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 |
Let’s hope there isn’t too much teabagging on show today! Italy look pumped in the anthems. Can they take that winning form into the actual game?
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Looks a fairly disjointed England side. Could be rusty and ripe for the plucking is my assessment. So England by 35+
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Argh. Dayglo on comms.
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Get in there Tomasso.
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So far it seems like penalty England are in the house. Good lineout steal though.
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I see France playing in white shirts today
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Lovely try (hint of a knock on). Lively start by Italy… Meanwhile England look like they’ve never met each other before.
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There is just lightyears in difference, between the analysis of Ben Kay and Dayglo. Kay’s there pointing out formations and targeting specific players etc and Dayglo just goes “he didn’t want to drop that”.
Good try by Italy. They’ve been much brighter in the opening part of the match.
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Nice.
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Fucking hell, the lid on Ethan Root.
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nice try by England there. Back line move no less
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Yeah nice try England. Roots seems a handy ball carrier.
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Root may have a stupid haircut, but he isn’t half punching some holes in the Italian line. Nice line by Freeman to set up Daly to score in the corner.
10-8 after 20 mins.
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10-8 Italy after 20 minutes. Good response from England after going 10-0 behind early on.
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Alex Mitchell looks completely whacked
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excellent end-end try having narrowed England with the centre lumps
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Even better.
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@SLMC – I think that’s just Mitchell’s face
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England’s new Irish defence coach has his work cut out today – shame as the attack is looking quite handy
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That was a fun half, although it would have been better if Italy weren’t leading IMHO ;)
I have to say, Daly’s looked pretty sharp and useful around the park so far.
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enjoyable game to watch. England appear to have discovered an attack but Italy have exposed some very naive defence. Could go either way which is a first
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Well I thought that was a fairly entertaining half of rugby. I’m pleasantly surprised.
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Well I thought that was a fairly entertaining half of rugby. I’m pleasantly surprised.
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Defensively, England just need to plug up the 10-12 channel.
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Ooh, that was close by Freeman.
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England have actually started in the second half, rather than taking an extra 10mins in the changing room.
Good determination by Mitchell gets him over the line and England take the lead.
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Daly was doing okay until he deliberately tripped an Italian player. England will play the last 5 mins with 14 men.
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Feyi-Waboso makes his England daybooo and his first act is a good tackle on an Italian winger trying to break.
Roots gets the Maro.
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Lamaro gets a yellow in the 81st minute, dropping an England maul.
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England opt for a scrum, Obano puts an arm down and it’s Italy’s ball.
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What’s the difference between Rassie acting as a waterboy and a miked-up medic giving instructions whilst ostensibly giving the hooker a towel to dry the ball with until she’s finished? Answers on a postcard to World Rugby, please.
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Can’t really approve of England letting Italy in for the LBP at the end there, these things are important when your team is planning to be scrabbling around the bottom of the table with them.
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Nice finish, shame we don’t have a chance of a restart. Good game. Well played Italy.
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Oh my word. In the 85th minute, Ioani gets the ball on the wing, just inside the England half. He’s almost tackled by Roots, but gets back to his feet and just pins his ears back and scores.
Final score 24-27. Italy get an LBP.
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Have to say that I thought that England took good advantage of the ref being a little generous with the offside law, the rush defense looked very borderline on just about every occasion that Italy had a chance to attack in the second half.
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Hi CMW, yep, England , Italy and Wales all scrabbling about down there. Wooden spoon to stir the Daffodil and Leak stew ?
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Refit, where was Freddie there, shoud have been around to clean him up. Furbank would have been.
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@SBT – I think that’s true, but I don’t think he was inconsistent in it so agree they just got it right.
For all that it’s ended up close on the scoreboard England were in control from a long way out so a pretty solid win I guess other than some dodgy defending in the first half. The second half certainly didn’t offer much excitement if any to those of us who would have liked the result to go the other way.
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@SBT – I think England will be OK. I realise what I wrote could be read as Italy’s LBP mattering to England, but I really did just mean it mattering to Wales!
Still excited for the time being as Wales are about to start their first game of the tournament. I mean it would be better if we weren’t putting out a team that would lose the majority of URC fixtures, but you can’t have everything.
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I am of course completely calm about the game this afternOJawhf;aiupg;puahtr’iobhjn/ls.
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Apparently, its the first time in almost 100 years that no Borderer has been picked for Scotland. Thats us definitely buggered then.
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@BB – Should be a routine win for your lot. What can go wrong?
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Clyde – everything.
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Incredible insight from Jiffy – “both teams will want to manage the game and go forwards.”. Dayglo levels of analysis there.
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We won’t get nilled at least.
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Weirdest yellow card warning ever. Three offsides, two of which were in Scotland’s half, one chasing a kick and one apparently from Russell’s crap up and under?
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Ooh, head on hip for Domanchowski.
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Try Schoeman! Didn’t recognise him with the short hair.
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Our kicking game is really really bad. Might get better I suppose.
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And it might not. Good kick from Russell, but it was made much easier than it should have been.
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