With a Welsh strike narrowly averted, minds can concentrate
In golf, the 3rd round is known as the Moving Day (or some such), when those in contention put down a marker, thunder up the leader board and peer imperiously down at the chasing pack before the Sunday finale. This Could Be That Weekend in the Glorious Six Nations! Northern Hemisphere rugby is in rude health at the moment, with Ireland France at the top of the global pile, Scotland playing their best rugby in years, Italy threatening to make the 6N a real thing and England and Wales rebuilding (apparently). It is a fabulous feast fit for a Fürst (yeah, stretching it, I know)!
Guinness Pie over Ossobuco alla Milanese by 18.
FD always blathered on about a return to the mean in rugby. Well, Ireland have made six changes to their side, but remain mean, rather than returning to it. Perhaps a little light in the front row, although that didn’t stop them from bashing France with barely a glimmer of a smile (unless they were laughing uncontrollably, just to tick all the Expro boxes, sans the jumps). Casting an eye over the side, there’s no real weaknesses at all and you’d expect that a settled squad with sprinklings of stardust and oozing all-round quality will have too much for an Italy side exposed by England last week. Italy have the capacity to play wonderful flowing rugby, but if they’re dragged into a dogfight, their bark is a whimper and their bite wouldn’t dent overcooked pasta.
Yorkshire Pudding over Leek Soup by 4.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood gave us the searing inshite that when two sides go to war, one of them will shoot and score. This match may well disprove that as stodge splashes into gloop. An England that managed to bully Italy off the park won’t have it all their own way against a Wales side looking to poke the blazers in the eye. Wales’ travails may soon be mirrored across the Afon Gwy with the looming threat of mass exodus (and not in a wonderful Bob Marley style) as cash-strapped English sides lose their stars. It won’t impact this weekend, although Tipuric and Faletau may do that in an effort to strangle any English ambition in the backs. Wales have 2 caps in the midfield (where’s Manu when you need him? Oh.) which could spell danger and have brought back a heap of blokes we all thought were out to pasture. No new coach bounce for them, or even a dead cat bounce. Just the sorrowful sound of soup splattering the sidewalk.
Coq au Vin over Neeps and Tatties by 8.
A rich and satisfying French dish to prevail over a Scottish offering still missing a bit of Haggis to round it all off. France were out-muscled and out-thought in Dublin a fortnight ago, but aren’t the first and won’t be the last to suffer that fate at the Palindrome against a mighty Irish side. It should be the match of the round, with both sides capable of scoring end to end tries; both with strike runners and support play that makes them dangerous from anywhere on the field. Scotland know that a Famous Win in Paris will put them tantalisingly close to a first Championship this century and even the possibility of the holy grail of a Grand Slam, albeit with Ireland still to come. Crunch time for them – can they keep their heads whilst all around them are losing theirs, or will the guillotine cut them down to size? France too know that a loss puts them out of realistic contention of retaining their crown and keeping the momentum towards the World Cup later this year: time for a splash of champagne, a slug of cognac and some (legal) magic potion to see off the pesky Picts.
The Gospel according to St. Deebee7
Onna telly this week
Friday 24th February
| Italy v Ireland (U20s) | 19:00 | BBC iPlayer / RTÉ2 |
| Wales v England (U20s) | 19:15 | BBC iPlayer / S4C |
| Bath v Bristol | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
| France v Scotland (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer |
Saturday 25th February
| Sharks v Ulster | 12:00 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Lions v Glasgow | 14:10 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Italy v Ireland | 14:15 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 |
| Wales v England | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C |
Sunday 26th February
| Exeter v Sale | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| France v Scotland | 15:00 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 |
Ovally Balls 
Slade, WRT to your ATL, Jalibert’s injury leads to Jaminet on the bench for France, as both Hastoy and Berdeu ( 3rd and 4th choice FHs) have been released to their cubs.
Danty as a sub probably means a 5/3 bench instead of the usual Galthié’s 6/2 .
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Flair
Thanks for that – lots of rotation/replacement in the French squad -5/3 looks like open play rather than trench warfare. Danty is really highly rated.
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Slade, for my money Danty has been missed more than others like Woki, Danty gives the French backline real penetration in the midfield, if you’ll excuse the Karl, whereas the carrying in the French pack is always good, whoever is in there.
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Someone mention Campbell?
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Well, well, well… (Taskmaster burst the bionic zit splitter)
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Max Malins, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 11 Anthony Watson, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Jack Willis, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge (c)
Replacements: 16 Jack Walker, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Dan Cole, 19 David Ribbans, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Alex Mitchell, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Henry Arundell
As Slade said only one change. I like this team tbh. France by 10.
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Breakneck speech we down 10 pints of bitter!
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*speed
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Someone mentioned Cippers the other day
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….. why?
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Thaum, you’ve got mail.
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Flair / Slade – apologies, I am up to my eyeballs with work this evening! I will not get around to reading until tomorrow.
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Interesting…..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64907509
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BB, there has been a lot of chat about Dimes taking on Edinburgh this evening, the consensus on the Glasgow board is that it is a disaster.
Elsewhere is a bit more measured, it’s thought Diamond will want to bring in Nick Easter for defence if he is signed up on a permanent basis and retain Mike Blair as attack coach.
I don’t know that much about Diamond, other than he gives the impression that he’s cut from the same cloth as Richard Cockerill, and that did not go well at Edinburgh, not at all.
I hope that is not the case.
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Quiet in here. Maybe too quiet. But with 3 tantalising matches in prospect, I’d imagine players, coaches, fans and pets alike are all hunkered down readying for the war tomorrow! I’ve got:
France to beat England at HQ for the first time in yonks.
Ireland to eventually ease past Scotland.
Italy to compound Wales’ misery and have the Valleys in a nostalgic melancholy for the glories of the Pivac era.
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Same predictions here Deebee.
New ATL soon in Thaum’s box.
Fun fact: Thibaut Flament, France 2nd row, fist played rugby in Belgium, age 8, for a club called ASRU Waterloo Club. No, I won’t see any omen there.
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Same predictions here Deebee.
New ATL soon in Thaum’s box.
Fun fact : Thibaut Flament, France 2nd row, started playing rugby in Belgium, as a scrum half, age 8, in a club called AS BU Waterloo Rugby. No, I won’t see any omen there.
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Bis repetita etc…
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Franglophones may enjoy yesterday’s Crace: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/09/sunak-spells-it-out-for-suella-and-gets-tres-serieux-with-emmanuel
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Excellent, as we say in French.
Unfortunately both he and Marina have access to endless material.
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I particularly liked the last sentence.
Marina seems to have disappeared.
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I thought Marina had disappeared. One of the best reasons for reading the Guardian. I hope it’s just a holiday or short sabbatical.
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To be clear, Marina Hyde is one of the best reasons for reading the Guardian, not her disappearance.
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Oh, and the bookmarked reports of the 7-0 hammering last weekend. If anyone missed that, I can share.
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What time do the U-20 matches start tonight? 8pm UK time, I’m assuming?
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Anyone else have issues this morning? I was lucky my neighbour owns a couple of snow-shovels
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Deebee,
Scotland vs Ireland at 8.15 pm
Italy vs Wales same time
England vs France at 9pm. This one should be a cracker.
All games shown on terrestrial L’Equipe TV, free for all. European time BTW.
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@Deebee – 7:15 for Italy/Wales and Scotland/Ireland. 8pm for England/France.
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Refit – pah. My sister lives in Buffalo NY. Now that’s snow.
The new post, which I am about to get started on, will as usual have all the times and UK/Ireland channels!
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Thanks folks. Looks like I’ll need to get another bottle of wine out for the rugby. It’s a burden, but someone’s got to. And then Mrs Deebee agreed to go to a Queen tribute thing tomorrow, which will kick off at pretty much the same time as the rugby. Freddie vs Finn? May vs, um, Ma-lins? Deacon vs Bleu? Taylor vs something.
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Does this count as proper snow?
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The above is due to this
“Gary Lineker to step back from presenting Match of the Day”
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/10/gary-lineker-step-back-match-of-the-day-bbc
There is another story on the front page too –
BBC will not broadcast Attenborough episode over fear of ‘rightwing backlash’
The BBC, Bastion of impartiality that it is, has decided to not broadcast one episode of its new Attenborough series because it details environmental damage and the sources of it
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OT, the worst blizzard I’ve been in was whilst driving through the Lake District – my ancient LandRover was one of the few vehicles that was still on the road.
The visibility was a few inches beyond the bonnet.
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I wasn’t sure which Queen you meant there at first, Deebee.
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OT – I don’t know why snow makes the road closer. You’d think it’d make it further away.
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Go here for the new post.
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