The French are coming, you say? Jesus, Mary Joseph and the wee donkey.
Ireland vs France tomorrow is – in the view of many people – the match to decide the destination of the 6 Nations championship and put the winners on course for a Grand Slam. These are not so common in Irish rugby history to be sniffed at, so while other nations experiment with an eye on the autumn’s RWC, Ireland keep with the tried-and-tested and changes are very much enforced. Sheehan’s hard autumn and winter has finally caught up with him, so Herring gets a chance with the returning Kelleher looking over his shoulder. Bealham continues in place of Furlong.
Ireland had a nice tune up last week – as they say in GAA circles “to blow out the dirty petrol” in preparation for sucking diesel. The game vs Wales was won to all intents and purposes after 30 mins. Wales fought back after half time but Ireland – if not completely at ease – rode out the storm and closed the game out with a BP try. In many ways, reminiscent of Ireland’s trip to Paris in 2022: in command at half-time, France rode out Ireland’s 2nd half comeback and won comfortably enough.
France had a nasty scare last week and any complacency is probably now long dispelled – so we can assume no chance for Ireland to catch France cold. It could also be said that given the big changes in the Welsh panel that maybe the win last week wasn’t as impressive – did Gatland really decide to let this one go and give AWJ and Tipuric a farewell at home before making changes for the remainder of the tournament? Who knows? Maybe we overthink these things.
The big doubt about Ireland, expressed in many places, is that their “kryptonite” is a big pack. Leinster have come unstuck repeatedly against big packs (La Rochelle x 2 and Bulls) and the signing of Jason Jenkins was intended to give them a heavier presence. Ireland won out vs South Africa in the autumn, but they lucked out with SA’s choice of experimental halfbacks and no reliable kicker. So the jury remains out. Beirne and Ryan are not a traditional type of second-row pairing, and in many ways Beirne is something of a hybrid. Many would put him at 6, and have Henderson, who is more of a traditional second row – to bring heavyweight ballast. Of course, back row is where Ireland are pretty well stocked, so the question then becomes how to fit in a player with Beirne’s gifts into the team and not disturb a settled and effective backrow.
On the other games, Scotland followed last year’s win over England with a fairly dreadful performance against a Wales team that had been soundly defeated by Ireland – and here we are again. Lightning doesn’t strike twice, does it? Scottish fans will hope not and that they can build on the promise of last week. Huw Jones looks to back to the form of 2017/2018. Wales will be looking to start a bit quicker and maybe still be competitive at half-time. The regions had shown an upswing in the matches in the weeks running up to the 6N, notably the Ospreys in the Heino.
England vs Italy – England have tended to make hard work of this in recent years but they were forewarned by the Italy / France game. One would expect a backlash from last week’s defeat from England.
From the crystal ball of Mystic Triskaidekaphobia
Onna telly this week
Friday 10th February
| England v Italy (U20s) | 19:00 | BBC iPlayer |
| Scotland v Wales (U20s) | 19:15 | BBC iPlayer / S4C |
| London Irish v Northampton | 19:45 | BT Sport 3 |
| Ireland v France (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer / RTÉ2 |
Saturday 11th February
| Ireland v France | 14:15 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 |
| Scotland v Wales | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C |
Sunday 12th February
| Exeter v Sale | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| England v Italy | 15:00 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 |
Ovally Balls 
‘Your’ England 23:
England: Steward; Malins, Slade, Lawrence, Hassell-Collins; Farrell (c), Van Poortvliet; Genge, George, Sinckler; Itoje, Chessum; Ludlam, Willis, Dombrandt
Replacements: Walker, M Vunipola, Cole, Isiekwe, Earl, Mitchell, M Smith, Arundell
ok -shit or bust: 15 players in their club positions. If the logic of this starting 15 doesn’t work out in reality then everything is up for grabs.
p.s. I would have played Isiekwe (or Ribbans) for Itoje and benched him.
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Have just discovered there’s a BBC Red Button channel on the satellite. It’s got Scotland v Wales.
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Slade – a radical concept indeed!
As Trisk says, Hendo is a natural lock, but it’s hard not to put Beirne on the team.
As for Wales, if Gatland is picking on form then Tipuric and Faletau are lucky to be on the bench after last week. But I doubt either will be so poor again.
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@Thaum – Tips has been dropped completely.
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Didn’t think he was as bad as Faletau to be honest.
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CMW – oh, has he? Obviously I have not been paying proper attention.
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AWJ too (apparently he was available though had failed a HIA during the Ireland game I think). By completely I mean out of the 23 – I assume they’re both still in the wider squad.
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I would keep him out too as a matter of caution.
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The Laddies are up 8-0 against the Boyos as the second half starts, and the Boyos have 2 men in the bin. But they’re attacking.
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@Thaum – so would I, but I’d take a bit of convincing that Gats would have in his last stint.
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Boyos score!
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CMW – apparently Gats is now a grandfather and has a new, softer side that nobody had suspected.
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BBC failing in their duty to update the scores of the U20s. It’s currently Laddies 15-17 Boyos (who’ve earnt a third yellow), but no idea on the two others.
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Good U20 game in Ireland, if slightly spoiled by a homer ref as you rarely see these days. Ireland lead vs France 20/14 at HT. France have 2 players in the bin. Ireland smashed the French9 arm twice beyond the ruck before he could deliver his pass. Just a penalty the 2nd time. First time was not even spotted. Ach…
Hope Barnes has more spine tomorrow.
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Weans leading Garçons 20-14 shortly after HT.
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Flair beat me to it!
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Boyos lucky to see their fourth yellow in the final minute.
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Scotland miss the kick but win by one point.
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Les Gars ont scoré.
So far in this second half, which is all I’ve seen, France have had all the ball except for one too-short moment where it got lost. And we picked up a yellow when I wasn’t looking.
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Grenouillet misses the conversion, so it’s 23-19.
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Oh shite, we have two yellows now! These U20s are dirty buggers.
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And France score again, not surprisingly. Now in the lead.
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Ireland finally do something worth getting excited about. The first half must have been very different.
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Ireland win their line-out in the French 22 more by luck than skill, and it goes through quite a few phases of play with an eventual score. Conversion is good, unlike the Gallic attempt, and it’s 30-24 at 70 mins.
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Mind you, les enfants have 4 tries to our 3, so they must have given away a shedload of penalties early on. And they’re very much on the attack now.
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And over again!
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And the replacement demi du mêlée makes a tough conversion from the touchline to take it to 30-31.
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And Ireland have an easy-looking penalty, but it goes well wide.
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Another kickable penalty awarded to the Weans though. No mistake this time! 33-31 with 2 mins to go.
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And another penalty awarded after the restart, so we’re up the field.
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Line-out looked less straight than Boy George, but not called. But France win a penalty anyway.
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Clock’s gone red, but France get their line-out just inside the Irish 22. It’s overthrown, but they get it back – but Ireland turn it over and get it off the pitch!
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We were bloody lucky to win that.
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Thaum, not often that I mention it as you know but luck had little to do with Ireland win. The ref had too large a part in it. The dubious penalties at the end when France legally won turnovers or the crooked line out are just a few of too many examples of it. If I was one of the coaches or player, I’d be fuming and tempted to do a Rassie. But as a lazy fan, thank dog, I’ll sleep over it and it will be fine.
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I’m perfectly willing to believe that, Flair.
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Crikey. SSBB has picked a team that makes complete sense! Whatever next??
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Damn, I have just be invited to join a lunch I can’t postpone. A lunch here means I won’t be able to watch the 6N live today, not even Scotland vs Wales as they’ll probably mention the earlier result. Guess I’ll have to delay dinner as well then. Tough life.
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After 3 away wins last week, I went for 3 home wins:
Ireland by 8
Scotland by 13
England by 15
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worryworryworryworryworryworryworryworryworry
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I’ll probably remember his name after I post this, but the Aussie guy who is an academic and lives in Dublin who used to post here, at least I think it was him, posted a link to academic research on homer and big team refereeing in sports.
It’s “a thing”, and I know rugby is supposed to be above such bad sportsmanship and it’s “poor form” to mention it, but pretending it is all in the mind of the sore loser is actually more harmful to the sport.
To be honest I think things are improving in rugby (I don’t watch any other sports now) and referees generally make genuine mistakes rather than show bias and that is fine, but referees are human, it would be impossible to have no preconceived idea of teams or certain players before they go on to the pitch.
Anyway, having got that off my chest, I can’t see Italy frightening England too much, England will be determined to make up for last week, they will be looking to win well and they have selected a decent side. I think the England centre talk isn’t finished, but whilst they look for dominance up front, Farrell is probably the best guy to lead them from 10 at the moment. Smith looks great for Quins, but he does so with Dombrandt and Esterhuizen knocking great big holes in the opposition defence.
I have The Fear for Scotland, the team seem to be a bit more mature, there was no late night pissup celebrating the Calcutta Cup win last week, they immediately started talking about today, so that is a step in the right direction. We are not Ireland, we don’t have that firepower up front, so Wales will be able to play the game they want if they gain something approaching parity in the set piece and around the breakdown, which they will.
We haven’t won our first two games since before WP Nel was born (slight exaggeration, but not much), Wales are the team we always struggle against, you know they will be well prepared and mentally tough – the area we are often found wanting – just this once though, I hope we can shift the red dragon money from off our back.
Ire/Fra is intriguing, it’s the one we’ve all been looking forward to since the fixture were announced. If it was played in Paris I’d back France and in Dublin it has to be Ireland, France are missing a few big players, and two of my favourites in Woki and Danty. I expect them to be more on their game than they were last week in Rome, but I’m not sure they’ll have enough to overcome Ireland.
This is one is going to be a cracker.
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BB, it’s the hope etc
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Dragon Monkey
not dragon money – how to kill a gag with auto correct
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First Difference
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@Ticht – colleagues of mine wrote a book about how many refereeing decisions in sport lead to injustice, and the thorny problem of what to do about how much television replays expose this. They advocated VAR in football, which I’m not sure has been a success. I do think that results in rugby far too often get decided by referees and I guess the only thing to do really is not to take the game too seriously.
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“I guess the only thing to do really is not to take the game too seriously.”
This is the key, and something it’s taken me quite a while to realise. It was a lot easier when I played, you get all the frustration out on the park. It’s much more difficult when watching from the sidelines or on tv.
I actually took to only watching Edinburgh on recordings for a while, I can watch them live now for the very reason you say, I don’t attach too much importance to it any more.
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@Ticht – it makes for a more pleasant experience overall. Take last week – I thoroughly enjoyed the game despite the result. Admittedly the next day the thought of possible injustice around a forward pass started bugging me (soundly put to bed on here, thankfully). I guess the secret is to watch it and move on.
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Ireland by 9 – toomuch on their game at the moment
Scotland by 7 – too much inexperience in the Wales team for a win
England by 9- Farrell kicks his points today; England centres; Possible Italian red card.
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It’s very much worrying me that no-one thinks France will win. Well, I do!
Also I think Farrell (Jr) may get a red card.
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Thanks for the ATL Trisk, and Thaum of course.
Cracking weekend of rugby ahead, the first one i would say is the one I am least invested in personally, so can watch as a neutral. Really could go either way, I suspect ireland have the edge in the pck, but France have the edge in the backline. Great match ups all over the pitch, as well as off them, Faz vs Edwards defence etc. It really could come down to refereeing interpretation, whichever side adapts better to breakdown interpretations. Barnes is great communicator, hopefully he will let the scrums play out if the ball is playable, and not blow the whistle at a collapse or pop up if the ball is alredy cleanly at the feet of the 8. Ireland by 6.
Scotland Wales, what a trauma. Brave ( but sensible ) decisions by Gatland could well work out, last week Scotland weren’t as dominant at the breakdown as recently against England, Crosby not as effective as Mish. Haven’t seen North work spectacularly at centre yet, but he does work, the centres could decide it. Welsh granny would make me err towards Wales, but if for noone else, I would like Hoggy to have a successful six Nations, he seems to have spent most of his career as the nearly man, one pass given poorly or dropped with the open line at his mercy away from so many victories. So, almost neutral, Scotland by 9.
England Italy , wow, as Dab says, a sensible selection. Hope Ollie Lawrence goes well. really want Italy to keep up their progress, but I would be happy for them to have another nearly game like last week. England by 12, unless Faz pisses off the Kiwi ref and gets binned for being whiny. happy with him at ten by himself, probably the correct choice ( can you type with gritted fingers ? ), but someone else should be captain.
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Thaum, Kiwi ref likely to be easier on shoulder to head, unless it is blatant. Besides, he will save it for an important World Cup game.
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