Pack your suitcases and prepare for Round Two of the European Cup.
Cardiff v Harlequins
Home advantage and Ellis Jenkins won’t do enough for Cardiff against in-form Quins. Quins by 10.
Castres v Munster
No-one will ever know the result of this match as anyone who attempts to watch it will die the most horrible of deaths from boredom, judging by the reverse fixture.
Wasps v Toulouse
Ooh. Toulouse by at least 35.
Ospreys v Racing 92
Surprisingly, Racing 92 are languishing even further down the Top 14 table than Ospreys are in the URC. I still think they’ll win, though – by about 12.
Connacht v Leicester
This could be the surprise of the weekend, possibly depending on the weather. Connacht by 3.
La Rochelle v Bath
Bath to take a Bath. La Rochelle by 20.
Exeter v Glasgow Warriors
Glasgow have been looking the business in their last couple of matches, and Exeter are not what they were last year. Weegies by 6.
Bristol v Stade Français
Neither side setting the world on fire this season, so home players by 4.
Leinster v Montpellier
Despite being toppled off the top of the URC, Leinster remain a team to be very scared of, and are at home. Blue Meanies by 17.
Bordeaux v Scarlets
Ooh là là, les Médocs par approximately neufty.
Northampton v Ulster
Will the return of Baloucoune and Hume mean an Ulster away win? Probably not, but I’m going for Ulster by 7 anyway. (This is why I never win the leagues.)
Clermont v Sale
Oh dear, Yellow Army by 30.
Onna telly this week
Friday 14th January
| Castres v Munster | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Cardiff v Harlequins | 20:00 | S4C / BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 15th January
| Wasps v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Dragons | 15:15 | S4C |
| Ospreys v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Connacht v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| La Rochelle v Bath | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| Exeter v Glasgow | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bristol v Stade Français | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 16th January
| Leinster v Montpellier | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Bordeaux v Scarlets | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Northampton v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Clermont v Sale | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
I was looking at the Italy squad earlier. They’re incredibly inexperienced. Garbisi’s the 3rd most capped back in the squad and he’s got 13 caps, and has played something around 30 games of pro club rugby.
There’s a few more caps in the forwards, but Braam Steyn’s the leader in terms of internationals played with 46.
There are a few injuries and lads like Allan missing but I don’t know why they’re so inexperienced – the 3 hookers have 9 caps between them, 3 of the 6 back row 1 between them. Did a load of players retire? Is the churn so high at club level?
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@TomP – It does sound extreme. Looking at Wales though and three of our six back rows have seven caps between them (four have nine if you include Christ). Two of our hookers have one between them and Elias has 23 so that’s not great either – I know Ken’s injured but is Dee also out?
Our most capped forward is Francis with 60, but after that it’s Moriarty with 49 who has never really held down a place for all that long and won’t necessarily have played an enormous amount of all those 49 caps.
Much more experience in the backs, but quite a lot of it is from players we might hope not to see that much of – Cuthbert, JD2, Gareth Davies & Priestland.
We really are missing a lot in terms of experienced better players.
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I reckon Wales will lose in Dublin and probably fairly convincingly. Beyond that I don’t have any confidence in predicting the outcomes of any of the other games between the main five teams – the later ones will depend much on what’s gone before. Not going to bother guessing at a final table.
Regardless of anything I really think there’s always part of me that expects Wales to come fifth and England to win the thing and each result (if there are any) that goes against those outcomes is something to cheer.
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Dee played v Bennetton the other day but the WRU had him as unavailable for selection for the national squad because he was injured, which doesn’t quite compute. Hadn’t really looked at our squad, just knew we had a lot of injuries. All our back rows are wonder players so not too worried about that. AWJ out, of course, and Ball gone but I feel that Hill going to Japan could be a big loss in the second row. Don’t mind Beard, Carter and Davies, Rowlands not sold yet but he’s a big lad. At hooker, well, I hope the Sheriff can play again one day.
In the backs I think we’re ok but need our defence to be switched on. I still don’t trust Tompkins at centre.
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Ha!
Drug regime change starting tomorrow – so I’ll need to take it easy for a week or two – Anything worth watching?
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Yeah, can’t see us getting too much on in Dublin. Would be delighted with a win but their pack looks v strong. Maybe something like 2018, when we gave them a good game and scored some nice tries, is the best I can hope for.
My missus if I wanted to go to the game. I said I didn’t want to be in a stadium of 50,000 rabid Ireland fans as they stuff us. Reasonably, she then asked why I’d watch on the telly. No real answer from me.
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CMW – I seem to recall that we had all written Wales off before last year’s 6N. Do you fancy writing an ATL? :-)
That goes for the rest of you, too.
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Courtney Lawes and Johnny Hill are out for Saturday.
So Itoje and ?
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We don’t have any (visible) Italians, so that conveniently leaves one 6N week per remaining nation to be filled…. I am sure Flair will graciously oblige for one, as our only français.
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CMW, Lamarro, the new skipper and 4th back rower, has 10 caps so that’s 11 between 4 of the back row.
Luckily, they’ve got Negri and Steyn with 36 and 46 caps respectively. Negri, I’m not sure if you’ve read this recently, is the Zimbabwean-born child of 2 Italians and Steyn, although he did play for SA Under 20s, wasn’t good enough to get a contract in SA provincial rugby. Compare and contrast with the conveyor belt of SA talent in Ireland’s back row
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Tomp, locks in squad are Chessum, Ewels and Isekwe, so it will probably be Sam Simmonds or Alex Dombrandt lining up alongside Maro, if you follow Eddies usual logic.
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This just came up.
I had video taped this game and I watched it many times
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@TomP – Yes, as I’m sure you’re aware although I don’t engage with him directly I have been reading the nonsense and here and there responding to others on the threads. Must knock that on the head as there’s not much fun to be had with it to be honest.
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@Thaum – Possibly though it would be uncharted territory for me and I would need some instruction as to what you need in terms of format etc. Wouldn’t be until later in the tournament though as I’ve got to make another trip to Glasgow next week and have other stuff I have to do before then.
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I’d start Ewels and put Iskewe as back up. He can also cover 6.
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Basically, reading back has convinced me that this is Scotlands GS to lose.
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Just watching Real Eddie’s 6 Nations preview on the beeb, he chats with Raymond Blanc ( 9 mins 52 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing ). He has gone up in my estimation. His enthusiasm for the game is lovely to see.
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“Basically, reading back has convinced me that this is Scotlands GS to lose.”
That is just because of Iain Paxton’s stride forty years ago.
A stride I have mistaken for Eric Paxton once or twice.
There are folk singers with similar names who I mistake for each other too.
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The ones Italy have got are rubbish, though, Deebs.
Good enough to play in the Greatest Show on Earth™
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I for one am hugely excited about the 6N kicking off this weekend. Unfortunately I have two funerals on, so not sure how much I’ll get to see. I think Flair has it pretty nailed on as far as the top two go – can’t see past Ireland at the moment, with France likely to be closest. England, Scotland and Wales should see England slightly ahead, but they’ve had some major disruption in the last couple of weeks, so may be caught cold at Murrayfield. Wales are Wales and will be tenacious and tough, not, as the Waterboy said, soft like those bloody Irish. Scotland need a good start against the old foe at Murrayfield and could build on that, but you always feel – sorry Scots supporters – that they’re a pass or missed lineout or tackle away from calamity. Still, a reasonable draw so maybe the McLamity’s will do us proud?
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CMW – yay! I’ll pencil you in for later on. Format – just in an email or a Word attachment, please. If you have any pics/captions to include, that’s great too.
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Thauma, I’ll do the Bok one, although curiously I haven’t seen our schedule as yet?
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@Deebee – As the Boks won two World Cups they weren’t allowed to play in I’m sure they can manage to win this Six Nations. I look forward to reading how they did it.
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Kleyn got picked for RWC19 ahead of Toner and took a lot of criticism from some click-bait journos. Most lot of it unpleasant and verging on racist (looking at the Indo)
Of course, Toner was close to a “national treasure” but he didn’t really function as a tighthead lock in the way Kleyn would have been used.
Generally, Stander and Kleyn apart we’ve tended to nab NZ-ers (Payne, Aki, Lowe, Gibson-Park) and the odd Australian (Keith Gleeson of long ago – though Gleeson was I think Irish-born, his relatives run a pub in Booterstown)
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trisk, They were from the diaspora but a really long time ago there was Brian Smith the half back and what’shisface Dion O’C from Cape Town. Pus, Bent, of course.
There’re historical socio-economic reasons why so many Irish, Scots and Welsh (and English) ended up moving abroad. From a Welsh point of view we got, at least, John Taylor and Tom Shanklin that way.
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Isn’t there a Saffer hooker in the Irish mix as well? Or has he retired/been dumped?
CMW – I was on a forum the other day and a couple of Kiwi posters were saying the Bok 7s run of 34 wins on the bounce* didn’t really count because NZ, Fiji etc didn’t play in those tournaments. It didn’t take long for some Bok supporters to dismiss 87 and 91 on the same grounds.
Personally, I think that we would have had a decent shout in 87, but by 91 our rugby was a long way off the top tier. Aussies thumped us in 92, in SA, with a lot of our side old and past it.
* The worst part is that the 34 wins is still a long way off the 47 (?) that the Kiwis ran up in early 2000s.
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I always knew he could rap.
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Deebs, Ulster’s second-choice hooker is a Saffer, but I believe the Boks have already capped him.
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For those wondering what the issue with the EHRC is…
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thaum, Herring’s a Capetonian. Roberts’s ours and from Durban. Big Brad’s off to the Dragons next year.
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Ah, yeah – Herring. I guess if the name had been van Heerden he’d have jumped to mind more readily, plus Richardt Strauss a few years back.
Generally, we’re not too guilty about nabbing lads from the diaspora (history and all that…) – “project players” tend to be more controversial (if he’s that good why isn’t he playing for NZ/SA/Aus???? [ delete as appropriate] )
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Herring! Misleading bastard!
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All sounds a bit fishy to me.
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Ha! I thought Herring was a Kiwi.
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Refit – surely they are obliged to hear both ‘sides’ of this debate? If the opposing opinions are so bigoted and obviously awful they would be rejected by the EHRC?
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Deebs – Perhaps we could start off with the Saffer Slam hopes, if you have time?
Fixtures are here, if you put Six Nations in the competition box: https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/six-nations/scores-fixtures
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Craigs, how would that work exactly, given that:
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why oh, why, can’t people be accepting of others differences and choices under equal rights?
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Refit – the emails note requests for further information and discussion and that there is an acknowledgement of a potential conflict of interest (and a fairly standard one at that).
It should be stated that Ben Hunte is an activist who has a history of defending sociopaths who harass people online. Here’s an article about a Doctor who was suspended by the GMC published during the actual hearing.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vevb/adrian-harrop-british-doctors-career-could-be-ended-by-tweets-defending-trans-rights
A small amount of Googling is enough to see that ‘defending trans rights’ is an understatement at best.
All this article does is increase the heat slightly. Here’s the EHRC response:
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***tiptoes in***
Thauma, Saffer perspective it is.
***Deliberately knocks over crappy NH jug on his way out***
A straight down the line, honest to goodness assessment it’ll be.
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Craigs – this ‘discussion’ has been going on for 5 YEARS! Two consultations have already been published, in favour of the reforms – both supported by the EHRC at the time. The changes to the GRA don’t make any changes to access to gendered spaces, don’t change access to sports. They just make life easier and fairer for trans people:
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I fail to see the point you’re making with that other Vice article. The doctor pushed back against people with these kinds of views:
And was then subject to a harassment campaign that tried to cost him his job. All for trying to defend marginalised people.
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Oh, and it’s not just trans people that are under threat from the EHRC. Watch out if you’re a woman, poor or POC. You will not be protected by them either (thread):
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Refit – I’m not saying the other side is perfect but that guy very nearly got struck off for his behaviour on and off twitter and Ben Hunte supports him. I would never support anyone who referred to him as a ‘faggot’.
Again, the EHRC are just asking for more information. I’m not an expert on the ins and outs but if other perspectives haven’t been considered in the past 5years that’s a failure too.
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Craigs – the other ‘perspectives’ have been considered. That’s what happened in the last two consultations. The EHRC have all the information. Nothing has changed in the last 5 years, except anti-trans rhetoric has increased and lots of people have “concerns”. What those concerns are, they usually can’t specify and if they can, they don’t apply in this case.
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Refit – well let’s see then. If it turns out to be for nothing or they change their stance without proper reason then I will absolutely agree with you on this.
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This is rather lovely, Sekope Kepu has been announced as the inaugural captain of new Super Rugby side, Moana Pasifika.
https://www.rugbydump.com/news/watch-captain-named-for-new-super-rugby-side-moana-pasifika/?fbclid=IwAR0LBssfQ3-3V-nNu_ETS-PWQ9-FX3UcOr8dOAGpgHac8hDuD50thVl0P2s
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Regarding the other discussion that has been going on for years, I have followed the great traditions of this blog and made a graph. Conclusion is that we should all try to be more like Ireland.
https://ibb.co/rypfKRx
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