With four of the six nations on one win and one loss, it’s all looking very close; leaders France are only 3 points ahead of England and Ireland. Poor Italy are as usual languishing at the bottom of the table, although they have a glimmer of not-finishing-last to play for, should Wales go down and Italy actually manage to win one. (Not this weekend, obviously.)
Having consulted my crystal ovally ball, I can tell you how it’s going to go.
Scotland v France
According to Toonie, “France are one of the top two or three teams in the world right now. They’ve got a huge pack, momentum behind them, results behind them, so it’s a great challenge for us.”
Awa’ with yer underdogging. We see the secret weapon: Darge at 6 and McFuckface at 7. Poachers of the world, unite!
Prediction: home advantage to seal the deal. Scotland by 2.
England v Wales
England’s desperate toss of the dice in Manu-shaped form has been unsuccessful due to ham sandwich problems, throwing the coaching staff into such a tizzy that they aren’t even going to name the match-day squad until the day of.
Food-related issues continue to plague the side as captain Courtney ‘Two Brain Cells’ Lawes has a scrambled-eggs problem.
The Northampton forward said he “was worried about my head” when he first came into camp “not feeling great” after numerous incidents on the field.
But after seeing a specialist and getting a brain scan, Lawes told BBC Sport he was relieved to find it was “nothing to do with my brain”.
Instead, an issue with his inner ear meant “the connection between eyes, ears and neck was a bit scrambled”.
Meanwhile, Wales are having selection problems of their own, with talisman Alun-Wyn Jones still out, and the bizarre decision to drop Louis Rees-Zammit and bring back card-magnet Josh Adams in his place. However, fit-again Taulupe Faletau starts at 8.
Prediction: Never, ever write Wales off against England, especially a slightly discombobulated one. Wales by 3.
Ireland v Italy
This one is easy: first-cap Ulsterman Michael Lowry is going to bedazzle and befuddle the hapless Azzuri and score about six tries.
In the second half, fellow Ulstermen Herring and Hume will come on with Sexton (Carbery is starting) and complete the annihilation.
Leprechaun JGP at scrum-half – who should rightfully be a (fit) John Cooney or Nathan Doak if it weren’t for the bizarre and troubling vendetta against Ulsterpersons – will make a series of bad decisions and also, annoyingly, score a try.
Prediction: Ireland, with home advantage, by 56.
You May Have Missed…
Brookter’s potted history of royal wealth.
Onna telly this week
Friday 25th February
| Scotland v Colombia (women) | 15:00 | BBC iPlayer/website/Alba |
| Zebre v Bulls | 17:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
| England v Wales (U20s) | 19:00 | BBC iPlayer/website / S4C |
| Leinster v Lions | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Worcester v Harlequins | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Ireland v Italy (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer/website |
| Scotland v France (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer/website |
Saturday 26th February
| Connacht v Stormers | 13:00 | RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Scotland v France | 14:15 | BBC1 |
| Treviso v Sharks | 15:05 | Premier Sports 2 |
| England v Wales | 16:45 | ITV / S4C |
| Brive v Toulon | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 27th February
| Northampton v Exeter | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 | ||
| Ireland v Italy | 15:00 | ITV | ||
| Montpellier v Stade Français | 16:30 | Premier Sports 2 | ||
| Toulouse v Bordeaux | 20:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Excellent second half. France are not going to win easily against either teams, specially in Cardiff. Still can’t see a GS.
My MOTM would’ve been Cuthbert. Who needs LRZ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
BTW- we’ll played Wales. That was a nail biter at the end.
LikeLike
Was slightly annoyed by the ref being a tad inconsistent with quick taps there tbh.
LikeLike
Yes, he should have let Tomos Williams score from his one in the first half too.
LikeLike
Cmw – would have changed the game. Wales are far more dangerous when more than 10 points behind.
LikeLike
Good game by France earlier. Shame for Scotland that the Harris pass to Hogg wasn’t held. I didn’t think it was the right play by the centre but would still have expected Hogg to catch it.
Our game. Grrr. Didn’t show up for 40 then played some pretty good football. Ah, well, wasn’t expecting too much so can’t complain too much. Don’t know how much it was due to Curry going off and am not going to sit through the first half again.
Cuthbert v Nowell was a great old battle. Good to see Cuthbert running with the ball like that.
On Smith’s tackling, they targeted him and about half the tackles he went back, which is kind of all you want from attack, but he doesn’t shirk.
Astonished that he got Player of the Match, mind. Itoje was excellent for England. Felt sure Dombrandt would get the award since he scored the try and was ok on the floor.
LikeLike
My first 6 Nations game on ITV. They’re not good. Strange use of South African high school rugby clips on the sponsorship bits before and after the ad breaks. I noticed an old Paarl Boys High vs Paarl Gim game in one of them.
LikeLike
First game excellent to watch: if Hogg could have taken that (slightly too far in front of him) pass, the result could have been closer (even different?) but the two tries either side of half time took it away from them. They were looking competitive till then.
Second game: England are so frustrating to watch. As with the Scotland and Italy games, they just don’t seem to be able to take advantage of longish periods when they’re on top. At least they kicked the points on offer this time so were able to keep ahead of the inevitable Welsh fightback – and the latter had a much more impressive second half. I was expecting them to score a try in the dying seconds, and that would have served both teams right. So commiserations Wales: it would have been an epic win. They were much more clinical when it mattered than England: three good tries compared to one giftwrapped one.
Any one know why Curry didn’t reappear after half time: I thought that hurt England. They were never quite as dominant afterwards. I hope he’s not injured badly.
As an aside: the referee had a fun time, didn’t he? He gave a scrum penalty against Wales then overruled himself because the AR said he’d seen an English infringement on the other side… how does that work? “I’ve just seen an infringement right in front of my eyes, but please do have this one on me?”
Still, I imagine that Wales will point to several other oddnesses which went against them, so there you go… Neither team is a patch on Ireland and France at the moment, so it doesn’t matter very much either way. On the performance so far, Ireland will beat England handily and France will beat them by many more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brookter – we lack quite a bit of fluency and when on top, we can play all the way to an oppositions line, but we lack that killer play to actually score a try.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Craigs,
True: and again there were far too many knock ons killing progress. Very good defence by Wales, as well, of course, but still, you’d expect the attack to be sharper than it is at the moment in the final few metres.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think he was guessing with the first one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brookter – I’m hoping it’s still a new system bedding in. Also, I wish Eddie would pick players in the right positions. I fear Simmons will go the route of Daly and fuck their potential playing out of position.
That said, Daly’s replacement is bloody brilliant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tom,
Well, possibly. Though the video clearly showed afterwards that the AR had guessed wrongly about the infringement on his side, too… The scrums were a mess all game and it didn’t help it flow at all. But it must be the players’ fault as well – the scrums in the SCOFRA game seemed to work well enough.
LikeLike
Craigs, do you mean Steward? He’s very solid isn’t he? Some of the high ball takes looked miraculous to earthbound mortals like me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brookter, christ knows. It made for a boring few minutes of television anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think both teams could ‘do a Rassie’ on that reffing performance.
LikeLike
Brookter – yeah. In fact he might be our best fullback in about 15 years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also, can we please get some politicians from the same factory the Ukrainian ones are made. Huge stones on the President especially.
I don’t really know what he’s done as pres before the last few days tbh but right now I don’t care.
LikeLiked by 2 people
” The scrums were a mess all game and it didn’t help it flow at all.”
There was one that must have taken the best part of five minutes and still didn’t end up with anything you could really call a scrum. Quite a bit of Liam’s sinbinning was also spent on a scrum. In the second half the ref just gave penalties straight away – couple to Wales and then a couple to England in the last ten minutes or so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The reason I missed the first half of the ScoFra game was that I went to the cinema to see Belfast.
It’s shmaltzy, but I really enjoyed it. The guy who played the dad in it, who was the guy with amnesia in Australia in a BBC drama recently, and also was a pretty terrifying baddy in The Fall opposite Gillian Anderson – Jamie Dornan, his name just came t me, anyway, he looks like Ross Ford without the years in the gym.
LikeLike
To be honest I don’t think Adamson was any worse than Dickson today.
LikeLike
BB, as I say I haven’t watched all of our game yet, but there is a lot of carping on the Glasgow forum that France should have at least a yellow card for head contact in a tackle off the ground on Skinner and a penalty try for a tackle around the neck on Price as he was closing in on the line.
It looked like there was some pretty dodgy decisions in the second half, but not for the one with Price trying to milk a penalty t the back of a ruck which ended in a try, but having said that these are usually given.
All anyone wants is that both sides are refereed the same way and consistently between matches
LikeLike
Anyway, fuck the ref stuff, I hope we drop Finn and start Kinghorn against Italy, and Bennett at 13 too.
LikeLike
My thought was that Dickson as a 9 in his playing days knew exactly what Price was doing and wasn’t going to be played….
LikeLike
Scotland / France was an odd game – I came to it at 3 – 12 and almost immediately Scotland got the try. Wondered if the high tackle on Price wasn’t a yellow and penalty try. Darge scored but 10 mins against 14 might have made a difference
The dropped pass by Hogg on the van der Merwe break – wondered if Harris was better to have passed to Price to fix the last defender….rather than the miss pass to Hogg – but replays showed Hogg waving for it…. not good execution though – reminiscent of those terrible misses vs Ireland in 2018… Scotland ended up losing by 20(?) but could have been 14 points up ….
Fickou’s try was a bit of a hammer blow…. and in the 2nd half, the ease with which Penaud scored his tries gave the impression Scotland were a man down…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trisk, elsewhere English fans were saying that the premiership refs are really hot on not giving the penalty where it’s being milked.
Fair enough I say, but Christ it’s hard to see your side ridden by milked penalties in one game and then not given for you in the next.
LikeLike
And England vs Wales – at first England looked like they were going to run away with it…. much like the game against Scotland and then looked like they’d blow it….
Everything seemed to revolve around Smith….anytime he didn’t have the ball – it was very prosaic….and formulaic. None of thr backs looked threatening.
Wales did well to come back into it…but England ought not to have been hanging on at the end. ..
LikeLike
@ticht
I’ve seen zero Premiership rugby this season. But can appreciate how annoying it is to get pinged for an offence and then not have it given in your favour.
I’d probably agree that contriving a pen ought not be be encouraged – than again we told our lads to shout “release” after a tackle to put it in ref’s head that oppo were holding on….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trisk – that’s the most pro pleasing post I’ve seen 8n a while 🤣
LikeLike
Now in our defence – it’s a fellow coach who’s a ref that tells them to do this stuff. Like standing 4m back at scrums or 8m back at lineouts … keep doing it until the ref tells you to stop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought Price should have got his penalty regardless of him ‘milking’ it. The player was on the wrong side and got in his way when he was told to play it.
LikeLike
Ticht, don’t read those forums. Disappointement makes one say daft things. For instance there couldn’t be a penalty try when Price was held up because there were three (and may be four) French players around him. Also the high tackle was deemed so mild it didn’t even result in a YC.
LikeLike
Harris made a costly mistake when attempting the miss pass to Hogg. Should’ve made a short one to Price (?) , that’s the sort of mistake a very quick defence provokes, as one is afraid to be caught up. But it was a 4 on 1, and shouldnt have been butchered. Not sure it’d would’ve made much difference, the second half was quite one sided.
LikeLike
“there couldn’t be a penalty try when Price was held up because there were three (and may be four) French players around him”
Yes it’s not one that’s ever given.
“Harris made a costly mistake when attempting the miss pass to Hogg. Should’ve made a short one to Price ”
I agree it was the wrong pass though I thought he actually threw it better than might have been expected so that Hogg should have caught it and probably scored.
“Not sure it’d would’ve made much difference, the second half was quite one sided.”
Kind of agree with this, Scotland must be disappointed with at least a couple of the tries, but then we’ll never know as if it had stayed closer for longer you’ve got a different game.
LikeLike
It was a great match in the first half, was pretty disappointed that the tries either side of half time finished it. I like both teams though obviously would have preferred France not to get the confidence boost for their next game!
LikeLike
Hogg was running at full tilt, had his arms and hands fully extended to get the ball, and the ball still just hit his fingertips. Not sure what more he was expected to do.
LikeLike
Even if we had scored then, I reckon France would have upped the gears anyway.
LikeLike
Not Hogg’s fault in my mind, except if he screamed for the ball, and that I do’nt know.
LikeLike
Forza Italia!
No disrespect for Ireland as we all know the difference in quality between the 2 teams but at least I hope it’s not a thrashing.
LikeLike
A first: a Georgian ref!
LikeLike
He certainly had his hand up for the ball, and he was open. It’s then up to Harris to give him the ball (or make sure the ball gets to him through the hands).
LikeLike
huh. Took 3:42 to get the first try. Disappointing.
LikeLike
Didn’t take long.
Was that a smile from the Irish team after scoring?
Surely not!
LikeLike
A thrashing it will be then. Ach…
LikeLike
Just been watching a great game between Saints and Exeter – some great play from both sides.
Finished 31 – 34 to Exeter.
Good to see Jo Simmonds getting back to top form.
I do not enjoy saying it but – ref was not great at key moments.
LikeLike
Red for Italy.
Game done. If it hadn’t been already.
LikeLike
So a RC for Italy.
Methinks I may as well watch Castres .
LikeLike
And it was their replacement hooker who had come on for an injury.
LikeLike
That is certainly going to take any oomph at all out of it.
LikeLike
So a RC turns into 2 RCs. And uncontested scrums. Why is it the ref that chooses which player ( here #8) must go off?
LikeLike