France’s pack are set to make pieces of Guinness stew out of the Irish gristle, to be mopped up and washed down with aplomb by their wonderful cork-popping backs, Dupont or no. End of an era for Irish rugby, back to the drawing board.
Italy to spring the surprise of the tournament in week one, with an ambush of a rusty and luddite English side, apparently more concerned with shoehorning more music into the match and walking further from the bus to the ground than um, playing winning rugby. Just kidding. England will prevail, offering neither joy nor stardust. Danny Care gets MOTM.
Wales will Gatball their way to a 12th successive win over Scotland at home to shut Kitson and Co up who can’t be bothered to actually look at Scotland’s side so just come up with the usual ‘dark horses’ tag for a side of haggis and boerewors munchers. Crap match, but at least the Scots won’t be killed by The Hope for more than 80 minutes this year.
These are the rather more spontaneous than usual words of Deebee7.
Onna telly this weekend
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates free-to-view. Times are in the UK zone, so adjust as necessary.
Friday 2nd February
| Wales v Scotland U20s | 18:45 | S4C / iPlayer |
| Italy v England U20s | 19:15 | iPlayer |
| France v Ireland | 20:00 | ITV1 |
Saturday 3rd February
| Perpignan v Racing 92 | 14:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Italy v England | 14:15 | ITV1 |
| Pau v Castres | 16:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Wales v Scotland | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C / RTÉ2 / iPlayer |
| Munster v Crusaders | 17:00 | TG4 |
| Toulouse v Bayonne | 20:00 | Viaplay |
| France v Ireland U20s | 20:10 | iPlayer |
Sunday 4th February
| Toulon v Bordeaux | 20:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Oops, twice again.
Watching Toulon vs Bordeaux. Quite entertaining. 29/20 ATM.
Gazzoti (with Bordeaux) only 19yo, ex U20 captain, like several of his mates didn’t play with his U20’s mates yesterday. They chose to play with their 6N depleted clubs, either in T14 or ProD2.
As a footnote, England not only could use Jack Willis but also Ribbans, who’s excellent with Toulon.
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Well, performance on Friday was something of a surprise to me… although I think I said we might win narrowly or get well-beaten – wrong on both counts, I suppose.
I’ve not had a chance to see Ita/Eng or Wal/Sco yet.
Was down in west Cork for U16 game on Saturdayu morning and then went up to Cork for the Munster-Crusaders game – fun experience, nothing really on the line, but 40k turned up to on a balmy Saturday evening
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@sbt
Maybe Jonny Sexton hung around a season too long
Well, certainly – in retrospect – he hung on for 20 mins too long at a very minimum.
I can understand why…
Carbery the heir apparent had been riddled by injury since pre-RWC 2019,
The rest of the pretenders are/were limited
So we had to wait until Crowley emerged and he emerged from an Ireland pov very fast (on the EI tour that was designed around Frawley – who then got injured before it)
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<i>Was down in west Cork for U16 game on Saturdayu</i>
How do you pronounce that? I know Cork has a, um, distinctive accent, but didn’t realise it was that different!
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Well, Cork is on the west coast, so obviously there would have been a lot of Jamaican ship workers arriving and singing Dayu come and me wanna go home. This was later incorporated into the Corkian days of the week.
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Haha! Very good Thauma!
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I see Rassie has been confirmed as Bok coach for the next four years. That was the worst kept secret in SA rugby, but interestingly is his appointment of Jerry Flannery, ex-Ireland international, as defence coach (poached from Quins – nice to get movement the other way for a change!) and Tony Brown, ex AB 10 as attack coach. Don’t know much about either as a coach to be honest, but Rassie is a shrewd operator, so in Ras we trust!
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Exeter’s Namibian-born tighthead, Patrick Schickerling to join Glasgow for 2024/5 season.
He’s good.
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Would he be eligible for Scotland having played in England for the last few years? One England cap in an uncapped match against the Baabaas, so not officially a Test player yet. Dunno how this works – would he have to play for a Scottish club for 5 years, or just a UK one?
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Wales team to face England
Wales: 15 Cameron Winnett, 14 Josh Adams, 13 George North, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Ioan Lloyd, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Alex Mann, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Dafydd Jenkins (c), 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Gareth Thomas
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Cai Evans, 23 Mason Grady
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@Deebs – I expect they will find a way……………………………..
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Dastardly Scots! Lowlands gonna collapse under the weight of boerewors and steak!
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Squidge! on Ireland/France
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Squidge really does some excellent (and humorous*: existential crises!) analysis, but I suspect that the reason Aki didn’t pass the ball in his ‘dummy’ was at least partly because it would have been forward.
But the adverts are annoying. As is the pronouncing of Lucu as ‘Loocoo’. To pronounce a French U, you have to put your lips into that super-French upwardsly position, not the round purse of an English oo.
*See also: <i>France found themselves, swamped, cooked and served up on a platter, deep-fried cockerel.</i>
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Thaum – considering Squidge has spent the last 5 years calling your recently retired 10 variations on Jimblebomb Sexwrap, I’m gonna give him a pass on slighty wonky French.
(That and he’s Welsh)
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I’ve watched a few of the videos, but somehow missed (or forgot) Jimblebob Sexwrap, which is brilliant!
He’s Welsh, is he? Sounds very English! Although I’m not sure what that has to do with my comment. ;-)
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*Jimblebomb
But I think I like Jimblebob too.
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France by 15
England by 15
Ireland by 30
Nice and symmetrical this week. No close games, just grim mashing of the smaller sides.
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As someone said elsewhere, whether Scotland lost their heads or we were reffed off the park (pinged 19 times – 16 penalties, 2 advantage over and 1 free kick), that won’t happen again. Neither will France’s defence be all at sea two weeks in a row. I think this one will be close. Mais haute les cœurs, Scotland by 5. (it could easily be France by 10 to 15)
Because of the reason above, whether by accident or design, Wales won’t get a run of penalties like last week, before that happened Scotland were easily on top. I can only see a home win at Twickenham. England by 10 to 15.
Sunday is a day of rest, but not for Italy – no one is beating Ireland in Dublin this tournament, it will be down to England to see if they can prevent back to back Grand Slams. I fear Italy will prove little more than a speed bump for Ireland, but look out for at least one glorious all-team try covering 60m of turf. Ireland by heaps.
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***Runs and hides for calling Scotland and Wales smaller sides***
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I’ve just read an obituary of Robert Badinter on another rugby board – he was the driving force behind the abolition of death penalty in France. I didn’t know the name to be honest, but that is a job well done.
Do you have any thoughts on him, Flair?
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Ticht, Badinter was a brilliant man and the force behind the end of the death penalty here.One of the first, if not the first mesure taken by Mitterrand when elected in 1981.
Short anecdote: no one could call the result, it was so close (he ended up winning by less than 51%) and yet, a week before the election, although he knew the majority was overwvhelmingly in favor of the death penalty, Mitterand proclaimed he would immediately end it if elected. That’s the difference between a statesman and a politician.
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Ticht, Badinter was a brilliant man and the force behind the end of the death penalty here.One of the first, if not the first mesure taken by Mitterrand when elected in 1981.
Short anecdote: no one could call the result, it was so close (he ended up winning by less than 51%) and yet, a week before the election, although he knew the majority was overwvhelmingly in favor of the death penalty, Mitterand proclaimed he would immediately end it if elected. That’s the difference between a statesman and a politician.
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Answered you Ticht, but it’s in the spam I guess.
Sco by 7
Eng by 25
Ire by 45
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Answered you Ticht, but it’s in the spam I guess.
Sco by 7
Eng by 25
Ire by 45
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Wales look a half-tidy team on paper and have their tails up after that second half against Scotland. They will feel like there’s nothing to lose at Twickenham running out as underdogs. England, meanwhile, don’t know what they are trying to do. Having finally got an initially awful defensive system to work work in the world cup, abandoning it so swiftly now seems perverse. It’s like EJ never left. With great resentment of the RFU, who have not put the right person in charge since SCW left, I predict a famous victory for Wales.
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Ireland Team & Replacements (v Italy, Guinness Men’s Six Nations, Aviva Stadium, Sunday, February 11)
15. Hugo Keenan (UCD/Leinster)(37)
14. Calvin Nash (Young Munster/Munster) (2)
13. Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster)(68)
12. Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(15)
11. James Lowe (Leinster)(27)
10. Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster)(10)
9. Craig Casey (Shannon/Munster)(13)
1. Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster)(60)
2. Dan Sheehan (Lansdowne/Leinster)(22)
3. Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht)(37)
4. Joe McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster)(6)
5. James Ryan (UCD/Leinster)(60)
6. Ryan Baird (Dublin University/Leinster)(16)
7. Caelan Doris (St Mary’s College/Leinster)(37)(captain)
8. Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster)(42)
Replacements:
16. Ronan Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster)(27)
17. Jeremy Loughman (Garryowen/Munster)(4)
18. Tom O’Toole (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(12)
19. Iain Henderson (Academy/Ulster)(79)
20. Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster)(58)
21. Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)(31)
22. Harry Byrne (UCD/Leinster)(2)
23. Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster)(30).
Much better. One Ulsterman starting, and two on the bench.
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Dab,could be fun. Lloyd seems to have been on the back burner for a season or so, but he really can do some special things. If England don’t attack the rucks, and Wales get quick ball, there is going to be plenty of loose running rugby on display, from one side at least. Could be decided by cards, England by 3
Scotland going to get bullied off the park in the first half, and then Cam Redpath is going to slip into gear with Finn with a second half comeback for the ages. Scotland by 5.
Ireland by 27. Is Ange playing ?
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One Ulsterman starting, and two on the bench.
Hmmm. Italy in with a shout?
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Thaum – you have mail!
*waves*
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*waves back*
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I don’t know what’s going on with the fucking spambot. Flair emailed to say that he’d lost some posts, and I found a couple from Dab and one from SBT as well. I’ve rescued them all.
There’s no obvious reason why they are going to spam.
If you do get a post not appearing, it’ll probably help if you don’t try to post the same thing again, and instead try to leave another post saying you’ve been spambinned. I’ve published the duplicates because the idiot thing is supposed to learn, and I didn’t want to delete them in case that makes it think that the poster is a Bad Person.
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Your efforts are appreciated Thaum
Flair, would you mind if I shared that anecdote? I particularly liked the difference between a politician and a statesman.
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Whilst I’m here, last week I talked about the young tighthead prop in Scotland’s U20s squad – he’s 130kg and has been playing against full grown men all season, and dishing out some real battering by all accounts.
Anyway, he was not allowed to play last Friday because he’s only 17 and that is against World Rugby’s guidance. Scotland have a neck strength test for props and he passed those, but the test isn’t recognised by WR. He’s 18 in 7 weeks time, when he’ll be allowed to play, so he’ll be there when Scotland host the Trophy version of the U20s world championship in July. At last it looks like we might have a couple of props coming though because the guy who came in, Callum Norrie, looked sound.
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Share all you like Ticht, I wouldn’t post anything on here that I would ashamed of. Actually I would’nt mind if we had to use our real names on the internet, taking full responsability for what we say.
WRT to the anecdote about Mitterrand, I vividly remember it myself, both proud of him and almost wishing he hadn’t taken such a risk.
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Youpee! Posted straight away!
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Flair, I was once a member of an internet chatroom which was run by the Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughan, it was a wonderful board, the chat was heavily influenced by traditional music and also politics since he was a former secretary of the communist party in Scotland, but the topics were as varied as the day is long.
There were very few rules, one was real names only, another was absolutely no flaming, you could attack another person’s ideas as hard as you like, but personal insults were forbidden. It was wonderful place to chat. Anyway, one of the norms that arose in that place was that if anyone want to use what you’d written they always asked permission, I’ve carried that on.
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There are lots of reasons not to use your real name on the internet: there are some real weirdos out there. There is one who stalked another blog I’m on, set up an alternate site to spout hate about it, succeeded in finding out the real name of one of the posters, and tried to destroy her life. (She is a barrister, and he tried to get her disbarred.)
Not to mention people who live in countries with repressive regimes, etc.
On that cheery note, stand by for a new post!
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Click here for the new post.
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