It’s the second weekend of the Six Nations, and this is where things get (even more) interesting!
Following on from his (unexpected, even by him) success last week, Predict-A-Bear is back! This time in full Technicolor! And with lots of exclamation marks!!!!
First up is Italy vs Wales. Italy looked decent in places last week despite losing. They’ll be hoping that being back home will give them a boost. Although they haven’t beaten Wales in Rome since 2007, but that was a very different Wales. Wales have Faletau back (again) and yet another centre partnership facing up to one of the best partnerships in the tournament in Brexoncello (sorry, not sorry). Predict-A-Bear is going for:
‘Second game on Saturday is England vs France. The Big One! Le Crunch! Even though it isn’t. Not this weekend. Anyway, England have an abundance of Smiths, plus a Willis (but perhaps not the correct one) and a large number of Saints in the backline. France have added a Jalibert and some guy called Penaud on the wing. England will have a good first half and not so good second half. France will have a good first half and a better second half.
Predict-A-Bear is going for:
And that’s it for this weekend!
What do you mean there’s a game on Sunday!? You mean I’ve got to preview it too?
Bugger.
Here goes then (and this is being AI’d before the teams come out). Scotland HAVE to beat Ireland. We haven’t since 2017. Ireland were (slightly) sub-par in Autumn. They have rather annoyingly got better since then (but they did only play England last week). Scotland have lost our captain (and all-round genius) Sione, plus the very underestimated Scott Cummings for the whole tournament. Toonie’s Tombola came up with Dave Cherry last week, and he actually played well! So expect him to be out of the 23 or something weird. Injuries permitting, the only change I would make is Jordan in for McDowall. Sadly, I think the James Lowe Smirk will be in evidence a lot come Sunday evening. Can’t even do the “heart says one thing, head says the other” result – mainly because P-A-B doesn’t have a heart….
Still, Predict-A-Bear is going for:
Predict-A-Bear’s prognostications transcribed by BorderBoy.
Onna telly this weekend
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates that it’s on a free to view channel. Times are in the UK zone, so adjust as necessary.
Friday 7th February
| Italy v Wales (U20s) | 19:15 | S4C, iPlayer |
| England v France (U20s) | 20:00 | iPlayer |
Saturday 8th February
| Stormers v Bulls | 12:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Italy v Wales | 14:15 | ITV1, S4C, STV |
| England v France | 16:45 | STV, ITV1 |
| Scotland v Ireland (U20s) | 19:45 | iPlayer, RTÉ2 |
Sunday 9th February
| Scotland v Ireland | 15:00 | BBC1, iPlayer, RTÉ2 |
Ovally Balls 
@flair
I completely agree with you
Supposedly, the ruck is a loose scrum – ball on the ground, and players – bound together – trying to push each other off the ball.
I saw a fairly horrible clash of heads in a U14 game last year- where opposition player is bent over and our lad arrives like a missile.
Ref wasn’t close enough – as volunteer touch judge I waved my arms until play was stopped – neither player resumed (despite a busybody on the opposition side quoting their medical credentials)
But even young players “clear” rucks in this fashion – it’ll be a longish exercise to eradicate even if the decision was taken that this was the way forward
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What will stop Beirne doing the same action next week vs Italy now that his clearing of a ruck has been condoned by the ref, the TMO and the citing commissioner?
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Flair – I would think that since it was as far as I can see not intentional, and that since he was probably horrified by the result, which wasn’t just down to him, but also Porter (I think) coming in, he wouldn’t contemplate it?
If it had been McCarthy, I would have agreed with you, because that lad seriously needs to calm down. Talented as he is, I would drop him until he sorts himself out. But I don’t recall any previous instances of Beirne viciously disregarding other players’ safety.
Surely most players will think, That could have been me, and try to be more careful? They’ll also be aware that another ref might have regarded it very differently, even if they think they’re indestructible, as da yoof tend to (me included, when I was that age).
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Seabass!
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Loved Chabal, and the ‘French monster eats babies’ thing.
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Talented as he is, I would drop him until he sorts himself out
Just gotten a 3 year central (albeit Leinster have to contribute up to 30% nowadays) – so you can assume he’s nailed on starter for the foreseeable future.
I don’t rate him – great highlights reel but goes missing all too often.
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I don’t rate him
I’ll qualify that – can see him as a bench option – bringing energy and mayhem when everyone is tiring. I don’t see him as a starter who you build your game around either as a heavy carrier or as a defensive rock hitting rucks, making tackles.
He’s meant to be the TH lock but mainly plays like the LH lock.
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Thaum,
I never said Dupont’s injury was intentional from Beirne, neither in the heat of the game nor afterwards. Only he knows that.
All I’m saying is that if this kind of foul play, that according to the law book warrants a penalty and sometimes a YC, is now deemed legal by all the officials, then why won’t we see it again next week?
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Loved Chabal as a player! Thanks for the reel, Refit – good to see some of that unbelievable athleticism and power again! Good to see him skittling Kiwis like 9 pins too.
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I guess in Munster minds – he’s best remembered for the famous kickoff at old Thomond Park. O’Gara kicks off straight down the middle – Chabal catches around the 22, and is met by O’Connell, Wallace and – I think – O’Callaghan – they drive him back 10 -15 metres. Whole place goes wild…..
To his credit – he keeps his feet…. but it sets the scene for another “miracle match”. David Wallace gets the bonus point try late on……
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Unsmiling Irish gang tackle kills blog shocker! And on wee Seb Chabal? May as well have been snapping lambs necks with their bare hands, the brutes.
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Deebee – be serious. Lambs’ necks are easy to snap. Our farmer forwards can do bullocks’ necks.
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****Takes Moral High Ground****
I wouldn’t know, Thauma, I’ve never snapped a lamb’s neck before. Cough, cooked a few, cough.
****Kicks lamb bones under the table and out of sight, narrowly avoiding them being cruched under the weight of the falling Moral High Ground.****
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Wales are too woke to go around snapping lambs’ necks.
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Neath certainly aren’t woke
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The girls probably haven’t managed to learn the song.
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The girls probably wrote the song and their boyfriends stole it.
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By the way, are Yorkie bars still in existence? I certainly haven’t bought one since their ‘not for girls’ campaign.
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Yorkie Bars taste bad, that’s why I don’t buy them.
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Different chocolate from Cadbury. Made by Nestle (formerly Rowntrees in York, hence the name I suppose). Prefer Dairy Milk or Galaxy (or almost any other type of bar). Which may explain my shape…
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@Thaum – Yorkies still exist, I would have witnessed the riots otherwise.
Not convinced by your Neath girls theory, we can’t have the word ‘Neath’ being grunted repetitively in the wrong register now, can we?
Have to say I’m concerned about what it is that Llangennech bring to this fixture that makes it more unpalatable than any other. Think I might strike Llangennech off my list of places to go for a night out until further notice.
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Oh yeah, and Nestle are an evil company and I don’t buy any of their products, if I can help it.
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Speaking of evil companies, I found this link recently for European alternatives to US digital products: https://european-alternatives.eu/
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I am happy to report, on the subject of evil companies (well, owners) that Tesla’s sales are falling through the floor faster than My Moral High Ground™ in Europe, apprently. Apart from being inferior to their Chinese competitors vehicles, people have – shocked I am – taken offence to Musk’s support for far-right groups in Europe. Good. Now with Trump buying one in support, it’ll be hilarious if all his redneck fanboys do the same and stick a massive hole in the drill, baby, drill campaign.
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Galthié has gone 7/1 once again, vs Scotland this time. It’s legal but I don’t think it should be.
Am on Townsend’s side on this subject. Replacements were introduced so the game would be more fair, not less. One or two injuries and you were toast. Not so now, and it is good.
But now that we have ‘finishers’ instead of subs, only the big unions will be able to bring in a new set of fresh forwards who won’t be too much of a drop in quality. Talk about a close shop.
There shouldn’t be more than 5 subs on the bench. Any type, backs or forwards you choose. Select them and use them as you like. But a guy that has left the pitch could only return in case of a proven injury to another player by an independant doctor.
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@flair
I’m not an expert in all this stufff, but IIRC there are studies that show tired players are more susceptible to injury.
5 subs won’t work while we have requirement for a full set of front row replacements.
It was also something of a disaster in junior rugby here – with 3 slots taken by the specialist front rows, only 2 slots were left – one going to the guy who covered lock, blindside and the other to the midfield generalist who could cover 10, 12, 13
If you were an openside, scrum half, 10, winger (especially) there was no real chance of a slot on the panel. Evidence built up to show that – with no real chance of significant/meaningful game time – these players drifted away.
Obviously, you’d hope that the peripheral players could get time with the 2nds, but lots of clubs here don’t stretch to those sorts of numbers.
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Trisk, I’ve read studies that indicated more injuries were caused by fresh players onto tired ones. So if everyone is tired, it’d be less serious (?). Again, am no expert.
Anyway, I’d have different rules for amateur and pro rugby. More subs obviously for amateur and young players, so that more people can enjoy the game.
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I’ve seen a couple of studies that lean towards more injuries the more fatigued players are, supporting the theory that a larger bench is better for player welfare. I don’t think the studies get as granular as analysing if fatigued players are injured more in routine collisions and/or set pieces, or if it’s the impact (yes, yes) of fresh players.
I wouldn’t reduce the number of bench players, but probably would, at a maximum, say 6 forwards and two backs. Of course if you went 5-3, a 7s international like Kwagga Smith could be down as a back, but still play in the back row. Unless you stipulate that those on the bench registered as backs can only play in the backs…
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Backs to the future!
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A more interesting law change would be to allow only backs on the bench. :-D
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6Nations have been dicks and told Squidge off for using video in his analysis. He’s having to use (blurry) stills in his France/Ireland video.
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You can have more players on the bench but only be able to use five (or however many) of them. At the elite level of course – I wouldn’t expect school kids or amateur players to turn up and end up sitting the whole game out.
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For those wondering about Tesla
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Being slightly facetious, but part of me thinks that if players are going to be so tired after 50 minutes that it puts them at an unacceptable risk of injury then the game should only be 49 minutes long. Or there should be compulsory substitutions of tired people or something. Kind of think that sport has always been to some extent about tiring the opposition out, physically, mentally or both.
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Ireland by 21, Wales by 1 and France by 14 this weekend. Don’t think there’s anything too controversial about Ireland and France winning, except maybe the points differences may be a bit conservative.
Wales have to break their duck sometime, and I think they’d love nothing more than to do it against the old foe, potentially denying England a Championship in the process. Of course, they won’t make it easy on themselves, so a squeaky-bum one pointer it is!
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Hmmm. Seems to have killed the notablog. Welsh too nervous to post, Scots, Irish and French falling about laughing and our English overlords ignoring it with the long-suffering patience and dignity that overlords require to bat away the slings and arrows?
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Ireland by 29, England by 33 and France by 12 (going for the ridiculously optimistic with England).
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Ireland by 31, England by 21, France by 11.
How’s that?
Lucky me is going to the U20s game tonight in Paris. Think the youngsters will beat Scotland by more than one score. They’re a joy to watch, sometimes silly, sometimes naive but mostly lightning fast and powerful. I expect a couple of them will make it to the big RWC in 2027.
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Have fun Flair! (not jealous at all)
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Huzzah!
6N still on free-to-air in UK (until 2029)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c0kg15j0kl6o
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Congratulations on rugby not shooting itself in the foot.
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Refit, it’s freezing cold. I’d be much more comfortable in front of my TV, but I could find tickets and my daughter is coming along ( she can sing Flowers of Scotland by heart, and will belt it out!) and that sort of opportunity can’t be missed. Plus, it’s in a smaller stadium than SdF, at Jean Bouin, Stade Français’s pitch. I’ll be there in an hour.
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Flair, it’s Flower of Scotland, meaning the cream of the crop, not actual flora!
I think Ireland by 8, Wales by 3, France by 8.
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Ha, ‘cream of the crop’ is also a plant-based metaphor. Best of a generation? English can be strange.
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I’d missed that Ford was on the bench for England tomorrow.
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Flora of Scotland? Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing and all that…
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Or perhaps an own brand margarine from William Low’s now lost in the mists of time, who can say?
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“England by 21, How’s that?”
Not out. The Walloping Fish has informed me that Wales will take this one. His walloping is pretty indiscriminate though so he may not be entirely reliable.
New Soft Doggie says Ireland by plenty and that’s good enough for me. My French Chicken Hat that Claw gave me in London has written to me from Ystradgynlais where he now resides. It mostly says ‘Cluck’, but I’m taking it as premature justified celebration.
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England are doing horrible things to the Welsh scrum.
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That’s because they’re bad people.
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