LONDON, 21 March 2004 — World Cup holders England survived a huge scare as they beat Wales 31-21 in the Six Nations to avoid a second successive Twickenham defeat yesterday.

The result gave them three wins out of four and took them to the top of the table although France, England’s final opponents, will regain the lead with victory in Scotland today.

England winger Ben Cohen scored two tries while fly-half Olly Barkley, a late stand-in, kicked 16 points.

The home side led 16-9 at the break having scored a try in the opening minutes, capitalizing on a fumbled Welsh lineout and working left where Cohen powered over past two defenders. But Wales came out again full of fire and scored two quick tries to go 21-16 up, Gareth Thomas crashing into the right corner at the end of two cut-out passes and winger Shane Williams brilliantly setting up centre Mark Taylor on the left.

Cohen, however, picked up at a ruck on the Welsh line and stretched over despite two tacklers lifting him off the ground. Substitute flanker Joe Worsley touched down in the final moments.

Ireland Beat Italy in Windswept Dublin

Ireland kept alive their hopes of a first Six Nations title in 19 years by beating Italy 19-3 but failed to rack up the bumper points tally they had hoped for.

Thwarted by a howling wind and occasional squalls of sweeping rain at Lansdowne Road, Eddie O’Sullivan’s side had to settle for three tries — from Malcolm O’Kelly, Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Horgan — and two Ronan O’Gara conversions.

They will now almost certainly need something akin to a cricket score in their final match against Scotland next Saturday to stand any chance of wrestling the trophy from either England or unbeaten France.

Ireland have three wins from four matches to England’s two from three and France’s three from three.

The Irish should, however, go from here to clinch their first Triple Crown since 1985. Their performance, as in their famous Twickenham victory two weeks ago, suggested they will be too strong for Scotland in Dublin next week.

Despite running the match from the kick-off, it took Ireland a full half-hour to open the scoring and when they finally made the breakthrough it came from an abysmal Italian error.

With hooker Fabio Ongaro sin-binned, substitute No. 8 Carlo Festuccia tried to surprise the Irish with a short line-out yards from his own tryline but succeeded only in wrong-footing his teammates.

Irish lock O’Kelly stooped to collect the low throw and hurled himself over the line for the simplest of tries.

Ireland’s second, seven minutes later, was a different story and proved once again why O’Driscoll is one of the most feared opponents in world rugby.

Picking up the ball in front of the posts, the blond-haired skipper drifted leftwards and befuddled the defense with a series of subtle dummies and feints before squeezing home for his third try of the tournament.

O’Gara converted despite the atrocious conditions and nearly extended Ireland’s lead on the stroke of halftime with a penalty which bounced back off the left upright.