What a first round that was: grit, determination, superb skills and complete brainfarts. Think the competition is wide open, and unsure where to make your Superbru picks? Don’t worry, our OvallyBalls experts on crack are here to progrocknIksate what will happen this weekend.
Deebee7 was quick off the mark with his predictions:
England, chastised and sobered by the realisation that they couldn’t simply kick ‘n bosh their way past feisty Scotland pick the biggest side in rugby history so they can KICK ‘N BOSH their way over, through and not around Italy, who, having realised that their first-up tackling was well below par and know what’s coming their way, pick 15 Saffas to BOSH BACK against England. Problem is, they’re playing for Italy because they can’t make it into better sides. England by 47 despite themselves.
Scotland, fresh from the Trashing of Twickers™ are primed, ready, purring and full of confidence for the visit of an abject Welsh side that had to rely on red mist and a brain fart to see off Ireland. The mercenary English Army and Tartan Boks who were apparently the only reason Edward’s Army tripped at Twickers have a solid tight five, fury in the loose forwards, flying outside backs and the Best 10 in the World™ ready to unleash hell on the journeymen from the Valleys. Thing is, it’s not their Game of the Season™ and with all their raison d’etre exhausted last week, Wales will give them the fright of their lives! But not enough to actually win it. Scotland by a couple in a low-scoring affair.
Ireland, stunned by stupidity and seething with intent, await the thoroughbreds of France, fresh from their opening training run against Italy. Expect a titanic struggle up front with neither pack giving an inch (easy on the Karl button, Iks). Ireland should be without Sexton which gives France a HUGE advantage behind the pie-munchers, and with the greyhounds and whippets willing to give it a lash, it could be a long afternoon at the Palindrome. But if the Irish are one thing, it’s bloody minded, determined and fucking difficult to boss around on their home patch (thank dog no World Cups hosted there yet). Too close to call!
Chimpie is more or less in agreement:
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.
ClydeMillarWynant is ever the misfit:
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.
BorderBoy couldn’t resist bringing Prog into it:
Nazareth > Budgie (by 10)
Genesis > PFM (by 25)
U2 < Lazuli (by 12)
SladeIs#42 is sucking up to the mister:
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.
Craigsman is getting all political on our arses:
Sturgeon > Drakeford by 5LePen Macron > Adams by 10
Bojo > Berlusconi by 15
I was just going to include far right politicians / arseholes. I managed a few arseholes but couldn’t be bothered to Welsh political arseholery.
Sunbeamtim goes for the philosophical approach:
Looks like Big Faz realises that France are going to hammer Ireland whichever way, so has thrown in a 9 and 10 as sacrificial lambs to protect young payers. End of JGP and BB’s International careers ?
Very enthusiastic about all the talk of how disgraceful Italy are, and how they should be thrown out of the comp, and how its a non game for a proper side. I see Italy as being fitter and more coherent than they have ever been, and one step off defensively is all it takes to be hammered by a Tier one side. Setting someone up for a big fall somewhere this season.
Scotland and Wales both hammered by injuries, too close to call, game of the weekend.
Flair99‘s been watching my nightmares:
England by 29
Scotland by 7
France by 11.
Don’t harrumph me, I was wrong twice last week.
Not sure the omission of Sexton and Murray is a good thing for France but it is certainly a good thing for them. Enough of these concussed players blaming the doctors. I hope they recover soon.
Onna telly this week
Friday 12th February
| Gloucester v Bristol | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Sale v Bath | 20:00 | BT Sport Extra |
Saturday 13th February
| England v Italy | 14:15 | ITV |
| Harlequins v Leicester | 16:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Exeter v London Irish | 16:15 | BT Sport Extra |
| Scotland v Wales | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C |
Sunday 14th February
| Worcester v Wasps | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Ireland v France | 15:00 | ITV |
Ovally Balls 
Here’s the newest wheeze:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuwtxuAWgAYFO_A?format=jpg&name=900×900
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Anyone asked the IOM for their opinion?
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Who’d have through this would end up as a nail biter?
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This game has 34-34 written all over it
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That was a good game
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Finished 34-34, with LIR dropping the ball in a 4 on 1.
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That was kind of Bristol towards their Exeter neighbours!
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Test
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Damn. Lost a long post about French players affected by covid. Will try to retype it.
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Two more French players tested positive, Marchand and Vincent. That’s 5 of the starters vs Ireland unavailable.
Two subs, Rebbadj and Gros sent back home as potential threats. The FFR already called 7 new players : Bamba, Baubigny, Woki, Bezy, Moefana, Tao- the winger- .
Three coaches, Galthié, Ibanez and Ghezal unavailable . Only Labit and Edwards left, so no forwards training this week.
More tests tom
According to Midol, three possibilities :
Scotland win 28/0
Game postponed. ( but when?)
Game goes ahead if France can guarantee (how?) they can field enough covid free players.
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Damn, fat fingers! Should read like this:
“More test results tomorrow. The 6N comitee should take a decision on Tuesday. So three possibilities:
28/0 for Sco.
Postponed
Goes ahead, but with which players?”
I know they’re more important matters but I feel a bit deflated.
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Covid’s probably too scared to infect Edwards.
Speaking of whom, this is glorious. I love that they’ve given him French subtitles. “Avec le rip”.
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flair, I saw a report that they might have caught it off the French 7z squad, who trained with them in the week before the Ireland game.
If true, shows once more the dangers that 7z presents.
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@refit
That sounds like my GCSE French oral exam.
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He’s doing quite a good job with his French. And clearly a good job with his French defence.
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Hastings back, but Redpath still oot. Thankfully, so are G. Graham and Thomson, neither of whom have really impressed. Ritchie back which is good.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56148811
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Fair play that’s pretty impressive from Shaun. If he went there without any French at all then it is marvellous.
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France look determined to play the fixture, Flair. I like it a lot.
Also it feels like they trust the lads stepping in and stepping up. I hope it works out because I reckon they will not let you down on the playing field, because there seems to be a determination and will back in the set-up of the National team that the players have finally bought into.
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Tomp, yes there is that possibility. France 7 trained with the XV squad and they had to cancel their participation to the tournament in Madrid this week as 7 of them were positive.
But they were tested a couple of times before training with Galthié’s boys, so the origin of the contamination is still unclear.
Funny, that Edwards’ reputation. He seems well liked by the French players and certainly not feared. He may be a bit more reserved, being a foreigner and not yet fluent ? But his efforts to learn the language are quite commendable and certainly respected by players when most of them don’t speak English as well as he speaks French.
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Mriks, I believe France want to play on the planned date. I just hope not too many will test positive since then. I’d hate the fixture to be cancelled or even postponed. If it’s France B or C, so be it. The subs’subs weren’t too shabby vs England. They may not beat Scotland but I don’t mind.
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That map’s ridiculous, Kintyre isn’t even on it.
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CMW – obviously, Kintyre is the closest to Norn Iron, but there’s no infrastructure there as far as I know. So you’d need to build road and/or rail.
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Has anyone here seen much of Bath’s Josh Bayliss?
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No, he kept his clothes on.
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@Thaum – The whole point of linking Northern Ireland to Scotland is to save my mother-in-law’s sanity and this latest is of no use whatsoever.
There is a road to Campbeltown. It’s quite a special one. Obviously there’s a motorway from Campbeltown to the Mull.
Other than Bing which reckons the nearest one is in India the internet will helpfully suggest railway stations not that far from Campbeltown. Unfortunately they’re in Ayrshire so you’d need to be a very strong swimmer or face up to a drive of about five and a half hours. In reality the nearest station is I think at Tarbet on Loch Lomond. Nobody coming out of Kintyre by public transport would use it unless they were going north as once you’re on the bus you’d stay on it to Glasgow.
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The whole point of linking Northern Ireland to Scotland is to save my mother-in-law’s sanity
This made me LOL.
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Had a quick check and by road Campbeltown is the town in the UK (islands excepted) that is furthest from a railway station. Build the Torr Head-Mull of Kintyre Rail Tunnel Now!
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@Thaum – It may turn out to be too late for her sanity, but it would still cheer her up so I feel it would be worthwhile.
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Tunnel across the Firth of clyde, then tunnel from mull of kintyre. Simples
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Imagine the consultancy fees of looking into the feasibility! The lunches would be glorious!
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You called, Chimpie?
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Everyone out to a glorious lunch it would seem.
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Got 3 hours to wait for my non-glorious lunch.
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The norn Irish end of the tunnel seems to come out around portavogie on the ards peninsula which has absolutely no infrastructure around it and roads that regularly get closed due to storm damage. One of the last times I was passing through the village there was a house with an Ulster Scots for Trump 2020 flag outside it.
You can get very nice scampi there though and I got a puppy there once too
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@MICHAELW448
Do you have any anecdotes about either Cushendun or Cushendall? My mum’s side of the family comes from there and it would be worth me learning something trivial from the region.
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@ourterry
I think Larry and Thaum would be better at Antrim based anecdotes.
They’re nice spots, though can get a bit overrun with visitors in the summer or any glimpse of sunshine.
The last time I was there , I’d just missed out on an evening with Bik McFarlane who was reminiscing about his escape from the Maze in the early 80s.
You could also throw in something about Richard Branson’s balloon crashing into the sea and having to be rescued by the Rathlin islanders
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@mickeynumbers
That is perfect. The best bit for me is that you didn’t go to an evening with Bik McFarlane, but you might have done had you known it was on.
And the bit about Branson is a beauty, I didn’t know that.
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I was there with my kids who were about 9 months old at the time so I think I’d have given the talk a miss even if I’d been there on the right date.
Branson actually went back to the island and paid for a community centre to be refurbished to say thanks for the rescue
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Ollivon, Dulin, Taofifenua, Mauvaka & Baille now tested positive. Boo.
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“Gaëtan BARLOT (0 sélection, Castres Olympique), Thierry PAIVA (0 sélection, Union Bordeaux Bègles), Cyril CAZEAUX (0 sélection, Union Bordeaux Bègles), Baptiste PESENTI (2 sélections, Section Paloise) et Thomas RAMOS (14 sélections, Stade Toulousain) sont sélectionnés pour rejoindre le groupe France ce lundi 22 février.”
“We’ve lost five players due to +ve covid tests”
“Let’s call up five more”
“But won’t there be a risk of the infection being present in the squad and exposing five more players to the risk could mean them becoming infected and taking it back to their clubs and families at worst or having to self-isolate at best?”
“Bof”
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Am impressed by the relative popularity of Cyril as a given name for French rugby players.
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“You can get very nice scampi there though and I got a puppy there once too”
Was the pup also deep-fried?
Monster.
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The pup remained unbattered or deep fried throughout his life, nor at any time after he went to the forever farm either to the best of my knowledge
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“Was the pup also deep-fried?”
He didn’t need his tail anyway.
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Somehow reminded of this gem:
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“Antrim based anecdotes.”
As previously mentioned Mrs CMW’s mother used to go for a cup of tea round at Willie John McBride’s mother’s house in Ballyclare. That’s as good as I can do and I’m going to say it’s not bad for a rugby notablog.
I’m sure she still would if the woman’s still alive and a suitable bridge/tunnel were built, both being equally unlikely.
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I believe that sometimes you can get a boat from Campbeltown to Ballycastle and sometimes you can’t. There’s a place near Ballycastle called Ballyvoy which I always assumed a horse I used to back called Ballyfoy was named for. I first backed it as it was the outsider in a four runner race and had a 1 against its name i.e. it had won last time out. It was only during the race that I read the form properly to discover the reason it had won was that it had been the only runner. It stormed home at 33/1 which properly upset the little old lady from New Zealand standing next to me who had about £2 on the odds-on favourite. Lots of shouting and swearing.
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That’s the best I can do in terms of Lara-bait seeing as we’re all about getting the old guard back at the moment.
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I do sometimes also wonder what happened to John Lacey.
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High performance manager for referees at the IRFU. You can see the fruits of his labours in the performances of Andrew Brace and Frank Murphy.
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