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 |
Josh Adams being a prat and giving up a penalty.
LikeLike
Ooh, that was lovely by Finn.
LikeLike
McDuhan in for his first try against Wales!
LikeLike
pretty sure the pass from Finn for the try there was forward.
LikeLike
Gonna be a long afternoon for Wales.
LikeLike
Could have got a really scruffy try there, could do with something like that going our way.
Nothing much in this to my mind.
LikeLike
As in nothing much in the head contact. Plenty between the sides though Scotland haven’t really had to be much more than competent.
LikeLike
Our lineouts are awful as well.
Kicking game might not improve, but Lloyd is sometimes good keeping ball in hand. Think Costelow might have got hooked even if he hadn’t taken the head knock.
And there we go, Lloyd misses an easy touch with a penalty.
LikeLike
If that had been Farrell the whole rugby world would be baying for his blood. Commentators and ref saying what else could he do? Er, how about not charge into a man’s head with his shoulder?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ben O’Keefe has really enjoyed technical offsides from kicks this half, it’s been a real highlight of the game.
LikeLike
Italy – much improved in their heads and in play – must be happier with the change of coach.
Delighted for Thomasso Allan – who looks the identical twin of the guy who lives in the next farm to us (play rugby of course).
England – new tactic is to play like Exeter? – lots of rush and very narrow.
Roots? – no surprise. Slade – the revenant. Daly and Steward showed what they are good / not good at. Freeman good in attack and not so in defense – no surprise. I don’t think Farrell was missed. Was Dingwall playing (a bit cruel).
Itoje a penalty machine in the first half. Marler on for 78 minutes.
For an English fan – reasons for optimism.
LikeLike
Scotland looking fantastically well prepared athletically – interesting. Gives them speed everywhere.
Wales struggling – but rugby is in their DNA – they’ll come good in the medium term.
LikeLike
Old Albanian lost to Guernsey…………………………….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good first half from us, but its only 20-0.
LikeLike
Pft. Duhan just running through entire teams to score is just boring and old-hat now.
LikeLike
Try again from McDuhan!
LikeLike
Duja vu
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Ticht – Duhan-vu?
LikeLike
Comeback on – try for Wales and yellow for Turner.
LikeLike
Well, that was very confusing. Why did Wales drive over the line and forget to ground the ball?
LikeLike
Seriously Scotland? Get a grip here.
LikeLike
It’s on!!
LikeLike
This is ridiculous from us. We’re going to lose this. Its pathetic.
LikeLike
This is mental!!
LikeLike
how many subs / clones have Wales had available to them as a completely different team in this half. Scotland reveal their true selves!
LikeLike
Cor, Dier got his leg in just the right place there.
LikeLike
Oooh, shame. one leedle kick missed by Lloyd, and hey presto. Well played young Wales tho, excellent comeback.
LikeLike
Hahahahaha, Cotter awarded Wales the Moral Victory. Expro will be filing a trademark infringment any minute.
LikeLiked by 3 people
For 50 minutes we were brilliant, for the last 5 minutes we were good. The bits in between, however…
LikeLike
fourteen penalties in a row in favour of Wales, not one for Scotland in that second half
LikeLike
…until there was one point in it I mean
LikeLike
One of the strangest games I can remember. Great effort from the boys in the second half, would have been the better story if they’d managed to nick it at the end, but so it goes.
Well done to Scotland for the win.
LikeLike
Unfair on Lloyd there, he played really well, and got a couple of really good conversions, so I’ll blame Adams for the silly flip of the ball into the crowd that cost 3 points. Welsh granny would be quite stern with him about that, but happy that Welsh rugby is indeed alive.
LikeLike
Great spectacle and well done Wales.
** technical term: medium term in Wales = 20 minutes.
LikeLike
Sure we got plenty of penalties out of the ref in the second half (more the other way in the first half though not as extreme obviously). I suspect Scotland fans had their hearts in their mouths when penalty number fifteen might have come for that possible high tackle though!
(and no, I’m not complaining that we didn’t get it)
I guess ultimately we could have done without bollocksing up those lineouts at the end of the first half even though at the time it felt like it was the difference between losing 40-7 and 50-0.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The way the game was going at the time I think Adams saved us 4 points by giving that silly penalty away, they would very likely have scored a try from the lineout at that point!
LikeLike
Very entertaining games this afternoon. There’s nothing like the 6N. Of course Wales vs Scotland takes the biscuit. Great come back. Was Scotland a bit complacent or knackered? Good subbing by Gatland.
Ticht, if Scotland shipped 14 penalties in a row in the second half, it was simply because they were all over the place. Squeaky bum times if ever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t find official stats but someone on twitter said the final penalty count was 16-4
If our discipline doesn’t improve we are going to lose the next four games
LikeLike
Flair, I could go into at length where I saw inconsistencies in the decisions, but I’m trying to not do that anymore
LikeLike
Also, BBC coverage way better than ITV.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Good subbing by Gatland”
Or possibly poor initial selection – at least with hindsight, with such an inexperienced team he deserves some slack on this front.
LikeLike
@SBT – yeah. the BBC at least got the camera lined up with the posts properly for penalties/conversions (although that might be down to the Italian broadcasters).
LikeLike
What a couple of bonkers and enjoyable games! Although the first half of Wales v Scotland had some grim vibes in the room….
Have to think that if Capuozzo had played, the first one might have gone the other way.
LikeLike
Oh, missed this after the Ireland match
https://twitter.com/patmccarry/status/1753549342508535910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1753549342508535910%7Ctwgr%5E04a9d67747a3d8d57b9a9903fbd36d18d1162def%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10u0026ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fephemerid213andfriends.wordpress.com%2F2024%2F02%2F03%2Fsaturday-3rd%2Fcomment-page-1%2Fcomments
LikeLiked by 3 people
Another sad day for Welsh rugby.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/04/barry-john-welsh-rugby-legend-and-british-and-irish-lions-great-dies-at-79
LikeLike
The thing about Barry John is that relative to the other Wales greats of his time and just after there isn’t a lot of footage (or at least not a lot that gets shown). And yet the reputation survives which says rather a lot really.
LikeLike
CMW – they did a nice segment on him on Scrum 5; Warburton had a lot to say!
LikeLike
Maybe it wasn’t Scrum 5, but some other 6N review….
LikeLike
After JPR, Barry John. Ach…Those two were my introduction to non parochial rugby, when one cared less about the colour of the shirt and more about the quality they brought to the game. Wonderful players. They’d’ve been proud of Wales’ yesterday’s second half. Hope they inspire a Welsh rebirth. We all need them.
LikeLike
After JPR, Barry John. Ach…Those two were my introduction to non parochial rugby, when one cared less about the colour of the shirt and more about the quality they brought to the game. Wonderful players. They’d’ve been proud of Wales’ yesterday’s second half. Hope they inspire a Welsh rebirth. We all need them.
LikeLike