Six Nations: Ireland give O'Driscoll the perfect send-off

BRIAN O'DRISCOLL bowed out in perfect style as Ireland won the Six Nations with a momentous victory in Paris.

The Irish prevailed 22-20 at the Stade de France for only their second win on French soil in 42 years - and, as the scoreline suggests, the match was a thrilling, topsy-turvy affair.

Despite tries from Jonathan Sexton and Andrew Trimble, Ireland went in 13-12 down at the break after Yoann Huget had brilliantly tapped the ball back for full-back Brice Dulin to score.

Ireland, knowing from earlier results that any win would do, also knew they had to wrestle back control of the match at the start of the second period.

Typically, O'Driscoll obliged with a drive for the line which was cut just short - but, with the French defence still in disarray, Sexton capitalised and converted, adding a penalty to stretch Ireland's lead to nine points.

Still the French would not lay down, and a sustained spell of pressure resulted in Dimitri Szarzewski scoring at the base of the posts to cut the lead back to two.

Indeed, it seemed, with 10 minutes left, as if France might just sneak it - just as they had against England on the opening weekend.

But a sliced penalty by replacement scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain was simply a precursor for the complete mess which the French made of the final attack of the game.

Vincent Debaty found Damien Chouly in plenty of space on the flank but his pass, with which he had a lot of room for error, was clearly forward.

Chouly crossed the line but it was all in vain. Ireland had prevailed, and O'Driscoll had his fairytale finish.

Earlier, England had made a gallant attempt at closing in on Ireland's points lead of +49 by scoring a half-century in Rome against wooden spoon winners Italy.

Mike Brown (2), Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell, Mako Vunipola, Manu Tuilagi, and Chris Robshaw all scored in a 52-11 win but Leonardo Sarto's intercept try for the Italians left England relying on the French.

This was effectively as a consequence of their galling opening weekend defeat in Paris.

Yet, despite that early set-back, and if a little rueful, Stuart Lancaster should reflect on this Six Nations with great encouragement.

Save for a poor first few minutes and last few minutes against the French, England could have even won the Grand Slam.

Scotland were kept pointless for the first time against the Auld Enemy since 1978, before Lancaster's men held their nerve to come back from 10-3 down against Ireland.

Next came Wales, the reigning champions who denied England a Grand Slam in Cardiff a year ago with a crushing defeat.

England gained a morsel of revenge, playing some wonderful running rugby in the beautiful spring sunshine to win 29-18 and take the Triple Crown for the first time since 2003.

The tries came from Danny Care and Luther Burrell with only Leigh Halfpenny's boot keeping the Welsh in the contest beyond half time as they made a wretched second defence of their title.

Beaten by both Ireland and England, Wales' best match of the championship came against a typically enigmatic French side who did not turn up on the day.

Of course, there was also a 51-3 thumping of Scotland to enjoy - but that said more about the visitors to the Millennium Stadium than the home side.

Reduced to 14 men after just 22 minutes following Stuart Hogg's dismissal for a reckless tackle, the Scots' defence caved in either side of half time, and they conceded seven tries in all.

The result rounded off another terrible Six Nations for Scotland who have still failed to win more than one match in consecutive tournaments since the expansion in 2000.

Undoubtedly, the most painful defeat was being kept scoreless by England on the second weekend in the Calcutta Cup match.

Murrayfield has been a venue of many broken English dreams in recent years - but Scotland were so pathetically bad, there was even the cheeky suggestion that they should withdraw from the championship to save themselves further embarrassment.

That almost came in Rome, with Italy leading the Scots 20-18 with just one attack left.

A Duncan Weir drop goal spared Scotland's blushes on that occasion but, in a reversal of fortune, the Scots could do nothing as France left it equally late to win their match 19-17.

Indeed, the French were the kings of the late win in this tournament in which, as their +1 points difference demonstrates, they played as unconvincingly as ever.

Narrow wins over England and Scotland, that narrow defeat to Ireland and a heavier one against Wales, only victory over Italy was secured with any degree of comfort.

For Philippe Saint-Andre's men, this Six Nations was certainly a case of "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

Much the same could also be said of the Italians. The encouraging signs in the set-piece keep threatening an Italian breakthrough but the Azzurri run out of steam far too easily.

Of the 21 tries they conceded, two-thirds were in the second half, and this was Italy's 10th wooden spoon in 15 years.

By contrast, this was only Ireland's second championship in the last 29 years, the other coming in the Grand Slam-winning year of 2009.

There was no Grand Slam this time but it is difficult to see at least one Leinster man at least worrying too much about that.

Ireland had, of course, worked tirelessly for this triumph. Nevertheless, for some weeks now, the Paris air must have been sprinkled with fairy-dust in anticipation of O'Driscoll's arrival.

He did not let his country down. Instead, he gave it a St Patrick's Day to savour.

RBS 6 NATIONS 2014: FINAL TABLE 
(T) Tries

	W	D	L	F	A	(T)	Pts
IRELAND	4	0	1	132	49	16	8
ENGLAND	4	0	1	138	65	14	8
WALES	3	0	2	122	79	11	6
FRANCE	3	0	2	101	100	9	6
SCOTLAND	1	0	4	47	138	4	2
ITALY	0	0	5	63	172	7	0

RBS 6 NATIONS 2014: THE RESULTS

1 Feb 14:30	WALES 23-15 ITALY	Millennium Stadium
1 Feb 17:00	FRANCE 26-24 ENGLAND	Stade de France
2 Feb 15:00	IRELAND 28-6 SCOTLAND	Aviva Stadium
8 Feb 14:30	IRELAND 26-3 WALES	Aviva Stadium
8 Feb 17:00	SCOTLAND 0-20 ENGLAND	Murrayfield
9 Feb 15:00	FRANCE 30-10 ITALY	Stade de France
21 Feb 20:00	WALES 27-6 FRANCE	Millennium Stadium
22 Feb 13:30	ITALY 20-21 SCOTLAND	Stadio Olimpico
22 Feb 16:00	ENGLAND 13-10 IRELAND	Twickenham
8 Mar 14:30	IRELAND 46-7 ITALY	Aviva Stadium
8 Mar 17:00	SCOTLAND 17-19 FRANCE	Murrayfield
9 Mar 15:00	ENGLAND 29-18 WALES	Twickenham
15 Mar 12:30	ITALY 11-52 ENGLAND	Stadio Olimpico
15 Mar 14:45	WALES 51-3 SCOTLAND	Millennium Stadium
15 Mar 17:00	FRANCE 20-22 IRELAND	Stade de France

RBS 6 NATIONS 2014: TOP POINTS SCORERS
66 Jonathan Sexton (Ireland)
64 Owen Farrell (England)
51 Leigh Halfpenny (Wales)
27 Jean-Marc Doussain (France)
26 Maxime Machenaud (France)
21 Tommaso Allan (Italy)
20 Mike Brown (England)
19 Greig Laidlaw (Scotland)
16 Danny Care (England)
15 Luther Burrell (England), Yoann Huget (France), George North (Wales), Andrew Trimble (Ireland)
14 Dan Biggar (Wales)
12 Luciano Orquera (Italy)
11 Paddy Jackson (Ireland)

RBS 6 NATIONS 2014: TRY SCORERS
4 Mike Brown (England), Jonathan Sexton (Ireland)
3 Luther Burrell (England), Yoann Huget (France), George North (Wales), Andrew Trimble (Ireland)
2 Michele Campagnaro (Italy), Danny Care (England), Alex Dunbar (Scotland), Rob Kearney (Ireland), Jamie Roberts (Wales), Leonardo Sarto (Italy)
1 Tommaso Allan (Italy), Hugo Bonneval (France), Sean Cronin (Ireland), Alex Cuthbert (Wales), Brice Dulan (France), Taulupe Faletau (Wales), Owen Farrell (England), Gael Fickou (France), Wesley Fofana (France), Joshua Furno (Italy), Cian Healy (Ireland), Jamie Heaslip (Ireland), Chris Henry (Ireland), Stuart Hogg (Scotland), Tommaso Iannone (Italy), Paddy Jackson (Ireland), Fergus McFadden (Ireland), Jack McGrath (Ireland), Jack Nowell (England), Louis Picamoles (France), Chris Robshaw (England), Tommy Seymour (Scotland), Dmitri Szarzewski (France), Manu Tuilagi (England), Maku Vunipola (England), Sam Warburton (Wales), Liam Williams (Wales), Rhodri Williams (Wales), Scott Williams (Wales)