Ulster Rugby vs Cardiff Blues

IRELAND RETAIN RBS 6 NATIONS AFTER A DAY OF HIGH DRAMA

Ireland has successfully retained the RBS 6 Nations title after a dramatic conclusion to the Championship.

In what was a spectacular afternoon of rugby, Joe Schmidt’s side finished top of the table, winning on points difference from England. It is only the second time that Ireland has retained the title, the previous being Karl Mullen’s side of 1949. With Wales having beaten Italy by 61 points to 20, Joe Schmidt’s side knew that they had to beat Scotland by 21 points to overtake Wales in the standings. Ireland raced to a 40 points to 10 victory, equaling Ireland’s biggest ever Championship win over Scotland and in doing so setting England the challenge of needing to beat France by 26 points to take the title. Jared Payne scored his first international try and it was advantage Ireland with just one game left in the 2015 RB 6 Nations.

However, they couldn’t get over the line one more time and their 55 points to 35 win wasn’t enough. Ireland were Champions. Ulster Captain, Rory Best, speaking after the Scotland game, hailed Ireland’s character at Murrayfield: “To score 40 points away from home is very special,” he said. “It was nice to sign off with our best performance of the Championship.” Rory and the rest of the Ireland team are champions once again. An extraordinary end to remarkable day. A huge congratulations to Ireland. What an incredible achievement for Irish rugby’s class of 2015 which includes Rory Best, Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne and Iain Henderson.

RBS 6 NATIONS CHAMPIONS In the third remarkable match of the day, England scored a try after only 90 seconds through Ben Youngs.

France competed throughout but when Jack Nowell went over with five minutes remaining, England had a 20 point advantage and only needed a converted try to win the Championship.

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ULSTER RUGBY

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