And now, the end is near….
That sounds good. I should put it in a song.
That can wait, though. The real reason you’re reading this gibberish is to find out what the results are going to be on Saturday.
First up, Wales against Italy. Wales have scored 5 tries to Italy’s 4. That makes you think it might be close! Until you realise that Wales have conceded 7 to Italy’s 24. Which is a bit of a problem for Italy. (Nae shit, Sherlock). Italy played better against Scotland than they had in the other games, so is this the time they can back it up with another good performance? Probably not.
Wales have struggled a bit this year. Thumped by Ireland, scraped past Scotland, somehow losing to England despite scoring all the tries and never really looking like they would beat France. So, can Italy pull off a huge shock and get past Wales in Wales?
Let’s ask Predict-A-Bear!
Answer: Nah. Might be closer than expected, but probably Wales by 15.
Next up is Ireland against Scotland. (Sob). This was going to be The Year! The year to end (Way too many to count) Years Of Hurt! A brilliant start! And then everything turned Scottish. A disappointing – to say the least – defeat in Wales, thumped by France, then showing what we can do against Italy, before deciding that things were far too easy and that we should turn Scottish again.
Never mind, it’s only Ireland. The team that has been reinvigorated under Farrell The Elder. The team that beat the All Blacks. The team that thumped Wales, gave France their closest game so far and who managed to be disappointed in only scoring 57 points against 15, 14, 13, 12 man Italy. They have scored 20 tries to our 10, conceded 3 to our 11, Sexton’s on his Neverending Farewell Tour and have the might of Ulster (cheering them on from the sidelines).
So. Any hope for Scotland? Well … Ireland’s scrum looked strangely out of sorts against England. They also seemed a bit too rushed at times. And Finn bloody owes us one! So of course, Toonie sticks him on the bench. But probably none.
But let’s find out from Predict-A-Bear!
Answer: Nah. Much as I would love to be wrong, Ireland will win this fairly comfortably, by about 15 (at least). Can’t see us even getting any sort of bonus point. (Sobs again.)
Finally, the main event! France against England! France at home and going for a Grand Slam against a (fairly) average England team. (I mean, come on, WE beat them!) Eddie’s playing mind games again, although the only people he seems to confuse with these are his players. They have looked fairly toothless in attack (7 tries scored – and they’ve played Italy!), wonder boy Smith hasn’t quite lived up to the hype (but he will), the midfield has a Manu-sized hole (but then it frequently does) and Jack Nowell will probably end up hooking in the front row. And please (don’t) let Joe Marler take more throw ins. On the good side, Maro’s been a right annoying bastard on the pitch.
But France! They have everything: they can play tight; they can be expansive as (cliché alert) only France can. They have the best player in the world, and a few others who would probably be in a world XV, strength in depth and Shaun Edwards as defence coach. They haven’t perhaps scored quite as many tries as their play would suggest and had to tough it out against Wales.
So who will win?
Predict-A-Bear to the rescue!
Answer: A France win and Grand Slam!
Predict-A-Bear whispered sweet nothings into BorderBoy‘s ear.
Onna telly this week
Friday 18th March
| Bulls v Scarlets | 17:10 | BBC2 Wales / Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Newcastle v Leicester | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 19th March
| Lions v Munster | 12:00 | RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Wales v Italy | 14:15 | BBC1 / iPlayer |
| Sharks v Zebre | 16:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ireland v Scotland | 16:45 | ITV |
| France v England | 20:00 | ITV |
Sunday 20th March
| Stormers v Cardiff | 12:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 | ||
| Wales v Italy (U20s) | 14:00 | BBC1 Wales / iPlayer / Website | ||
| Ireland v Scotland (U20s) | 17:00 | BBC1 iPlayer / Website | ||
| France v England (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC1 iPlayer / Website |
Ovally Balls 
Feel like I should really put up a new post for the Cup[s], but all I can think of to say is, We are so fucked.
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Quite fancy Connacht for a surprise win tonight though.
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Just had a message from my sister in Chile, where the postal service is less than efficient:
BTW, please tell Kim thanks for the Christmas card! The postie kindly delivered it into my cactus garden yesterday afternoon, apparently feeling that the post box was too mundane a place to leave it.
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Watch every Challenge Cup game live! Says BT Sport.
So where’s the Edinburgh game then?
Not on TV. Not on their red button service. No mention of it on their website.
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BB, it’s a total swizz, EPCR negotiated the price of the games with BT Sport and the Challenge Cup games not shown live on BT used to be shown on the EPCR website.
Not any more, you have to pay £4.50 per game to watch the Challenge Cup games they don’t broadcast, ie you pay twice.
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They are a load of rip-offs. At least with BT you can have simultaneous viewing of matches on different devices; with Premier Sports, you need to buy a second licence, which is what we have to do as so many Ulster and Cardiff matches are scheduled at the same time.
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Gwan the Wesht
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Porch with the first score for Connacht!!!
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I think if you paired Carty with a scrum-half who could kick off the tee (ie Cooney or Doak), you’d have the makings of a better half-back combo for Ireland than the other options being considered.
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And the bloody BT stream crashes!
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Embra 7-0 up after 4 mins
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Can’t think why BT sport would show Sarries instead of Edinburgh….
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Stream crashes again…. Maybe it’s the shit BT broadband the mister has.
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crashing for me too
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Embra get a second mauled try, 12-0
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Mind you, Andy Christie just scored a chargedown try for Sarries. And nice to see Duncan Taylor playing again.
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I’m on BT Sports via Virgin and it’s been fine so far
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Correction;
“It’s a first Edinburgh try for Connor Boyle! We go through the phases, with Hutch and Schoe battering the french line, before the ball is shipped wide to Boyle who wriggles over.”
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Same here Ticht, although we’re looking to change as it’s costing us a fortune (we have two boxes which won’t help).
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BB, at the end of my contract I tell Virgin that I’m leaving. They give me an offer and I say no, it’s still too expensive.
A couple of days later they phone me and give me a much improved offer. It’s a pain in the arse but it is worth it. I’ve done this for about six years now.
Another option is to leave them if you are the account holder an get Mrs BB to set up as a new customer, we’ve done that too and it saved us a fortune
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Oh dear, Lowe over for Leinster.
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Damn, I was just about to say that the Connacht defence is much improved and they just got split open
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Ticht – I bet the Sunak-Murty household have similar tactics. ;-)
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Ah bollocks: Keenan-Lowe try.
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Thaum, the difference is that I’m trying to save money on my bills to a 5 billion pound per year company, they are dodging paying their fair share to keep the country going
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Did you see the Galway wind take that attempted Sexton conversion?
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Ticht – well, indeed. But I bet they do try similar things, despite having absolutely no need to do so.
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Connor Boyle gets his second, Jaco vdW adds the extras, 19-0 after 21 minutes
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We’ve got CityFibre which we might go to for broadband and maybe use a fire stick for the Prime/Netflix stuff, and I could get a BT Sport subscription. (We have two TV’s because I watch sport and Mrs BB doesn’t, so it helps keep the peace).
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Brilliant by Hansen.
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Henry Pyrgos gets the BP score for Edinburgh just after the half hour 26 -0
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Porch and Hansen have been the outstanding players so far, imv. Never mind the score.
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11-18 at HT thanks to a Carty pen.
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Moyano gets another, 31 – 0
Normally you’d think that was the game, but this is Edinburgh we are talking about.
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not so fast, the Moyano score was chalked off for a forward pass
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WP Nel makes up for it and scores for Edinburgh, the conversion goes over 33 – 0
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Am listening to Connacht-Leinster on Irish radio. The commentator said Hansen’s been brilliant in whatever colour shirt he’s worn this season – Connacht or Ireland.
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Ah, Connacht on the attack at the start of the second half; should have had a try but some players not in the right places, but still in contention as they have a pen.
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Pen is taken and it’s 14-18.
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Restart is a disaster. Connacht catch, decide to kick, but get charged down and it’s a 5m scrum to Leinster.
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… And Lowe scores in the corner (hat trick).
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Oh but no, there was a knock-on!
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Leprechaun on for Leinster.
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Leinster should have been penalised at that scrum, there was no stability before the ball was in and it was the Leinster pack at fault
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I don’t know why, but that was a Leinster scrum. Connacht are penalised again and may be in trouble.
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That, on the other hand, was a magnificent scrum from Leinster
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Scrum again, another penalty against Connacht, and I think a warning.
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Thaum, it was a penalty advantage and Leinster took he scrum option
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And the bastards score.
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Ticht – yes, I worked out they must have had an advantage as soon as I posted that! :-)
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