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 
Anyway….
‘MON SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After the adverts, obviously.
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*Sigh*
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Gilchrist in trouble.
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Good work by the medic there. Might not be great for Scotland though.
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Well, that’s fucked it.
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Red card. Game over.
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This is going to be a massacre. Not sure how France got that ball out of the ruck – from Steyn I think. France annoyed by last game.
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Proper “flower of Scotland” vibe as they are now about to be massacred
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Hang on, things might be evening up!
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That looks like it’s evened it up.
It’s good to see the laws being applied correctly – and comms not moaning about it.
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Could be a red for France?
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“not a high danger”? He torpedoed him. Good on the ass.refs for correcting the ref there.
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Ref talking himself out of a red. Assistants talked him back into it!
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Well that’s changed it. Stupidity by the French prop
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Okay, now that’s torn it.
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Well that killed any momentum we had.
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Everything going well – except for the scoreboard
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Ooh, that was close.
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France on a warning for penalties in the 22 now.
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Comeback is go!
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I think that pass could be counted as ‘flat’, but good try! At least we won’t be nilled.
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Well! That was quite a half.
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Not sure I could count that as ‘fun’, but I’m sure it was for the neutral. We’ve played reasonably well, but are 22-7 down. A wee bit more care and we could have had two other tries of our own too.
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BB … and not handed Ramos the intercept try.
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Yep, well intercepts happen. One in each game yesterday too. Its how you react after that that counts. Finn made one mistake and got punished for it, then he gave the scoring pass for our try. He’ll keep going.
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Well!!!!
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Fantastic try saving tackle from White! France get another penalty.
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Also, amazing how good Ben Kay is on comms when he isn’t having to talk up England….
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In like Finn!
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FINN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wassa score???
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25-21 to France. 14 each in players.
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25-21 in the 72nd min.
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👍
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Brown overthrows and undoes all our good work. Reckon even a penalty will win it for France, but they might want the bonus point.
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Nope, held up in the maul! 2 minutes left, 4 points the difference, the length of the field to go.
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Shit. Fickou in for the bonus point try and denies us ours. Bugger. Don’t think we deserved that on the balance of play.
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Fickou goes over. That line-out!
Great, great match.
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Maybe the first 10 minutes killed us in the end? Anyway, not often I feel confident in defeat, but that was a helluva game from both sides. We played better with 14 than England and Wales did with 15 yesterday.
Not sure we’ll beat Ireland, but I think they’ll get a game.
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The final French plays were so powerful Great game and fortunately not the massacre I had predicted with the first red card. Excellent performance by Scotland, just unable to get the final points when hammering the French line
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Good result for England, that. Destiny still in our own hands.
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Well played Scotland and tough in the end.
French commentators, players and crowd all pretty pleased with that, which is a kind of compliment to the Scots.
The better team won.
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More importantly, Exeter beat Sale……………….
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According to the table on ITV we’re still second on points difference! Just. Looks like we can’t finish lower than 4th.
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Keep seeing comments abouot France destroying ‘Scotland’s Grand Slam dream’. Don’t think there were many, if any Scottish rugby fans thinking about a Grand Slam.
If France were the best side, it wasn’t by much.
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Good game today. Shame for Scotland but it was almost a great come back.
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Crikey! France destroyed Scotland’s Grand Slam dream in the end. A shame, but there we go.
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I was away at the weekend, so watched ITA vs IRE on catchup and caught FRA vs SCO on a delayed transmission as we got home (and from what I’ve read in the blog probably ought to save myself from watching WAL vs ENG)
Ireland probably had the winning of the game in hand always but Italy are improving – their U20s have been good last few seasons, so seems like the structures are in place and the output gradually improving.
Farrell criticised Ireland vs Fiji in the autumn for kicking the ball dead at the end instead of playing on… the players seem to have taken that in because the intercept try for Italy was directly from that. We did similar vs Wales (Sheehan kicked randomly upfield with 40 mins elapsed – and only scrambled defense stopped Wales on the counter).
Hansen as MotM – well, yes, he did score 2 tries – but overall he wasn’t great, and hasn’t looked as good this season. Doris functioned better at 8. Munster fans may grudgingly accept that Doris is better than Coombes (not really seen Coombes at any high level) but Conan seems to benefit from the fact he started for the Lions 2 years ago – no other facts come into consideration.
McCloskey and Aki were ok – 2 12s plus a newish half back partnership left things a little disjointed. Lowe’s defensivce flaws popped up again – probably in absence of Ringrose.
O’Toole seemed an improvement at TH – Adamson was beginning to take a dislike to Bealham’s scrummaging before he was unfortunately injured.
Byrne was ok – he does the basics well but as ever he stands and plants himself and sligns the ball to 12 without really making the defence think “what if he runs” in the way that Sexton will or Carbery can (and there’s an awful clip of Italian 11 running past Byrne – reminded me of myself trying to keep up with a quick winger when reffing a practice match at U14 training).
I’m still concerned that we’re continuing to hammer away at pick and goes as a method of scoring rather than as a method to suck in defenders – ball carriers generally got very little change out of the Italian forwards in those situations.
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France vs Scotland is always – in my mind – with Scotland vs Wales – the prime candidate for ‘craziest match of the year’.
The Georgian’s ref’s ambivalence at first to give a red to Haouas didn’t look good, but he sensed Carley (esp) didnt agree and was guided – so good team work.
At 19-0 down, you’d fear a blow out (although the levels are much closer now – I’d be surprised to see anything like the 50-odd to 10 or 15 we saw often enough in late 90s and early 00s)
Scotland did well to come back – France were a bit loose I thought as if 19-0 it was all done and dusted.
Scotland / Ireland at Murrayfield looks to be an interesting clash
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Hansen as MotM
Well, for entertainment value in the post-match interview 10/10 – if you didn’t see it …. check it out, you’ll get a laugh….
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