Preamble
Following the lead of the esteemed French rugby philosopher and Chef de Cuisine Flair99, I will try to keep this short, at least by my standards.
In keeping with the odd times we live in, the 6N Super Saturday ingredients are not all there for a grand finale, and we’ll have to pop France vs Scotland back in the popty-ping microwave at some point to truly finish the feast.
Scotland vs Italy
Move over France, because it is time to ask the question ‘which Scotland will turn up?’ Having got off to the best possible start to the tournament, the Scots have coughed and spluttered their way through the following games and were unfortunate to find their progress further stymied when the French overdid the ‘Liberté’ bit and burst out of their corona-bubble to do some coughing and spluttering of their own.
With Finn finally HIA-d after playing in a slightly detached dream-state for most of the tournament, we are going to be treated to Hoggy at 10. Could go well, but it might not as he has enough on his shoulders captaining a pretty unfamiliar lineup while playing out of position. Then as I ignorantly ponder on, are the two new second rows going to ease themselves into the set piece, especially in a line-out which had a torrid time against Ireland?
Hark! The voices of doubt grow louder. An exciting backline, but are the omens pointing towards chaos and a replay of that infamous match against Italy when Scotland opted to only pass to Italians for the first quarter of the match?
This Italian team must have one good rather than just brave performance in them. Brex and Mori at centre are likely to do better at defending and crossing the gainline. Garbisi is a dangerous playmaker at 10, and Stephen Varney just might orchestrate things as well as his uncle Manto did. Throw in a decent backrow led by the all-action Negri and what are we left with?
Italy by a score.
Ireland vs England
England played well against France last week, but it is worth remembering that France entered the game looking like they expected to give England a thrashing – similar in fact to how England started their RWC Final – and went a bit run-it-from-anywhere bananas especially after scoring such an early try. England maintained their structure, but also looked sharp when attacking through Slade and Watson particularly.
Ireland are entering the match in good form, playing to their strengths of playing controlled, driving rugby, going through the phases, loads of bosh up the middle and at the breakdown, and Murray re-joining Sexton for some box-kicking and pill-roosting to bring joy to the purists, and to remind Malins that he is not playing away to Worcester any more. Ireland will miss Ryan though, and I fear that Beirne’s influence will diminish at lock, and the lineout will suffer accordingly.
I see a close game, but the England camp sniffs off to me. Even after good performance and what should have been a cathartic win, it still sounds like it’s all a bit of an ordeal for Eddie and his boys. Choosing a solution which involves having your captain – who sounds like an over-tired 7-year-old at bedtime – stop talking to the referee altogether might well backfire. I’m not sure how this will work if Ireland’s phase play starts drawing a string of penalties out of England at the breakdown, and Faz’s frustration builds up in front of his dad.
Ireland by about 9, and a shoulder-to-the-head tackle by Farrell on Henderson, followed by the patented Faz-flop n’ roll on the grass. Yes, the game might depend on the rat-poisoned mindset of the English players, and a French referee.
France vs Wales
Is the Jam-Slam on? Possibly, he said with authority.
Wales have annoyed and frustrated France over many games in recent years, up to and including the last RWC, when Vahaamahina elbowed his way to the front of the early retirement queue. But lately the pendulum has swung back in France’s favour – a relatively easy win last 6N, and a thrashing dished out last October. Ominously, France have sensed they can score tries at will against Wales if they quickly move the ball into the outside channels, and the marvellous try they scored direct from a lineout against England last week doesn’t bode well for the Welsh defence.
An injury-free Gaël Fickou has been a delight to watch, seeming to almost effortlessly create time and space for himself and others. Both sets of forwards have a settled look about them, but unlike the rest of Wales I do have concerns about Navidi’s defending against a team adept at offloading and running into space rather than contact. Botham offers much the same off the pine, so I think the omission of Wainwright could prove to be a selection mistake.
On the other hand, I expect JD2 to have his best game of the series so far (a low bar) and hopefully his Foxy wiles will compensate for the injury problems he still seems to carry in his legs. I even dreamt he scored the winning try last night, in identical fashion to the one Hendo flopped on for Ireland in Scotland’s in-goal area last week.
France by 13, I just feel they will score more tries. Our best chance is an over-confident France being put on the back foot by a Welsh team determined to win, and one that keeps the scoreboard ticking over much to French annoyance.
As dreamt by MisterIks
Super Saturday Zoom Piss-up
We can’t let a Super Saturday go by without having a blog piss-up. This year’s will be via Zoom. Let us know BTL if you’d like to join, and I will email you at the address you sign in with to give you the details, or if that address doesn’t work, email Craigs at craigsman@outlook.com.
Expect the details on Saturday morning.
Onna telly this week
Friday 19th March
| Munster v Treviso | 18:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Newcastle v Wasps | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Ulster v Zebre | 20:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leinster v Ospreys | 20:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
Saturday 20th March
| Harlequins v Gloucester | 14:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Bath v Worcester | 14:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Scotland v Italy | 14:15 | BBC1 |
| Exeter v Leicester | 14:30 | BT Sport Extra |
| Ireland v England | 16:45 | ITV |
| France v Wales | 20:00 | BBC1 |
Sunday 21st March
| Sale v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Northampton v Bristol | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Dragons v Glasgow | 15:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Monday 22nd March
| Scarlets v Connacht | 20:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Cardiff v Edinburgh | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Great try that. Poor defence when he went through the lineout, but after that great speed and stepping to beat Hewitt and Jordan W who are both pretty quick themselves.
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Actually, the more I look at it the worse it looks.
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In no particular order:
Sorry to hear that slade, at least it wasn’t the worst case scenario but nightmare all the same
Genge’s effort is reminiscent of league-style ground shagging but using Sexy’s face as an elbow rest while he wriggles and humps like a giant worm on speed is not a good look. Wouldn’t be surprised to see something happen.
Tremendous try by young McLean. He’s looked really good in recent weeks & could be something if he kicks on. Him & Dobie look tremendous prospects.
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Great game on Saturday evening, kept the excitement to the end furra neutral & could have gone either way. As Scottish fans know all too well them’s the breaks…..
Disgraceful the abuse some of the welsh players are getting on social media
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All the talk seems to be about how much France need to beat us by on Friday to claim the championship. I hope we can put in a performance & upset their applecart although that’ll be a big task. For all their strengths there are still weaknesses to their game, as England showed.
Intriguing 6N though. 5 teams who can all beat each other on their day, and, sadly Italy currently seriously adrift.
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‘Actually, the more I look at it the worse it looks.’
Breakfast?
Work?
The neighbours face?
The possibilities are endless
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Laters
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Arachnaphobic’s nightmare. Urgh
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/22/horrific-swarms-of-spiders-flee-into-homes-and-up-legs-to-escape-nsw-floods
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“For all their strengths there are still weaknesses to their game, as England showed.”
As did Wales. Ireland were close too without doing very much themselves to show any French weaknesses. France haven’t really been much ahead of the field at all this tournament (as the table shows), but their best bits of play suggest that that’s where they’re heading.
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Crazy, really.
Irish rugby gets a bit of it – mainly because the success of national team and provinces in last 20+ years has attracted (some) glory hunters who can’t accept triumph and disaster two sides of same coin – but not sure I’ve seen that level of vitriol (though I wouldn’t go looking for/at it either)
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Scotland can win on Friday but they’re kicking game really has to be at a good level. Wales did pretty well in the first half but there was one very loose kick by Gareth Davies – a left-footed one – that say Dupont score a fine try a couple of phases later.
We can never be sure how much the Covid cancellation cost France v England but Bernard le Roux is a big miss for them. He’s been an absolute menace for the last 15 months. Will be interesting to see who they pick at second row as Willemse’s going to be banned and Taofifenua went off injured on Saturday. Big Swan plus one?
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they’re there their
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Willemse will face the music on Tuesday. He’ll get a ban, of course. I doubt it will be very long as it looked unintentional but it will be weeks, and rightly so as any gesture towards the eyes shoulf be deterred.
France second row could see the return of Leroux, he was recalled in the squad last week after Cazeaux got injured.
Otherwise Cretin or Woki could deputise there, making room for Jellonch in the back row. Galthié could also recall Macalou or Geraci.
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I don’t know how bad Taofifenua’s injury is, but it didn’t look good. Too bad as he was excellent twice in a row.
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Chimpie – the Genge thing. At first glance I thought that was being pulled down and the elbow was being used to support his weight and ‘encourage’ Sexface to let go.
But on a second look he might have been a bit too….
enthusiastic.
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Willemse will be a big loss for France, but Leroux back is a bonus.
Taofifenua is a bit unit & puts himself about effectively so will be a loss. France not lacking for decent replacements mind, second or back row.
Just hope Gray is functional or our second row will be looking somewhat sub-par. Also hope Russell is over his heid issues.
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All this talk of France needing 21 points and 4 tries is a bit off. Scotland could very well win, there are no mugs and played well except vs Ireland.
I expect France to win, possibly scoring 4 tries but not by 21 points. Wales championship to lose. (Yes, I know they’ve played all their games).
And BTW, the abuse towards Welsh players on the so called “social” media by brave anonymous keyboards warriors is unacceptable. I hope some day we find a way to trace those despicable characters.
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What was most disappointing for me about England was the needlessness of some of the penalties. For example Faz got pinged for an extra roll which someone else got pinged for in the Wales game. Sucked out the momentum.
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I think we can all agree that Dallaglio’s commentary on Saturday was the most bellenderish yet.
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OT – what, like, all commentary ever?
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@craigs
Yes. It’s like his opinions on Irish rugby are fixed around 1999 or summat. The Irish pack have been pretty good for a while now yet he kept banging on about how they’ve been used to being battered by the England forwards. Say it once and be wrong, fine, but to say it time and time again just made my foot itch.
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Raynal reffed Italy/Ireland and pinged us twice and Italy once for lifters binding in front of the catcher in lineout – all 3 times (IIRC) at an attacking lineout in oppo 22 – lo and behold – he caught England doing it…. brilliant field position thrown away….
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Craigs, the one at a start of the second half line-out for blocking was spectacularly dumb. Ireland have been whistled for that 3 games in a row so it’s clear the refs are looking for it and yet…
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OT, he’s sort of right. The last 4 games England had dominated Ireland at forward. They clearly weren’t doing that after 20 or so minutes of this game.
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trisk, nifty finger work.
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Pretty much since the ‘car crash’ in 2012 – when poor Tom Court had to pack down at TH. We’ve lots of decent props now on both sides – the days of John Hayes playing all 80 cos we had no cover are gone – but it’s hard to shake the “rep”…
same with Italy and Argentina – w/o being completely paperweight neither have the rock hard scrummages of yore – Castrogiovanni, Ledesma etc but superficial commentators keep harping on how they played 10 years ago
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Trisk/Tomp – yes I remember that too.
Oh well, at least it’s over.
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Chimpie, Jonny Gray is out of the squad, as is Sean Maitland, there are no Sarries players at all now, in fact.
Finn is there, so I expect to see the same starting pack as Saturday, and I hope to see the same midfield, with Graham, Hogg and vdMerwe in the back three, Finn starting alongside Price.
Rufus McLean has been called in to the squad on the back of that gallop at the Principality Stadium yesterday.
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Dammit, Gray out is a nuisance. Surprised Maitland isn’t featuring.
yeah, imagine the pack will be the same with Price & Russell. Bet Harris will come back , Hastings & Jones warming the bench.
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ticht,
I saw the Edinburgh for tonight’s game earlier. Is Kinghorn just back from injury or is he now out of the Scottish reckoning?
Also, who’s this Savala at outside half?
Big game as Edinburgh have 3 games still to play in the tournament and could catch Cardiff. If Cardiff win, they secure 4th place I think and could even make it to 3rd should Connacht beat the Scarlets in Turkland.
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Will be interesting to see who starts at hooker. Also Kebble may come in? Either him or Bhatti fine.
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Forgot Embra were playing tonight.
Kinghorn just back from injury. Embra looking rather depleted…
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Sorry to hear about the fire, Slade.
I hope things get sorted out very quickly!
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Ellis Jenkins in another game of his comeback. Top player.
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Tam, Savala is a SQ fly half from Oz https://www.edinburghrugby.org/edinburgh-rugby-team/charlie-savala
He got a very good write up in an Embra A v Glasgow A game recently.
Nathan Chamberlain just can’t catch a break at the moment, he finally gets a start, scores a very good winning try in Galway and picks up an injury.
Kinghorn has been injured, but tbh his form has been not so hot this season. I’m not entirely sure why he starts on the wing with Hoyland at fullback, perhaps it’s to ease him back in, but it’s an interesting selection.
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There were a few Saffa comments elsewhere really rating Boan Venter
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Dallaglio and Monye put 3 English lads in their team of the tournament.
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Do share these teams….
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Watch the vdeo. It’s all top quality punditry:
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Ah, not that one. But this:
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Thought that would be worse.
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I thought that Curry had been very quiet this tournament, there’s not way he makes Team of the Tournament.
Itoje has been hot and cold, Ryan was monstrous v Scotland.
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@Ticht – Yes, if you put say Watson and Ryan in instead then there’s not much there to argue with as the rest is probably fair enough even if we could all come up with alternatives.
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Tipuric’s been excellent as well and Will Connors was very good v Scotland as was vd Flier against England.
Curry’s a good player and came up with a superb bit of cheating that the ref didn’t spot in the France game.
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I rate Curry and Itoje very highly, but neither should be anywhere near team of the tournament – both out of sorts overall. Watson is the only England player who has come away from this 6N with his reputation enhanced (well, possibly Underhill as he has been much missed).
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Future Scotland prop McHunu in full flight:
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The French back row have also all been good as have their second rows though I think they’ve had to chop and change there for various reasons and of course they still have a game to play. I went for Watson as I think he has stood out in every game he’s played. I guess they chuck Curry and Itoje in there because they think they’re the best players, but that’s not what it’s supposed to be. England’s pack had three stinkers collectively and while Curry perhaps didn’t have an obvious one himself Itoje certainly did. George North isn’t the best 13 who’s played in the tournament, but he has had more good games there this time round than anyone else so putting him in is more in the spirit of ‘team of the tournament’ I think.
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Deebee, great finish. He’s quicker than when he was in school. He scored a long-range try for Maritzburg College v Hilton a few years ago that was similar. A number 8 back then.
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I gather Nige says Liam W’s yellow card shouldn’t even have been a penalty. Was finally able to bring myself to have a look earlier (I had no idea at the time what he was carded for as I missed the replay if there was one). Think he’s probably right. I guess if the game had still gone the way it did then Wales would have picked up another team yellow if Liam hadn’t had his card, but then again it might not have done. Never mind.
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