try and help Scotland to a comeback victory in Cardiff.
The Cardiff flanker delivered an impressive performance after replacing the injured Taine Plumtree just 10 minutes into Saturday’s Six Nations clash at the Principality Stadium, putting in a huge defensive shift with 15 tackles.
But after Jarrod Evans had stretched Wales’ lead to 11 points from the tee shortly before the hour mark, Botham could only watch on helplessly as Finn Russell took the restart quickly and the Scotland fly-half’s kick dropped over his shoulder and into the hands of Graham, who raced over to score.
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The Edinburgh wing’s try brought Scotland right back into the game at 23-19 and helped momentum shift in the visitors’ favour, with George Turner’s score five minutes from time denying Wales a first Six Nations victory in nearly three years.
Like most players in red, Botham was getting back into position when Russell took the restart and had his back turned to the action as Graham capitalised to devastating effect.
Having been closest to the ball, however, the back-rower – who turned 28 today – admits that the split-second change in fortunes is difficult to take but will serve as motivation to progress in the final two games of the tournament.
“That’s international sport,” he said of the moment. “If you look at all the teams everyone’s so good now. Switch off for a split second and you’re penalised for it.
“It is gut-wrenching but we’ve got to use that to move forward into the next game.”
On the overall result, Botham added: “Emotionally it is tough, but that’s professional sport. We started off really well, that’s what we were aiming to do. The fact that it hurts is probably a good thing and that we were in it until the last minute.
“There’s a lot of positives to take from it because it was definitely one of the best performances we’ve done for a long time. It’s all progression, we’ve got two games left and we’ve got to focus on them now.
“Debrief this one and then we’ll go to Ireland raring to go,” he added. “It’s how we bounce back now.”
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Six Nations star receives apology
England back-rower Sam Underhill says he and his team-mates felt compelled to apologise to captain Maro Itoje after his special day went badly wrong against Ireland.
Itoje won his 100th cap for his country at Twickenham on Saturday, with his family cheering him on from the stands as they celebrated the latest landmark achievement of his career.
But things soon went pear-shaped as England suffered a humiliating 21-42 thumping at the hands of Andy Farrell’s side, with skipper Itoje replaced after 54 minutes to cap a miserable day for the Saracens lock.
After the match, Underhill revealed that the team were all too aware that they couldn’t give Itoje what he deserved on his milestone day, as he admitted the result was “disappointing”.
“We addressed it as a team that we couldn’t give him the day we wanted for him,” he told reporters. “He’s an incredibly gracious human being. He mentioned it himself, that’s sport, progress isn’t linear. Those were his words.
“We can still celebrate what an achievement 100 caps is. It’s disappointing but it doesn’t take the shine off what is a phenomenal individual accomplishment. He’s a phenomenal player, athlete, human being and leader.”
With England – who were seen as potential title contenders ahead of the tournament – falling to two defeats in their opening three matches, Underhill added: “We’re obviously disappointed with the result.
“We can acknowledge that, but also acknowledge that it’s a part of progress sometimes. Progress isn’t linear and how we respond is important. This is a phenomenally competitive tournament and the game is always evolving, teams are always evolving. Any team you play is never the same again: stylistically, individually.
“Our job is to keep improving as much as we can. Even off the back of a win, you come away with a dozen things you can improve. It’s no different after a loss,” he continued.
“You’re never as bad as people think you are and never as good as people think you are. We weren’t the best team in the world four weeks ago and we’re not the worst team now. We’ll stick at it. Stay close as a group. I hope there are good things ahead for this team.”
Doris: This is the benchmark
By Edward Elliot, Press Association
Ireland captain Caelan Doris believes Saturday’s record-breaking 42-21 demolition of England is a new benchmark for future performances.
Andy Farrell’s side responded to their detractors in emphatic fashion by securing Ireland’s largest win at Twickenham courtesy of a stunning display in the Guinness Six Nations.
Ireland’s heavy round-one loss away to France had fuelled suggestions the team is in decline following a tough autumn series before last weekend’s unconvincing win over Italy did little to quell the concerns.
“I spoke about Paris being a reference point where hopefully we’ll see a pretty steep incline in terms of performances,” said Doris. “I think this will now be a reference point that we look back on as a proper good performance that’s given us a lot of belief.
“I’ve also mentioned that at the core of what we’re doing in training, in camp, there has been belief still, and I think you saw some of that through how we played.
“It was just an unbelievable atmosphere. You talk about inspiring the nation and getting the Irish people behind us and hopefully that brought both the people here and at home a bit of joy. “We definitely enjoyed it.”
Ireland’s previous biggest victory away to England was a 32-15 success in 2022. Back-rower Doris played a starring role in south-west London and was singled out for praise by head coach Farrell.
“I thought he had his best game in a good while,” Farrell said. “He was immense in his carry. That’s Caelan at his best.
“How he led from the front and got us over the gainline was outstanding, but we could 100 per cent have two minutes on every single person out there.”
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