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 
‘Mon Scotland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
worryworryworryworryworryworryworryworry
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Cotter, Paterson and Warburton are a great commentating team.
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Ok boys, top that last game.
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How was anyone offside there when there was no breakdown?? Wales hard done-by, especially as the pass to send Jones on his way was a mile forward.
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Wow, just finished watching Ire vs France.
What’s not to like (except the final result from my POV)?
Excellent game, fantastic intensity, great skills, no niggles, good ref. And the best team won. Bravo les Irlandais!
A mild YC to the cheeky Irish producer, who didn’t show Lowe’s foot clearly in touch (French TV showed it at HT), seen from behind. And chapeau to Barnes. First I saw nothing wrong in the Atonio incident, then I thought it was a clear red, (shoulder to head). Glad Barnes went for the YC, as there will be no discussion about who played best. And glad am not a ref.
Now onto Scotland, just in time. Phew…
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What’s happened to Darge?
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Bravo for cutting lunch short, Flair!
They also showed the foot in touch at HT on ITV.
That was a red all day, though.
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Ha, that was a really cool bit of lineout work by big Ritchie.
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Hogg’s failed his HIA>
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Christ Zander! Screw the heid son!
Hoggy not coming back on – failed HIA.
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Yes! Ball grounded.
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Turner in trouble. Interesting in this is red or yellow after the incident earlier.
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Yellow. North (only now) going off for an HIA. Think ref said he’d been called for North to go off.
And BUGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wales back in it!
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Yellow fair to. Lenient but fair. Consistency.
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In this case North did suddenly duck and change direction. But I still think it should have been a red. Let’s stop fucking about.
But let’s also consider that sometimes the player with the ball is at fault (which wasn’t the case here).
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Surprised they picked over the Huw Jones break and the conclusion was ‘they should be on his shoulder and it would have been a try’. If they had been it would have been disallowed for the blatant forward pass and Scotland wouldn’t have got their 3 points.
Think the yellow was unfortunate, North goes down on one knee as the tackle comes in. I’ll probably be told off for thinking this, but there we are.
Scotland played quite poorly for a 13-0 lead, Wales back in it now, but with the missed kick and the missed try at the end probably should be ahead despite looking very laboured with the ball most of the time.
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North has passed his HIA, unlike Herring.
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Interesting game if a bit less intense than the previous one.
Thaum, no complaint from here about the result in Dublin. We might want to find a way to solve the parochial use of replays by local producers though (certainly not saying France is immune to it either).
Atonio could’ve seen red and there’d no complaint from me. But when North went down, there was certainly very little, if anything, the Scottish hooker could’ve done. (Argh, so many Karls there). Like Atonio he wrapped his arms, if a bit less, but he was aiming for the waist. Not his fault if in a millisecond North fell to the ground.
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The conversation about the daffodils has me giggling.
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Paterson losing it, at seeing a man dressed as a daffodil, was lovely.
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FINN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloody brilliant.
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That was quite a try too. I thought the pass was well forward, but on replay it wasn’t.
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@Refit – ‘a very serious daffodil’. :-D
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And then Cotter musing on how daffodils are so lovely but with us for such a short time.
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Great try. Scotland have got momentum following the first charge by vdM
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So far been two good games this weekend
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Bendy legs now sent off as Scotland surge forward
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Game over.
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Yes!!! Finn again, great crossfield kick, Steyn in again.
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Is that the end of Biggar as Gats continues the slaughter of the elderly Welsh?
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Thzum, Townsend’s face was priceless as he also thought the pass was forward. His assistant had to gesture it was OK. Very funny.
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I think Scotland are the best coached team at the breakdown in the Six Nations. Their ability to slow the ball down “legally” is really quite phenomenal.
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Gatland oot.
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That’s it. We might win now.
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Another gorgeous try involving vdM. Scotland look much more dangerous with ball in hand, and really seem to want it more. Wales looking disorganised and dispirited; Gatland has a big job to do.
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What a great 4th try!
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Finn making the difficult look easy, and the easy look difficult.
As usual.
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I reckon Gatland would give his right hand for vdM. Big and boshy as he likes them, but with a step that neither North nor Cuthbert has.
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Ok so Scotland are officially pretty handy. Curses.
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It’s quite nice to be in this position with only a couple of minutes left.
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Scotland furra GrandSlam?
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Apparently, it’s our biggest home win over Wales ever.
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Refit – nah. Did you see Ireland earlier?
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Well deserved victory there for Scotland. Much better in the second half. Even gave some background to last week’s result
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Well done, Scotland!
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Scotland now in the sunny foothills.
Well done against a not great Wales team.
Townsend must now realise that he cannot do without Russell.
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Very enjoyable afternoon of rugby.
Too bad we have a fallow week.
Just heard that Finn may ( have to?) play with Racing next week. Hope the pesky French won’t break him ahead of the game in St Denis. In a way, I wish Scotland would win in Paris so as to set a mouth watering game vs Ireland , Grand Slam at stake. Allez les Bleus!
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Well played Scotland. Rebuilding Wales should have had a couple of tries, but Scotland finished it out superbly.
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