Wales and France win early rugby matches

Press, 22 January 1979, Page 6

Wales and France win early rugby matches

NZPA London The defending champion, Wales, relied on the strength of its experienced forwards to put it on top of the table after the first round of the five nations championship on Saturday. Wales beat Scotland by 19 points to 13 at Edinburgh — after being 6-13 down at half-time — and at Lansdowne Road in Dublin, Ireland confirmed the improved form it showed against the All Blacks by holding France to a 9-all draw.

The match at Murrayfield was marred by a stiff breeze, and the Scots had this at their backs in the first half. It worked for them, but the Welsh forwards had been keeping tight control and when the sides switched ends, it seemed obvious that Scotland’s 7-point lead was not going to be enough. And it was the Welsh forwards who gave them the win after Steve Fenwick, with a penalty, and Elgan Rees, with a try — on his

debut for Wales — made the scores level. Two five-metre scrums produced a negative result for the Welsh but at the third the Scots went backwards and the halfback Terry Holmes got a hand to the ball first as it was controlled over the line.

Fenwick kicked the conversion to go with his three penalties. Andy Irvine, now rid of the poor form that plagued him against the All Blacks, scored all Scotland’s points with a try and three penalties.

The Welsh captain, J. P. R. Williams, knew who to thank for the Welsh win: “Our forwards deserve the credit — totally,” he said.

At a sunny but cold Lansdowne Roaa, Ireland nearly beat France, last year’s championship runner-up. With the score locked at 9all — it stayed that way for the final 23 minutes of the match — Tony Ward, who had earlier kicked all three penalties for his side, had a dropkick attempt after a

free kick from right under the posts, charged down.

And minutes earlier, Ireland’s new flanker, Colm Tucker, had raced Between two Frenchmen to get to the ball over the line first, only to be called back for an earlier knock-on.

As it happened, it was the French who scored the only try of the mat'h The fullback, Jean-Michel Aguirre, came into the line after a scrum on the Irish 22, he was blocked and Jean-Pierre Rives acted as halfback to send the new cap, Alain Caussade, into an overlap and over the line. Aguirre converted it to «dd to a penalty he kicked earlier.

England does not begin its championship season for a fortnight, and yesterday at Twickenham thev beat “The Rest” by 17 points to 13 in a trial match.

But it was a trial with a difference — the selectors making several team changes as the game stretched out toi an hour and 40 minutes, and three "halves.’’