Greetings Hils:
Unfortunately I did not see or hear the match. Below is a nice
account of the Italy-France. I agree with you, it is a shame that no
shortwave station broadcast any of the matches. They are missing a
great opportunity to widen their listening audiences. I really thought
France would show much better than they have this year. Looks like
England is the class of the field.

Just in case you are unaware, a website that provides outstanding
coverage of the Six Nations Rugby competition is:http://
www.rbs6nations.com/en/home.php
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Best Regards,
Priest

Bergamasco puts the boot into France
Mirco Bergamasco was Italy's hero as the Azzurri secured an historic
first RBS 6 Nations defeat of France in a nailbiting 22-21 victory at
the Stadio Flaminio.

Morgan Parra's 50th minute try put France 18-6 ahead but Nick
Mallett's men mounted a stunning comeback thanks to Andrea Masi's try
and three second-half penalties from Bergamasco.
There was little sign of the drama to come in a turgid first half in
which Vincent Clerc's try put France 8-6 ahead.

But just when France seemed to be home and hosed early in the second
half, Italy showed tremendous fighting spirit to edge ahead with just
four minutes to go.

In a nerve-shredding finale, Italy held off a series of French scrums
to spark wild scenes at the Stadio Flaminio as they recorded only
their second ever win over Les Bleus and their first in Rome.

Italy did actually take an early lead when an offside offence by
France captain Thierry Dusautoir allowed Bergamasco to kick Italy
ahead.

With Italy gaining the early ascendancy at the scrums and showing
ferocious intent in the tackle, the visitors struggled to establish
any sort of rhythm.

Yet after winger Yoann Huget came close to winning the footrace to
reach Francois Trinh-Duc's kick behind the Italy defence, France did
make the through breakthrough on 15 minutes.

This time play was switched to the left wing where Clerc chipped over
Gonazalo Canale before turning on the gas to touch down his first Six
Nations try since running in a hat-trick against Ireland in 2008.
Parra though missed the conversion.

Les Bleus so nearly grabbed a second try soon after but Aurelien
Rougerie's outstretched arm fell just short of the tryline.

From the resulting 5m scrum, referee Bryce Lawrence penalised the
Azzurri allowing Parra to stroke over a penalty to make it 8-3.

After spending the majority of the opening quarter on the backfoot,
centre Canale brought the home crowd to its feet with a surging run
into the heart of the France 22.

Although they could not spread play quickly enough to force a try they
had the consolation of a penalty that Bergamasco kicked to keep Italy
firmly in the game.

A combination of committed Italian defence and a high error count
continued to frustrate France's attacking ambitions but early in the
second half Martin Castrogiovanni was pinged for holding on which gave
Parra the opportunity to put the visitors 11-6 ahead.

The scrum-half then lit up the match with a superb try on 50 minutes
when Trinh-Duc sliced through the Italian defence before offloading to
his half-back partner to go under the posts. Parra converted his own
score.

Italy's hopes of forcing their way back into the match appeared to
fade as Bergamasco missed two penalty attempts that would have brought
them to within four points.

But they did haul themselves into the contest when flanker Robert
Barbieri hammered his way into the French 22. The chance seemed to
have gone as Tommaso Benvenuti failed to offload in the tackle but
scrum-half Fabio Semenzato switched play to the blindside for the
veteran Masi to smash his way over in the corner.

From 5m on the touchline, Bergamasco held his nerve to slot the
conversion to reduce the deficit to 18-13 and then raised the roof at
the Stadio Flaminio with a 64th minute penalty.

After Trinh-Duc's attempted drop goal whistled just wide, Parra
exchanged penalties with Bergamasco to keep the deficit at just two
points.

And having so often cost his team with his poor kicking, Bergamasco
was his team's saviour with a brilliant touchline penalty with four
minutes to go and, unlike against Ireland, they maintained their
narrow advantage.

Oops. Here is a link that works.
http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/home.php