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 |
Dumb by Willemse. Crowley seems to create a lot more space for the backs as he is a running threat, looking good so far, couple of sloppy kicks aside. France looking a little outgunned in the pack in the loose, didn’t expect that.
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ah – that France started – will this France finish?
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Brilliant from Ireland from the start. Too bad for Willemse red card (fully deserved, even from his first offence)) as people will say it’s too easy for Ireand.
But their attacks have been wonderful. With or without W., France stand no chance tonight. Ireland have a fantastic speed of defence ( and let’s be honest, several lazy cynical fouls – me, sir?- I wish could be eradicated from the game).
Those who thought Lucu could fill Dupont’s shoes must be silent tonight.
I’d hapily settle for a LBP now. Well played Ireland.
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Refit – thankfully I missed that.
Ireland still not looking like the complete picture to me; some mistakes from the youngsters, which is of course only to be expected. They’ve been lucky with France playing under par so far, but will it last?
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So it looks like, outside the World Cup, Ireland are still the team to beat!
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Brilliant from Ireland from the start. Too bad for Willemse red card (fully deserved, even from his first offence)) as people will say it’s too easy for Ireand.
But their attacks have been wonderful. With or without W., France stand no chance tonight. Ireland have a fantastic speed of defence ( and let’s be honest, several lazy cynical fouls – me, sir?- I wish could be eradicated from the game).
Those who thought Lucu could fill Dupont’s shoes must be silent tonight.
I’d hapily settle for a LBP now. Well played Ireland.
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Oh shit, I’ve just seen the Dayglo thing! My eyes!!!!
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Thaum, another post in the spam. Sorry.
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Further to my previous post writing France off, it ain’t over if they just play like that last try. Get their big guys carrying it up through the middle and they will be a real threat, even with 14
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Flair, you think you’ve got problems, we’ve all seen Dayglo in a towel
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Flair – rescued your posts. Did both of them because I think if I delete one, it’ll think you’re a bad man. :-)
We may have to up your access to prevent this.
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That’s rubbish, the first incident was far more dangerous than the second. That will impact the length of ban.
I despair of those who run our sport
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“Those who thought Lucu could fill Dupont’s shoes must be silent tonight.”
It’s not like the best player in the world needs any more complimentary prose, but his absence is definitely conspicuous.
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TRY Munster Youngster! He was a bit lucky to get it, but at least he was in the right place at the right time.
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France’s defence is all over the place
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That was well-worked by Ireland, but how did France have so few defenders?
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in a towel? You mean like in a sauna?
brrrr…
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Flair, it’s an advertisement that he is doing on tv here.
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Karl Dixon now zooms up in the local’s estimation – for a minute at least !
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French try and POM to the bin for collapsing the previous maul. Oh dear.
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Flair – to make it even more offensive, it’s a yellow towel. Gruesome.
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BONUS POINT TRY Sheehan!
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No sign of Hendo at all; perhaps he just came out with the team as an emotional support player, or something.
Just wait till Sinn Fein take control at Stormont (hopefully not long). We’ll see more Ulster players then.
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France without Dupont are a very different team. Ireland have been in control from the start, bar one or two minutes
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France playing some lovely rugby here and there, but it’s not enough.
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Coms giving it to Lucu too. To be fair to him, he has had zero protection from his pack, and the Irish have made a mess of the rucks and mauls really well, with a little help from Mr. Dickson.
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Seems a joke now that JGP is being replaced by Conor Murray, but we probably didn’t expect the game to go so well. Otherwise I’d have picked Casey / Cooney / Doak (even though of course the latter two weren’t on the squad).
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SBT – Lucu’s been brilliant for Bordeaux.
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Ireland have totally controlled the pace of the game to suit their situation. They’ve also controlled where the game has been played
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I can hardly believe there have been so many holes in the French defensive line, but it’s not been great from Fickou and his troops.
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TRY Kelleher through the line-out maul!
McCarty has got MOTM, and he’s been very good. Possibly even good enough to keep our Ulsterman out. :-/
Lowe was another contender, mostly in the first half.
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Well, I didn’t expect that at all! France seriously under-par for some reason, and I don’t think it’s all down to Dupont being missing. Of course the red card didn’t help.
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Have to say that Ireland look to be a better side with the new 10. Maybe Jonny Sexton hung around a season too long. Did not see that coming. France looked jaded and disorganised, Ireland controlled virtually everything. Well played.
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France were disappointing, Ireland were impressive.
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Certain proof that we may not of missed out on a classic final last year! Obviously the red card did not help France but they rarely got out of first gear. Missing DuPont far more than Ireland missed Jonny who! Good performance from Ireland
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Bravo les Irlandais, a master class. Looked like a training session for them.
Not taking away anything from a brilliant performance by Ireland, but that was poor from France. Dreadful discipline, poor basics, no precision, knock-ons here and there, they must have lost ten line outs.
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Let’s not get carried away. Ireland were competent but made mistakes. France were mostly missing.
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France very poor in defensive organisation – no protection for Lucu who suffered accordingly and I think also they don’t like the combination of being ref’d by Dickson, man down and against Ireland and their shenanigans. Aki still very good. Ah well, onwards ……………..
Well done Ireland with your new #10 and buck up France (except against England, of course)
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Oh great. Now we’ll meet THAT France….
Seriously, well done Ireland, never really looked in doubt. Although Dickson missed a couple of obvious Irish hands on the floor at ruck time (so obvious, even the ITV commentators saw them) it would have made no difference to the final score. Just so clinical, although at least they smiled when they scored, so that would have cheered ‘Pro up….
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BB – nothing would have cheered the ‘Pro up.
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So, Ireland a shoo in for the slam then, who is going to come second ?
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An Italian victory over England tomorrow might have.
Won’t happen though, sadly.
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SBT – IF we win tomorrow, then beat France, possibly us.
But we’re probably going to lose tomorrow, just ’cause its Scotland playing a Gats team in Cardiff.
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Has anyone seen the Netflix 6N thing?
My main takeaway from it was how poor the two guys in charge of Italy were. They constantly gave the impression that they were acting bellow themselves and the second in command didn’t even know how to pronounce the name Capuozzo.
Crowley was reputedly living in Italy for six years and he couldn’t speak a word of Italian to his players.
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On the other hand, and I’m quoting someone else here who reminded me of the best bit, Shaun Edwards in his best Wigan accent saying “Quand nous avon le ballon dans notre camps – kick the fucker !” was brilliant.
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Missed the first half, but what a performance by Ireland! They certainly put their World Cup Woes to bed in some style. France were battered, outpaced and out-thought and fought for most of what I saw.
0-1 so far in the predictions, is it possible to keep the streak going?
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I know immigration control is seen as a problem by many but people do become integrated eventually if given a fair chance.
I’ve just noticed that a team in English National League Two (East) bears the name
Old Albanian. They host Guernsey today.
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Mais tu es assez bien intégré en France, n’est-ce pas, Slade?
I shall be watching today’s matches round a friend’s, so probably won’t be posting, and possibly not even reading as she find mobile usage rude.
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I’ve got the England build up on in the background and they’ve just shown Jamie George throwing teabags across his kitchen, into mugs. It was just a lovely little moment of fun – and also he looks so young when he doesn’t have his ‘game face’ on.
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Good arrows too, wonder how many times they had to film it before he got all three. If it was one time only thats truly impressive.
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