Ulster Rugby vs Cardiff Blues

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22 ULSTERRUGBY
RBS 6 NATIONS CHAMPIONS
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.
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.
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.