I was vaguely interested in rugby as a child; we used to play it in the playground, although we didn’t have a rugby ball (any kind of ball would do), none of us knew the rules, and it resembled a particularly vicious bout of British Bulldogs more than the game we know and love today.
Then, in my twenties, I found myself in Detroit working with a load of Brits and French, and there was a local Irish pub, Dick O’Dow’s, that put on all the Five Nations matches. Of course they started at an unreasonable time in the morning, and of course this did not deter us from assembling to watch them, and downing the Guinness in camaradic rivalry.
It starts like that: you think you’re just getting together with some colleagues for a little fun, then you start watching other Test matches, maybe a few European Cup matches, and before you know it, you’re obsessively watching obscure dead rubbers in the Pro-infinity and desperately starting a rugby blog because the one you’ve become addicted to has suddenly disappeared.
As a footnote, during the last World Cup but one, we went to a pub in Cardiff after one of the matches (possibly that horrible one where Ireland were knocked out by Argentina), and there was a bloke there who we overheard mentioning Detroit.
“Oh,” I said, “I used to live in Detroit. I went to watch all the matches at Dick O’Dow’s.”
Turned out the bloke was the one who’d brought the television rights to Detroit, so responsible for my addiction. Small world.
Right, on to the matches!
Italy v France
Teams
Italy: Jacopo Trulla, Luca Sperandio, Marco Zanon, Juan Ignacio Brex, Montanna Ioane, Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney, Cherif Traorè, Luca Bigi (c), Marco Riccioni, Marco Lazzaroni, David Sisi, Sebastian Negri, Johan Meyer, Michele Lamaro
Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi, Danilo Fischetti, Giosué Zilocchi, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Maxime Mbandà, Guglielmo Palazzani, Carlo Canna
France: Brice Dulin, Teddy Thomas, Arthur Vincent, Gaël Fickou, Gabin Villière, Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Dupont, Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand, Mohamed Haouas, Bernard Le Roux, Paul Willemse, Dylan Cretin, Charles Ollivon (c), Grégory Alldritt
Replacements: Pierre Bourgarit, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Dorian Aldegheri, Romain Taofifenua, Anthony Jelonch, Baptiste Serin, Louis Carbonel, Damian Penaud
Blog ‘wisdom’
Anything but finishing first will be considered a failure in France. I doubt there’ll be a Grand Slam, given that France will travel to both England and Ireland, albeit in empty stadia. (Flair99)
France by 13 over Italy – the Italians will have their customary strong start to the 6N before injury and lack of depth give those following bonus point chances. (Deebee7)
That’s about all anyone had to say about this match.
England v Scotland
Teams
England: 15. Elliot Daly, 14. Anthony Watson, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ollie Lawrence, 11. Jonny May, 10. Owen Farrell (C), 9. Ben Youngs, 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Jamie George, 3. Will Stuart, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Mark Wilson, 7. Tom Curry, 8. Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Beno Obano, 18. Harry Williams, 19. Courtney Lawes, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Dan Robson, 22. George Ford, 23. Max Malins.
Scotland: 15. Stuart Hogg (C), 14. Sean Maitland, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Cameron Redpath, 11. Duhan van der Merwe, 10. Finn Russell, 9. Ali Price, 1. Rory Sutherland, 2. George Turner, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Scott Cummings, 5. Jonny Gray, 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Hamish Watson, 8. Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: 16. David Cherry, 17. Oli Kebble, 18. WP Nel, 19. Richie Gray, 20. Gary Graham, 21. Scott Steele, 22. Jaco van der Walt, 23. Huw Jones.
BLOG ‘WISDOM’
There was a bit more interest in this match.
Full-strength Scotland at Twikkers confident of catching England cold, anticipating many England players off the pace.
As it turns out, Scotland, as usual, force the game and surrender numerous knock-ons in promising attacking positions.
Ford, Farrell, Slade, Daly kick, kick and kick. May secures two kick-chase TDs (Hogg missing his tackles) and Farrell doesn’t miss a kick – conversion or penalty. Slade intercepts a long, telegraphed Russell flat pass for England’s 3rd try. LC-D barrels over late in the game for the fourth.
Final score 40 – 10 as Ritchie gets the consolation and Genge gives up 3 points and a yellow card for lamping Watson.Dream on……………………………………………………. (SladeIs42)
My dark horse, as often, are Scotland, specially as they start with England. With a bit of wind in their sails, they could go pretty far. But then, that’s what we say every year. (Flair, ibid)
Dayboo for young Redpath, and probably Cherry off the bench
Hope Turner can keep the heid & his darts are a worry. Not convinced yet by Fagerson junior at 8 but hope he steps up a bit. Bigger Gray back is good, he’s been looking back in form.
England by 20. (Chimpie)
” Daly = Hogg in many ways.”
Good lord, Slade. What pills have you been taking ?
Was going to announce Ford to bench before the team came out, Eddie just couldn’t play Ford ahead of Faz after Squidge report. Could this be the day a total Owen meltdown costs England the game? Dunno about chipping in behind Farrell, I think running thru him is a better option, with a nifty little offload down low.
So, the scene is set for George to come on with 20 mins to go, and England 20 points behind, will he secure the comeback win ? Has Owen been practicing spiral bombs ??? Nope, cos Eddie rarely brings on subs until its too late for them to change the game.
Scotland by 10. (SunbeamTim)
England by 12 over Scotland – Scots passion, fury and flingaboutery will keep them close until the 65 minute mark when George Ford comes on to change gears and get the spluttering engine purring. (Deebee7, ibid)
Wales v Ireland
Teams
Wales: 15. Leigh Halfpenny, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. George North, 12. Johnny Williams, 11. Hallam Amos, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Tomos Williams, 1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ken Owens, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Adam Beard, 5. Alun Wyn Jones (capt), 6. Dan Lydiate, 7. Justin Tipuric, 8. Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: 16. Elliot Dee, 17. Rhodri Jones, 18. Leon Brown, 19. Will Rowlands, 20. Josh Navidi, 21. Gareth Davies, 22. Callum Sheedy, 23. Nick Tompkins.
Ireland: 15. Hugo Keenan, 14. Keith Earls, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. James Lowe, 10. Jonathan Sexton (capt), 9. Conor Murray, 1. Cian Healy, 2. Rob Herring, 3. Andrew Porter, 4. Tadhg Beirne, 5. James Ryan, 6. Peter O’Mahony, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. CJ Stander.
Replacements: 16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Dave Kilcoyne, 18. Tadhg Furlong, 19. Iain Henderson, 20. Will Connors, 21. Jamison Gibson Park, 22. Billy Burns, 23. Jordan Larmour.
BLOG ‘WISDOM’
The Irish have been shy on this one. Not surprised, because I honestly don’t have any idea either.
Wales by 2 over Ireland – early season burglary by Wales over a fancied Irish side. (Deebee7, ibid) (boo, hiss)
I had the grizzles with Pivac’s Autumn teams, but this feels a tick better. Amos back (as NostradamIks predicted) is alright, not too bothered one way or the other. I much prefer Beard to Seb Davies, especially for his Aardman features.
I’m glad those run-outs for Botham and the Other-backrower-who’s-name-I-can’t-remember-but-it-was-hyphenated, are over for now. Don’t know much about the next big thing at centre called Williams since the last big thing at centre called Owen Williams, who turned out to be overrated and over-hyped – except by me of course. I hope to see what the fuss is about on Sunday.
Lydiate coming back is an odd one. I should be horrified, but I’m not, for some reason. I’m more curious to see how it goes than anything.
Positives are mainly a good pair of 9s, the usual suspects in Faletau and Tips, and two Drags to liven things up off the bench.
What I’m expecting is a stodgy attacking display, an improved set-piece, a mix of iffy and whiffy defending, and a right-good rogering at the breakdown.
Ireland’s to lose. (MisterIks)
I think we’d take them in a packed-out stadium. In a empty echoing cavern it’s theirs all day long. (TomPirracas)
My flabber is gasted by the absence of Wainwright. I simply overlooked it. Says to me that Pivac’s pendulum has swung from adventure to stolid, and Lydiate is there to stop the opposition, rather than start a bit of Welsh rugby.
Pivac out! (Iks again)
Some more general thoughts on the tournament:
Both England and Ireland seem rather stale at the moment, with little threat in attack but they can defend. It will be tight.
Wales look mediocre, Italy pffft…
England will probably bully every team but France, so should finish 1st or 2nd.
Wooden spoon beckons for Italy while Ireland and Wales should fight within the soft belly of the tournament. (Flair99, ibid)
Wales’ matches will in all probability be tedious affairs with depressing results. Or depressing affairs with tedious results. With it being the last hurrah for the Six Nations on proper telly and the unlikely occurrence of Test cricket on Channel 4 I expect to spend February watching an inordinate amount of sport from which I will glean no satisfaction whatsoever.
They’ll probably score the odd nice try either before hopelessly capitulating or more likely after the game is done as a contest. (ClydeMillarWynant)
Don’t think we’ve got a hope in hell, really. Haven’t played a Test since lifting the Webb Ellis trophy, half of our players are being denuded of their skills and enthusiasm by playing in England, we’ve got a long injury list and our domestic competitions have been pretty poor fare. (Deebee7, who frankly seems to be confused about which tournament we’re on about.)
Let the games begin! We all have the HOPEFEAR.
Onna telly this week
Friday 5th February
| Dragons v Connact | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Sale | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 6th February
| Wasps v Northampton | 13:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Italy v France | 14:15 | ITV |
| Bath v Harlequins | 14:15 | BT Sport Extra |
| Leicester v Worcester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| London Irish v Gloucester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| England v Scotland | 16:45 | ITV |
Sunday 7th February
| Newcastle v Exeter | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Wales v Ireland | 15:00 | BBC1 / S4C |
Ovally Balls 
Gwan Thauma!
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Great stuff Thaum.
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Grand opening to the tournament, thanks Thaum.
Hope the gritty Sale win wasn’t a precursor to gritty games tomorrow. No gritty until Sunday at the earliest please, Mr. Rugby Dog.
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Thanks for the kind words. This tournament means a lot to me. It is the Golden Chalice, the Holy Grail, the Reason for Being. If we get stuffed early on, I am depressed for a year.
I am not sanguine about our chances this year.
And goodnight! Must get a good sleep.
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Thanks Thaum. Sleep well.
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Lovely stuff Thauma! Can’t wait for the jousting to begin!
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Root goes to 200 with a 6 off Ashton!
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* Ashwin, autocorrect! Ashton probably would’ve taken his wicket, the bastard!
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Ashton comes from mining country so probably would be a fast bowler.
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Lovely intro Thaum – well done!
Ireland are very quiet and my dark horses – I think they will do well………….or is it a year too far for Murray/Sexton?
Oh , and thanks for the credits – Scotland by 1
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Morning everyone, 6 Nations will be weird without the crowds, but at least this little corner of the worldwide web generates its own atmosphere. Intriguing tournament this. France are my favourites – they seem to have a scary combination of forward power and guile behind; England look lumpen but powerful, I expect other teams to have worked out how to counter their tactics; Wales might start to shake off the Garland hangover and throw up some surprises; Ireland likely to be competitive but uninspiring; Scotland a threat to everyone; Italy – well, least said…
It feels like the script is written for Scotland to end their Twickenham hoodoo. Faz and Daly will miss tackles, there’s an inexperienced guy at 12 who will make at least one big error, and the scrum will probably creak. Will be watching from behind the sofa.
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Hi Dabs, How are you and the family doing now?
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Wales might start to shake off the Garland hangover
Nah. Too many tin men and heartless Lions I’m afraid.
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Great stuff Thaum, I’m right in the mood now.
I don’t think we will win today, pragmatism has got the better of my optimism, but it’s less painful this way.
But it’s not all about Scotland – I really hope we get great games, great as in exciting, even if they end up 3-3.
This is a strange one, but I still love the 6N.
oh and whilst I’m skirting around the subject, I read that Israel have developed a cure for Covid, or at least happened on one. It was originally developed to treat ovarian cancer but very early trials with a very small group have seen 30 out of 30 patients recover. With symptoms ranging from mild to severe 29 of them were discharged from hospital within three to five days and the last one going home a few days later.
This could be it, the cure would probably work for all mutations, so buying time to change the vaccine if and when necessary
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Ticht – that is truly great news! Let’s hope it passes trials.
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Good morning, everybody. I trust you’re all well? And nice ATL, Thaum!
Apparently there’s some form of international rugby tournament about to begin, so I thought I’d pop in to wish you and the teams much goodness.[^1]
Best wished to all!
[^1]: Or, as much goodness as can be accommodated within the overall framework of an England Grand Slam. [^2]
[^2]: An England Grand Slam still being theoretically possible until Scotland deprives us of the possibility by half-time this evening as righteous judgement against Boris Johnson.
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Great to see you DCI. Hope all are well?
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Apparently Adam Ant taught Phil Collins to play the drums. Not sure who I should hate more.
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Greetings DCI! You’ve been missed! And a couple of the denizens from North of the Wall have got quite cocky in your absence.
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In the late 60s? He joined Genesis in 1970 and had already been drumming for a few years. And he’s a fantastic drummer – or rather was, he can’t drum now due to ill health.
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Hi BB and DB!
We’re all well, thank you, though missing seeing the grandkids, of course. Apart from that, we’re very fortunate compared to many. Not been jabbed yet, but I don’t think it will be long now.
What about you? I imagine you’re at home at the moment, BB, with the schools being closed, but are you still gallivanting across the
free lunchcommercial trails of Africa, DB? Either way, I hope you’re managing as well as can be in the circus.LikeLike
On reflection, I think I hate Australian sports administrators more.
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DCI, haven’t traveled in exactly a year now. Chewing my arms off in frustration. Hoping to get to Ethiopia soon though. And Nigeria, Ghana and a couple of other places. But Covid restrictions here are still pretty hectic.
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I meant ‘circs’ rather than ‘circus’, obviously, but then we are governed by malevolent clowns, so perhaps it was appropriate.
DB: it must be difficult for you, being so used to travelling. Not so bad for me, as I’d be quite happy to stay at home anyway, but I realise I’m on the antisocial end of the spectrum. I hope you get your freedom soon.
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Seems like the clot on the radio got it wrong BB – Phil Collins produced a couple of Adam and the Ants’ songs. All is forgiven.
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DCI, it was ok for the first couple of months, but I was supposed to have gone to Italy three times last year as well as Mozambique, Senegal, Mauritania (would’ve been my 1st visit there) and others. Also wanted to visit my boy in Vietnam, but obviously that didn’t happen. So yeah, not great, but that’s life. Now we just need some great rugby this weekend all will be good!
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DB,
I hope you can be on the road again soon.
Anyway, the rugby weekend started very well last night with SAle’s totally unexpected win over Big Bad Bullying Bristol, so hopefully that’s a good sign that all the plucky deserving underdogs will win in the 6N… Come on Wales, Italy and England!
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Hi Tomp, we are fine thanks. The covid passed through without causing too much of an issue. Though yesterday Mrs Dab fainted at the end of a run, which shook her up. GP says it sounds like vaso-vagal syncope from how she described it and referring for tests. Hopefully not an after effect of Covid and hopefully nothing serious.
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Come on Wales, Italy and England!
Fuck off, Brookter.
;-)
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😘
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Now we’ve got the pleasantries out of the way, it’s good to hear you’re doing well.
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Dab – make sure they do some bloods on Mrs Dab. This has happened to me various times, and it’s always been the result of a lack of iron / potassium / B12.
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DCI- good to ‘see’ you dear boy
Was that you in the Handforth Council meltdown?
……………..thought so!
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Plus – all Exeter fans say a big ‘thankyou’ to Sale………………what I saw of looked pretty hard fought and Faf did some brilliant things in the first half, whilst Bristol’s scrum was bossing it.
Also, very good to see Beaumont playing again – he is really good.
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Gareth Edwards: the greatest conversion since St Paul.
I’m nicking that.
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Dab, that’s one piece of good news and one not so good.
My lad got sent home from kindergarten on Wednesday with a fever. He also had a headache and was unable to face eating anything. Woke up Thursday feeling better but my missus and he went for a test anyway. Came back negative thankfully and he’s right as rain now. Perhaps he is the only person in the world to have had flu this year?
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What ho, DCI!
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Cheers Thaum — I trust you and the Mister are as well?
Slade — sadly (ahem), my days of having to go to Council meetings of any sort are long behind me. It doesn’t surprise me that some of the participants were pompous arseholes — there are loads of really good councillors who are only in it because they’re public spirited, but others are just, well, pompous arseholes.
It was a good game yesterday — really didn’t expect Sale to win, and I expected us to lose it till the very end. The defence is very good, though, and you’re right, it’s great to see Billy’s Boy back. We’ve missed him.
How’s it going in the Pyrenees? Have you managed to mitigate the damage of the Brexit nonsense?
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Thaum, am not sure if Gareth Edwards came up with that. It’s long been called that.
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Hi, Tom! How’s the Czecho station going?
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Hello Brookter, Long time no see .
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Brookter – aye, we’re fine, thank you! Mental health seriously improved by not having to go into the office.
TomP – ah well, it was new to me. Laughed like a drain.
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DCI,, Prague’s ok a bit dull in that the pubs are all closed but we’re doing lots of walking. The CR went from success story last March/April to having one of the worst 2nd wave experiences.
Excitingly, we’re moving to Dublin in about 3 weeks as the missus has landed a posting there. Since I became an Irish citizen last year it’s a homecoming for me.
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Glad to hear it, Thaum!
Hi Ticht — how is the Great Return Home progressing? You must be getting close. And how are the daughters?
I thought of you and your Whisky tastings the other day when I opened a Christmas present. I’ve no idea whether it’s supposed to be any good or not, but it came in a green tin with a picture of a white Highland Terrier called Scallywag [1] on it, so that’s got to count for something right? Google thinks it’s this one, and who am I to disagree? https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/49131/scallywag-speyside-blended-malt-sock-gift-pack.
[1] The white highland terrier is of course the *entire* reason Mrs Brookter chose it.
I normally drink Famous Grouse with a spoonful of honey in it (I like to think of it as mead with attitude), but this is nice enough to drink neat, at least to my untutored tongue.
I hope you enjoy this afternoon’s game!
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DCI
Brexit impact on us has been very little (thankfully)
– we’ve stopped ordering from Amazon (or any other UK-based mail order) because of the increased costs of vat and duty. Now use a combination of amazon.fr and amazon.de. **
– transferring modest sums of money from the UK is very complicated now, grrr!
– it’s covid that has buggered visits and travel – including 18.00 to 06.00 curfew. We are well behind the uk in vaccinations but retain the moral high ground!
** – for those outside the UK, I often use amazon.co.uk to search for an item then, if I find what I want, cut and paste amazon’s own catalogue number for the item into .fr or .de to see if it is available on the mainland,.
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Tom,
Glad you’re all well. Moving to Ireland sounds wonderful – unfortunately none of my recent ancestors had the foresight to be Irish, so I can’t claim the passport. I envy you going to Dublin — Trinity Library on the doorstep, post-covid at least.
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That’s good, Slade. I take it you’ve been there long enough that you had most of the formalities sorted out well in advance. I can’t see that we’ll ever take the plunge now, though — we probably wouldn’t have got round to it even without Brexit, but it was nice to dream….
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Amazon, grr.
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Thaum
well….yes and no
we are in the sticks. we now shop for domestic consumables once per month. Any trip for something more complicated/specialised requires use of lots of petrol for not always a successful result.
e.g. I just bought bulk p.v.a. from amazon.de – it’s very expensive here in France vs. uk.
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All good here DCI, just sittin aboot the hoose, y’know?
The Great Move Home tm has been put on ice for a couple of years but it’s still the plan. Mrs TH took early retirement last March, just in time for lockdown so when my body clock still pings us awake at four thirty we can smugly roll over and go back to sleep
Hope all is well with you and yours
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