Can you feel it? That frisson in the air? No, it’s not fucking Phil Collins! (Don’t be an idiot.) Kick off your high-heeled stud boots; it’s party time. SIX NATIONS OPENING WEEKEND! WOOHOO!
The delectable anticipation, the raw hunger, the beautiful dream as yet undisturbed by some snot-nosed kids bringing your blissful reverie to a sudden and brutal end.
First up on the menu is a tasty treat in the form of a re-Gatted Wales against a McCloskey-powered Ireland. Roof is to be closed in Cardiff, apparently. Ominous.
Next up is England v Scotland. Can Scotland be Karl-like and pull it off again at Twickenham?
Finally, on Sunday, we have Italy v France. It would be surprising if Italy won, but could home advantage and perhaps a ref decision or two produce some drama?
So sit back and enjoy the anticipation! By the end of the weekend, half of us will be asking ¿Qué bandolera que eres tú?
Onna telly this week
Friday 3rd February
| Wales v Ireland (U20s) | 19:00 | BBC iPlayer / S4C |
| England v Scotland (U20s) | 19:00 | BBC iPlayer / RTÉ Player |
| Italy v France (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer |
Saturday 4th February
| Sharks v Stormers | 12:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 / TG4 |
| Toulouse v Bayonne | 14:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Wales v Ireland | 14:15 | BBC1 / S4C |
| La Rochelle v Lyon | 16:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| England v Scotland | 16:45 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 |
| Montpellier v Toulon | 20:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
Sunday 5th February
| Italy v France | 15:00 | ITV1 |
| Stade Français v Bordeaux | 20:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
Yep, by a couple of yards CMW. Lordy, Ireland looking quite the package. If I wanted to be picky, I might look for a speedster on one wing instead of Mack Hansen, but Thaums McCloskey is having a great game, and the pack is unbelievable in the loose.
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SBT – McCloskey’s been consistently playing like this for a long time, so it was mystifying why he hasn’t been handed the Ireland shirt.
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Thaum, was it Aki getting the nod in front of McCloskey?
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Ticht – first Henshaw, then Aki.
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Ireland are winning every contact at least when they have the ball and don’t make mistakes with their passing so are able to score very straightforward tries. Can hardly blame them for that though it leaves me a bit cold just as watching Leinster beat teams up in the same way does. Don’t think it tells us much about how they’ll get on against anyone who ever stops anyone on the gainline though. Couple of big calls have contributed to the scoreline (the knock on against LW that should have been a pen for Wales and led to a try and Lowe off his feet when he won the pen when Biggar didn’t score or get his pass away). Only one team in it though. A telling comment from the commentator was ‘everyone carries for Ireland’ and that’s perhaps a big part of their dominance.
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Time to give Owen Williams a chance to see what he can do ?
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Yeah, Cmw, Porter should have been penalised for stooping the ball coming back for the jac Morgan try, and was it him or Bealham that upended Adams onto is head from the floor ? Lucky boy.
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Try Williams. Welsh comeback is on.
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Bloody hell, a penalty restart. You don’t see that nearly enough.
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@Refit – If you saw it more often then you’d see a lot conceded by Liam Williams. The victim on this occasion though!
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Not the best scrum half play from Tips there, but great defence.
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Tips’ skills let him down again, this time at centre or similar. What is the world coming to?
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Dumb by Hendo.
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Yes it has to be dangerous play of some sort, but pen only doesn’t feel unfair.
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Not Hendo’s best moment, but Williams also has form for diving.
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Well he did hit him so that’s neither here nor there.
Wales at least competing properly now and some nice moments, but too many mistakes to get back into it.
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Entertaining by Sheehan.
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Aki comes on for McCloskey and gives away an awful penalty.
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Again we don’t finish it off. Though now got a pen.
Scott Baldwin is back which is something of a surprise. I’m sure it would have been Lake if he wasn’t injured, but still a bit of a shocker that Baldwin is third choice even.
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Dyer has been good for Wales
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I think that’s a harsh card. Sexton ran into Williams.
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Don’t think there was anything in that, all the momentum came from Sexton.
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Oh yay, we’re back to excuses for hitting someone in the head.
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Shame as the game was enjoyable for a bit even though it was over as a contest ages ago and now they’ve needlessly ruined the last 15 minutes.
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Just to be clear, I’m referring to the co-commentators moaning about it, not Thaum & Clyde.
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I’d rather they erred on the side of caution when it comes to head contact, don’t tackle upright is the answer
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Don’t see what Williams could really have done with Sexton launching himself upwards from the position he was in.
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One of the problems with the laws is that the person carrying the ball has immunity. Sometimes they are at fault (and any recipient of a Glasgow kiss will know that the person with the momentum has the advantage).
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Titch – it does seem to be rather a simple solution to the problem 🤷♂️
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@Clyde – there is always the option to not make the tackle.
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BP TRY van der Flier!
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Ireland haven’t really been in it for a long part of this second half, but that was clinical
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I did not think we would get there.
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Well, I’ve lost my tenner, but to be fair, there hasn’t been any singing at all.
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SBT – there’s a bit of Fields of Athenry being sung….
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Hell of a tackle by Horse, right at the death.
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Great tackle by Cuthbert. Big comeback by Wales in the second half.
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Good tackle by Horse to finish it. Some positives for Wales, and they have shown a blueprint in the second half as to how to disrupt Ireland.
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“there is always the option to not make the tackle.”
Sexton would still have hit him with his head.
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CMW – in this case, yes, I agree.
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Wales apparently not completely useless in the second half though I guess Ireland dropped off with it already won, but not much really to say about a game where one team turned up for the first 25 minutes and the other didn’t at all.
Surprised Keenan was MotM even though everything we saw him do was good as the game was very obviously won and lost up front. Thought Doris, Sheehan, Van der Flier were probably the best players.
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I bloody love the Six Nations, although I loved it more in the first half. The mister’s a bit grumpy for some reason.
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I could live with seeing my team get an easy win, but by and large I prefer a competitive match to watch. Hope we get one now.
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I’ll take my team getting the easy win
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Nice warm up for the main event.
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CMW – it was the penalties in the first half that did you in. I thought there should have been a card there, or at least the threat of one, rather than Williams’.
I think we will lose to France next week.
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SBT – oh indeed. Come on Scotland! :-p
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@Ticht – I suppose I might enjoy Scotland winning by 50 points and possibly more even than them winning by one, but I’d rather either of those than something more in the middle.
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Just love the melody of Flower of Scotland, and the 3/4 time signature makes it waft.
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@Thaum – Faletau might have got a yellow for repeat offending I suppose, but then virtually none of the penalties were when they were under serious pressure so wouldn’t really expect a card. The penalties did of course then put them under pressure and they cracked fairly easily as they got smashed by the big runners.
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