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 
It did seem that they missed out on all of the close calls last time round. Seem to be in a better place this time though despite strangely enough having to play in London and Paris!
LikeLike
TBH I’ll be disappointed if we lose this weekend. this has happened many times in the past though.
LikeLike
Good picture that, BB. I don’t think the ground was much different when I started going there in the mid 70s
LikeLike
I suppose it’s a once-in-a-lifetime ‘perfect storm’ but I always think back to Ireland-Italy in 2013 – Earls went off on 24′ and was replaced by Luke Fitz, the Marshall went off on 27′ – replaced by Madigan. O’Driscoll was yellow carded on 29′, and Luke Fitzgerald went off on 36’after 12 mins…. so Henderson came on at 6 and O’Mahony played wing…. so the 3/4s ended up with 2 subs (1 essentially a 10) and a blindside…. complete mess.
2013 was a very odd tournament for Ireland – started off with a great win in Wales (hanging on a bit after a great 1st half), lost a dour game to England in bitter weather, butchered any number of chances to have Scotland in the rear view mirror and then drew to France where coulda/shoulda won…. so disintegration vs Italy was just about par for the course….I guess any sense of belief or organization had long drained away
LikeLike
I’ll still be disappointed if Wales lose even though I fully expect them to!
LikeLike
Repath was really good last week, even after one game he is a big miss for us.
Thomson is a downgrade from Ritchie, Graham for Maitland is about evens, though they are different sorts of players, Mr Dependable vs Mr Something from nothing.
LikeLike
CMW, I’ve been disappointed for more than 20 years when it comes to Scottish rugby.
LikeLike
Trisk, is that the tournament they had to play 3 games over consecutive weekends because the France game got frosted off about 5 minutes before kick-off?
I was really looking forward to that game and had a fridge full of beer in for it. That I had then to drink.
LikeLike
@Ticht – I know. And once this weekend is over I look forward to hoping Scotland finally get top spot again.
LikeLike
To be fair to Ireland they don’t really go in for that sort of nonsense season very often compared to some other teams.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also, 2016 in Pretoria. South Africa went 6/2 on the bench v Australia. 3 of the Bok backs went off injured and Jaco Kriel replaced Rudy Paige for the last injury. Luckily, they had Francois Hougaard at wing to move to scrum half.
LikeLike
Thanks Ticht. It is one of those sites where you can disappear for hours. I found an old picture of the farm house from the farm dad worked on in the borders. Hasn’t changed much. Also found an old picture of the main street in Selkirk which had, literally, one man (onna cart) and a dug. Think there may also have been a wee girl at the side of the road – and that was it! Mind you, Selkirk’s not often that busy…
LikeLike
I recall we beat Oz with Marmion on the wing – when Kearney, Trimble, and Payne went off in short order – luckily the other 2 subs were Zebo and Carbery (decent player Marmion – people tend to forget he was at 9 when Ireland beat NZ in Dublin – he’s gotten a little forgotten in the Cooney/Gibson-Park wars)
LikeLike
That might have been the game in which Ryle Nugent went to ridiculous heights in his praise of the brave Irish lads.
Kieran Marmion was the only Welsh lad to get a win over Australia in a decade.
LikeLike
It was the year before …2012 – we drew 2 on the bounce with France.
LikeLike
I doubt it…… :-D
LikeLike
Ah, right. That was the end of the Kidney era, no?
I watched both the England and Scotland games in 2013 with some Irish mates in a pub here in Prague. The next time we watched a match in that boozer was Australia v Lions Test 2. We agreed never to watch another game together in that establishment.
Lions Test 3 in 2013 was over a long weekend here in the Czechlands. We went to Chiemsee in Germany for some lake swimming and I was looking forward to watching the game on catch-up the Monday after, having avoided the result in the meantime. My parents were at the game and my mother, in her excitement at the victory, sent me a text telling me how happy she was that the Lionz had won.
LikeLike
Can’t think of any other examples of a team winning when they had to put a scrum half on the wing. No, none at all.
LikeLike
Ben Youngs made his debut as a sub on the wing vs Scotland in 2010
LikeLike
Based on the last couple of minutes against Ireland I think it might be safer if Wales put Gareth Davies on the wing against Scotland.
LikeLike
Tomos Williams is probably the injury I’m most disappointed about to be honest. Apparently he may well miss the rest of the tournament. Think he would have had a big part to play if Wales really were going to play a more attractive style.
LikeLike
Squidge:
LikeLike
I think this is the point where I ask Refit what he thinks about current use of DRS in cricket.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hey!
I got a ‘like’ from Beadle
…………………………….shouts: Hi,Beadle!
LikeLike
Hi Slade. Am alive but just dipping in and out*. Going to try to force myself into watching the 6N. Had gafiated a bit through most of last year*. Life going through a bit of a grind (no need to ask, it’s all very boring). Hope the 6N might kickstart a much-needed renewed passion in the game*.
*much like Glaws.
LikeLike
The glaring bright glare glaring brightly, is that Wales aren’t at the races at the breakdown, and that team selection changes nothing – although it seems that the cupboard is bare anyway because of injuries.
Get yer boots on, Ryan Jones!
LikeLike
Wrong-fandom-jargon-usage-alert.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAFIA
LikeLike
* Glares dully at Iks *
LikeLike
“fannish doings”
hmm.
LikeLike
Just in case you are thinking of converting to Catholicism before tomorrow I just thought I’d remind you that you are forbidden from eating oranges sprinkled with Oxo on a Friday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beadle – how was the 1st weekend in terms of 6n passion generation?
LikeLike
My hopefear for the weekend is tending massively towards fear. Bleugh.
LikeLike
Utter filth. He’s old enough to be your father-in-law.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just attended a local party meeting that went quite Handforth Parish. There were accusations of not following rules, f-bombs and people dropping out in protest. It was wonderful.
LikeLiked by 2 people
@thauma
Was there a Jackie Weaver equivalent? She’s my hero.
LikeLike
In the sense that there was someone going, ‘Thanks for your opinion, now fuck off’ (not in those words), yes. Although no-one was forcibly removed.
LikeLike
My favourite villain in the Handforth Parish Council meeting is Aled’s iPad, particularly the bit where he twice whisper-shouts “we’re trying to have a teams meeting YOU FOOL” at someone off camera.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@craigs a mixed bag really, thanks for asking.
I got to see the try highlights package for Italy France and definitely agree with ?Iks that the last one was offside from the kick. I phased in and out of the England Scotland game but enough to see why I really struggle to support England, feeling a sense of quiet satisfaction when the Scots closed the game out. There was an interruption to the Last game with an episode of Escape to the Country – POM seemed quite evil on replay and I felt badly for Burns the Younger at the death. Not convinced he is international level but this would be an unfair moment to fire him into the sun. Was that his first cap? Some issues with staying logged into the blog preventing me from LRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZing.
Am looking forward to two of the three games next week anyway.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Year of the beaver.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/12/record-number-of-beavers-to-be-released-in-britain-this-year
LikeLike
I trust no-one questioned your authority, Thaum
LikeLike
Interesting stat: Only 4 starters for Scotland played the fixture vs. Wales 2 years ago. That’s quite a turnover of players.
LikeLike
I went to a parish council meeting once in person who you might all remember. About the scaffold on my house and potential delays.
I recall kicking em all in the nuts repeatedly until they did what I wanted. I think.
LikeLike
I reckon:
Scotland > Wales by 4
This goes against my deep-seated pessimism but got to back form at some point. General cohesion will keep Wales pinned back but usual inability to get points on the board will keep the boyos in it. Wales have some quality players in there and they’ll get over the line a couple of times.
England > Italy by 30
Hope Italy put up more of fight than last week. They’ve got a few bright sparks – like the look of Garbisi – but this is a very young and inexperienced team, too early for them to start pulling out results. England will grind and kick Italy down and run up a respectable score with the Best Fly-Half in the World playing. Eddie will then drop Ford for the next game.
Ireland > France by 2
Yes, I’m going out on a limb here for Ireland without human missile POM to put a shock one over on France. Would it be that much of a shock though? France ran up 35 points against Ireland last time out but there was only an 8 point difference at full time. Ireland at home hurting after last week’s effort vs. Wales, I’m going with a home victory here.
LikeLike
My fannish doings:
Wales > Scotland by 1
Entire game takes place in Wales half giving Scotland an impressive 6-0 lead only for LRZ to go the length of the field at the death. Biggar converts from the touchline and bounces around on his space-hoppers to general disgust.
France > Ireland by 6
Ireland are just the sort of miserable bastards to spoil everything by grinding down France and stopping the beautiful game at source. But there’s been positive beaver news today.
England > Italy by 40
Italy are crap.
LikeLike
Squidge always has some really interesting insights, but man, he’s annoying and throws in a lot of bollocks as well.
LikeLike
Nazareth > Budgie (by 10)
Genesis > PFM (by 25)
U2 < Lazuli (by 12)
LikeLike
am I going to have to google prog bands now?
LikeLike
‘Entire game takes place in Wales half giving Scotland an impressive 6-0 lead only for LRZ to go the length of the field at the death. Biggar converts from the touchline and bounces around on his space-hoppers to general disgust.’
This is all too plausible. Starting to get the fear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can play this game too:
Wales> Scotland by 4 – winners have enough ‘dog’ to resist Scots missing last week’s adrenalin rush
Ireland > France by 3 – game of the week-end – Ireland a team full of grit and experience
England > Italy by 25 – in reality, score could be anything dependant on tactics adopted: an inaccurate kicking game could make it closer, as could a good performance by Italy up to the 60 minute mark causing confusion in England’s headless ranks. If Italy collapse England could get 70. Whatever, it’s unlikely to be a credit to the Competition. As stated above, Ford will be back to the bench afterwards and George restored.
LikeLike