Wales beat Italy 24-3 to set up a potential Grand Slam-winning match against France at the Millennium Stadium next weekend. Their opponents were stern in defence in the first half, restricting Wales to a 9-3 half-time lead before Jamie Roberts and Alex Cuthbert scored second half tries.
England and France contested an exciting match in Paris and England prevailed 24-22 thanks to tries from Manu Tuilagi, Ben Foden and Tom Croft. England raced into a 14-3 lead early in the first half but a succession of French penalties brought them back into contention.
Tom Croft’s excellent solo try had appeared to secure the win for but an late try from Wesley Fofana put France within touching distance. Francois Trinh-Duc eyed up a drop goal which would have given France the win but his attempt dropped short of the posts.
Ireland registered a comfortable 32-14 win against Scotland in Dublin. Rory Best scored the game’s first try for Ireland after two penalties from Greig Laidlaw had given Scotland a 6-0 lead, and two more tries from Eoin Reddan and Andrew Trimble helped Ireland to a 22-14 lead at half-time.
A further ten points were added in the second half from Fergus McFadden and the boot of Jonathan Sexton.
Wales are in the driving seat as far as winning the championship is concerned. England need to beat Ireland and for Wales to lose to France for them to have any chance of snatching the title from under Welsh noses. Wales’s superior points difference means England would need themselves and France to win by a combined total of 38 points.
In the Premier League, Manchester United returned to the top of the table for the first time since October after beating West Brom 2-0 at Old Trafford. Wayne Rooney flicked in Javier Hernandez’s shot in the first half and he scored a second from the penalty spot after Ashley Young was fouled.
Manchester City slipped up away at Swansea to give United a one-point lead in the title race. Scott Sinclair missed a first-half penalty for the Swans but they continued to cause City problems in what was an open game.
Luke Moore headed in on 83 minutes to give Swansea a well-deserved lead. Micah Richards thought he had equalised late on but the goal was rightly ruled out for offside.
Liverpool kissed goodbye to any faint hope of qualifying for next season’s Champions League with a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland courtesy of a Nicklas Bendtner goal.
Interim Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo made it two wins from two – Didier Drogba scored his game’s only goal against Stoke.
Celtic scored four second-half goals to beat Dundee United 4-0 in the quarter final of the Scottish Cup to set up a semi-final against either St Mirren or Hearts who drew 2-2. Aberdeen beat Motherwell 2-1 and will face Hibs in the other semi.
Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat in his opening match at Indian Wells, going down 6-4 6-2 to world number 92 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Rafael Nadal progressed along with Juan Martin del Potro and Fernando Verdasco.
Justin Rose won the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral on Sunday after clawing back a three-shot deficit to American Bubba Watson. Rose finished 16-under – one ahead of Watson and a further shot clear of Rory McIlroy.
Great Britain’s women’s 4x400m relay team posted a world-best time of three minutes 28.76 seconds in winning gold at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Mo Farah finished fourth in the men’s 3,000m behind champion Bernard Lagat. Edwin Sol, whom Farah had collided with during the race, had been disqualified, moving Farah into a bronze medal-winning position, but the decision was reversed on appeal.
Bradley Wiggins won the Paris-Nice race, finishing just two seconds ahead of Dutchman Lieuwe Westra. Wiggins is only the second Brit to win the race after Tom Simpson’s victory in 1967.
