Could anything be more exciting than last week’s matches?
Read on to find out.
Wales vs Scotland
Scotland, all day, easy peasy, we lost to the eventual winners innit.
Ahem. Ok, victory for Scotland for the first time in Cardiff for a while (but they did win in Llanelli) against a team who has had their number for a while now. Wales have too many injuries and lost 90% of their caps in Alun Wyn-Jones. They also don’t have Josh Navidi, Taulupe Faletau or Justin Tipuric so I can’t see them win the battle up front. Scotland on the other hand have only lost Jamie Ritchie (big loss, mind) and will feel confident after their recent win against … err … can’t remember. In fact, looking at the line-ups, it’s only n° 6 where Wales have a significantly better player.
Wales won by a single point last year and have regressed since. Their defence has become pretty bollocks after Shaun left and they lack the experience at international level (this does not mean they are like England. Repeat, they are NOT like England). Further, they didn’t really set the world alight in the autumn (win against Australia aside). Whereas Scotland have won 6 of their last (arbitrary point in time warning) 7 matches and will be confident going in.
30 – 20 to Scotland.
France vs Ireland
Some people might point out that Ireland don’t have Cateyes and therefore are not going to be as competitive as they could be against France. I, on the other hand, think that this is more than counterbalanced by the number of Ulster players in the team which shows strategic and forward thinking on Faz’s part.
This is probably the game of the weekend. Both sides are in great form having won their opening games and recently beaten the All Blacks (but who hasn’t nowadays? Scotland and Wales actually, but we’ve already discussed that) in convincing style. Ireland play a brand of ‘Pro-pleasing precision rugby and now have a pack which won’t get munched by the opposition whereas France have actually made a team worth the sum of its parts. Both teams are very strong in defence whereas France are a bit better in open play and will score some tries against the run of play. I think Ireland will win the breakdown so these are evenly-matched foes.
I think the key battle will be the set piece with these two teams. If either one can get an edge in the scrum and/or lineout then I expect them to win; probably Ireland. It won’t be by much but it will be down to the old heads such O’Mahoney at the end to see Ireland through.
28 – 22 to Ireland
Italy vs England
England v Italy is always a tough one to preview. Either it induces 50 Shades of meh as England eventually beat them or there’s a surprise around the ruck laws or there is a comedy rage moment where Brian Moore reveals how many toys his ma bought him for his birthday. Recently, England rarely seem to come out of these encounters with glowing match day reports. Either they won well, but didn’t lay down a marker, or they won and it was a poor performance. Or it wasn’t rugby maate.
Apparently Eddie is going with the same team as last week. I think it’s good to have a settled team to build confidence but I’d prefer it if we had some more bosh and experience. Courtney buggering his beautiful noggin is a big loss for us and after last weekend England need Faz’s direction. So I’m thinking that next Monday we’ll have a column from Matt Dawson saying how he would have done something different in hindsight. That’s because he is well clever and if you look at his articles, he doesn’t write many paragraphs, just widely spaced single sentences listing the random thoughts he is having at that moment.
Eddie normally talks about how England will ‘smash’ Italy, but he’s been quiet on that front so far. Which is actually quite nice. I’m expecting a disjointed first half, and then a comfortable gap to open up in the last 20 minutes. I am hoping that we show a bit more attacking shape than last week, and that Marcus Smith finds his feet (watch Squidge’s video about the Calcutta Cup for what I mean by that).
I think Italy will score a couple of nice tries but also shoot themselves in the foot more often than not. They have a young and exciting fly half and Benetton won that cup thing which I think was good, but not sure how seriously the other teams were taking it. Like that development cup in the Prem.
25 – 17 to England.
UPDATE!!!!
Randall starts!!!! And Marchant is in the centre and we have proper wingers and, and, and FFS Eddie, why can’t you do this when we play Scotland?!!!
Hand-wringing by Craigsman
Onna telly this week
Friday 11th February
| Leinster v Edinburgh | 18:00 | RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Italy U20 v England U20 | 19:00 | BBC iPlayer |
| Leicester v Northampton | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Wales U20 v Scotland U20 | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer / S4C |
| Toulouse v Stade Français | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Glasgow v Munster | 20:15 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 12th February
| Lions v Stormers | 13:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Wales v Scotland | 14:15 | BBC1 / S4C |
| Bulls v Sharks | 15:05 | Premier Sports 2 |
| France v Ireland | 16:45 | ITV |
Sunday 13th February
| Saracens v Harlequins | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 | ||
| Italy v England | 15:00 | ITV |
Ovally Balls 
Well done wales
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BB, maybe you were much much better in the first half but you dropped 3 or 4 balls in the last 15 minutes and couldn’t really break our defence clean open.
Biggar was incredible playing on one leg.
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Well done Wales – rugby in the blood!
Tough for the Scots but too many daft penalties in the last quarter (Russell and Fagerson)
Right, one down ………………..
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OH DOG OH DOG OH DOG
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Hello, my old friends.
I said i was done with pro rugby (i am) but wasnt going to miss Dan Biggars 100th (cant believe he wasnt MoM )
Scotland were unfortunate. Better up front and had greater threat out wide. Oddly their main men, Price, Russell, Hogg were uncharacteristicly poor. M Fagerson going off robbed them of their real focal point (and their best player on the day)
JD2 100th was great to see. Shadow of the player he was, but the guy can defend. Made a massive impact
Sadly, think troubles ahead for Wales, can only rely on the old guard for so long. The coaching is woeful, but the heart and effort is superb.
Scotland are seriously one of the top teams in the world by most measures. They just seem to ‘lose’ the big moments.
Anyway, hope you all are well and your families too.
I don’t get modern rugger. Nor do I enjoy watching much. I did like Martin J’s punditry and I have an emotional attachment to the old guys still putting in like Dan B
Best wishes to y’all
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Well done Wales. Tense game at the end. Second Scotland game on the run with a deliberate knock on near the end as a big turning point – some look a little unlucky, but these two were pretty obvious.
Enjoyable game: now for Paris. Allez les Bleus!
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Fuck off, Brookter! ;-)
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From a Scottish point of view I’m backing France here. We won’t win n Dublin but maybe, just maybe we’ll beat France in Edinburgh
Soz Thaum
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Oof, that was quick.
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Fuckinell
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Blimey
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Ouch.
Dupont’s passing so much better than last week.
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big, BIG, BP win for Exeter
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Double ouch.
Ferocious by France.
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OH YES!!!!
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Wow. Fabulous by Hanson.
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Blimey
I do know other words
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An Irish international player catching a ball on the run above his head? Must be his GAA background.
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oooof!
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Auusie ref communicating clearly with the French…………………………………
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Mum, they’re bullying us!
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Gotta say, there is a real shithouse attitude in rugby journalism, reporting recently.
Seems to be based on a few ‘unassailable’ facts and the mother ship are the worst
1Italy dont belong https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/12/italy-england-six-nations-preview-kieran-crowley
Dont want to go full expro, but their age group teams are making strides, and their senior team earnt their place (late 90s early 00s) and are improving and will be competitove even if they go 0/6
2. The ‘natural order’ is ‘le crunch’ Eng vs Fr to decide the title. Admittedly but thus was the case for much of the 90s (2 tier 5N, anyone?) But this was an anomaly. In the 70s, Engd were awful in the 2010s so were France. Its all cyclical.
The graun rugby reporting is shite
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From an Irish perspective, Carbery is a good all-round 10 with a good kicking game.
But their attack is so built around Sexton that the structure just doesn’t work without him. It is just so tailored to his stengths and preferences that they look disjointed when another very good 10 steps in
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And, fk me, what are France wearing?
The most iconic kit in world sport (imho) was the old tricolore France strip.
Do they pay homage to Sella, Charvet, Blanco, Villepreiux, Magne, Skrela et al.. and the strip they wore?
Or do they dress like air stewards on a budget airline?
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Well. I’ll be surprised if we score any more points in this. Just brutal.
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Or do they dress like air stewards on a budget airline?
:-D
They can dress however they want – they are bossing us!
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I don’t remember seeing France playing so quickly and directly – can they maintain it?
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Ulsterman on. We should be better now.
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A score!
Not sure Hendo is on, actually.
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WOW!!!!
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– the brilliance of rugby is how an apparently commanding lead can evaporate in a blink……………………..
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Oh hell.
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POM on. He’ll either provide the grit needed or get a card. Possibly both.
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Okay, Hendo on now. POM off???
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Think Aki and Beirne got away with one there.
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Beirne is my new hero!
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… Not because of what Refit said, but because of his 50/22. But then we fucked up the line-out.
Dupont off!
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Why the fuck not go for the corner? Aiee!
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Bloody hell, this match.
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*cries*
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Oh wait – no try – held up! Mind you, we’re still in the shit.
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Remember when I said we might beat France in Edinburgh ?
Rash, foolish
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You have to award that
Pfft
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France the well-deserved winners there. So much poor decision-making by Ireland, and just outplayed all over the pitch.
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Well done France! The two best teams in this competition by a mile.
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phew!
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Excellent game – two fine teams giving no quarter. Congrats France, commiserations Ireland.
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Good game, well played France. What on earth was Keenan thinking kicking the ball away with 20 secs left . Not sure about bringing Carty on with 3 mins to go either.
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Aussie Rules in this case, I’d guess
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What on earth was Keenan thinking kicking the ball away with 20 secs left .
That. And the decision to take 3 points instead of going for the bp try.
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