Best comebacks in the Six Nations and World Cup History

There have many great moments in rugby and the Six Nations and World Cup never fail to deliver. Whenever they are on, the two competitions bring us surprise after surprise and often, some pretty spectacular comebacks.

Below we run through the best comebacks of all time.

Wales 31-24 Scotland: Six Nations

Rewind to 2010 and it’s Wales v Scotland in the Six Nations. Wales started the game under huge pressure, they headed into the tie on the back of defeat and owed it to a packed-out Millennium Stadium to deliver something special.

But with five minutes left on the clock, Warren Gatland’s men were tailing by a deficit of ten points and defeat looked certain. Ryan Jones shovelled it onto Shane Williams who managed to wriggle out of a challenge by a fraction of margin to find Lee Byrne.

Byrne escaped the defender to allow Halfpenny to win the try. Jones wasted no time with the conversion and suddenly, Scotland’s ten-point lead was reduced to just three, with three minutes to go.

After that, it was all Wales, they wanted it more than ever and weren’t prepared to go down without fight. After a succession of failed attacks, Jamie Roberts set Byrne away but he’s massively outnumbered and after attempting a chip in behind Phil Godman, he’s brought to ground and wins his side a penalty with Godman sinbinned for his troubles.

No-one could watch, unsure whether Wales would take the penalty to equalise or go for a winning try. Stephen Jones opted to take the penalty and draw things even with just 15 seconds on the clock.

Scotland were then desperate for the ball so they could put it out and end the game but Wales were hell bent on victory. On what was likely to be their last attack of the game, Alun Wyn Jones carried it in, Richie Rees picked out Shane Williams who clinched victory with a dramatic try.

It was a heart stopping end to a match that broke Scottish hearts but one Wales fans will talk about for years to come.

France 43-31 New Zealand: World Cup

New Zealand eased through the 1999 Rugby World Cup and were huge favourites to progress to the final as they faced France in the semis. France were never given a hope and the All Blacks were expected to dominate the entirety of the game.

And it looked as though they would prove everyone right, heading into the second-half they were 24-10 up but then came something special.

Christophe Lamaison was the last person anybody thought would spur a magical comeback for Les Blues, he had been overlooked by the selectors prior to the game and only made the grade following an injury to Thomas Castaignede.

That may have been what spurred Lamaison on, from the off, he looked fierce and tore through the All Blacks defence for the first try.

In the second-half, he went onto crush that 24-10 deficit and Christophe Lamaison finished the tire with a try, two drop goals and two penalties under his belt, accumulating a huge 28-point match haul to help his country mount one of the most unexpected comebacks of all time.

And what’s better is that he did with such ease.

Romania 17-15 Canada: World Cup

Still to this day, it’s hard to get your head around Romania’s 2015 victory over Canada. The Romanians produced a huge shock when they mounted the biggest ever comeback the Rugby World Cup has ever seen.

There was less than half four left on the clock and Romania were losing 15-0, it looked like a sure victory for Canada and a hapless showing from Romania.

Though the Oaks soon showed us it would be anything but a hapless showing when captain Mihai Macovei and Florin Vlaicu combined to make it 15-7. Macovei then produced again in the 74^th minute when his second score was converted by Vlaicu again to make it 15-14, they were growing agonisingly close to gaining a shock lead.

Canada were down to 14 men after Jebb Sinclair was sinbinned with just right minutes remaining. The Oaks had the belief they could go onto win the game to write themselves into the history books and that did just that. Vlaicu was marvellous as he held his nerve to nail a penalty home to make the score17-15 with just two minutes remaining.

It was Romania’s first win of the competition and what a way to win it. Macovei was excellent as he became the first Romanian captain to score a world cup try since Haralambie Dumitras in 1991, in a victory over Fiji, which coincidentally also ended 17-15.