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 
Scrums just got even harder, Wales 5 in the bin for repeat team penalties.
LikeLike
I’d forgotten there wouldn’t be an U20s match worth watching. England repeatedly dropping the ball over the line likely to remain a highlight.
LikeLike
England have dropped the ball over the Welsh line several times now, hope they don’t regret that. Going early on that scrum as a bit daft too.
LikeLike
Points! Win prizes apparently though I’m feeling slightly sceptical.
LikeLike
Ref trying to set a record for how many times he lets a team drop the ball before going back for the pen.
LikeLike
Oof, Italy 15-0 (2 tries) up against Ireland with 13mins on the clock.
LikeLike
Commentator made the mistake of thinking the crowd would be calling for something on Wales’ behalf. Surely if you’re Welsh you’d only attend this if your son was playing?
LikeLike
Boys are doing very well on the scoreboard to be fair (and making a lot of tackles). Kicking our goals is a valuable use of time which could be used for conceding tries.
LikeLike
Oh, that was a great try by Wales and a delightful little chip to set it up.
LikeLike
Some very fair criticism of the ref for not giving his decisions quickly enough from the boys on commentary, they’re worried about people getting hurt as a result.
Great try and we’re level! And we do have some supporters there though there were plenty not celebrating too.
LikeLike
Some amazing defence there. Not sure there was a knock-on at the end though.
LikeLike
Boys have drawn a half which is mightily impressive even if they did need some luck.
LikeLike
All square in France v Scotland, 7-7 after 7 mins. Yellow card for a French player, for a shoulder to a head.
LikeLike
“7-7 after 7”
Sounds more like a cube.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Welsh try!
Watched a few mins of Italy v Ireland. Dire.
LikeLike
Cubist rugby?
LikeLike
Great finish. Possible forward pass that I’m glad they didn’t check though it could well have been fine.
Think we should keep this within 30 at this rate.
LikeLike
Great conversion from the touchline, too!
Bloke just needs to meet a razor.
LikeLike
More great defending with an unfortunate outcome this time.
LikeLike
One blatant penalty, two knock-ons and a forward pass in that passage of play and he ends up giving a knock-on that wasn’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A bit of dirty play by the France #1, dropping the knee into the Scotland 11 after he scored a try. Play restarts with a penalty, 26-15 just before the half hour.
LikeLike
Some people might feel there are too many mistakes in this game for it to be a classic, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it!
LikeLike
Clyde – me too. And I’ll tell you what: if tomorrow’s games are similar to the U20s, I’m perfectly happy for Ireland to lose to Italy if Wales win.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s possible we could win this.
LikeLike
England were good for about 10mins and since then, have been the most wasteful team I’ve ever seen. Dumb-ass play by the 14, to earn a yellow.
LikeLike
Getting nervous now. The 16th man is in play.
LikeLike
Well, the ref fucks up in Wales’s favour this time.
LikeLike
No, wait, what the fuck has happened?
LikeLike
It’s kicking off Pru!
LikeLike
Well, I enjoyed that very much!
LikeLike
(Sorry, Refit.)
LikeLike
Astonishing result. Very exciting game, errors, mad reffing and all.
LikeLike
Utter garbage by England.
Also some truly baffling refereeing decisions, for both teams.
LikeLike
Yes, that was possibly the worst reffing ever seen.
I am reading Frankie Boyle’s first attempt at a thriller, Meantime, and while it’s not brilliant plot-wise, it is of course quite amusing (and involves industrial quantities of drugs).
At one point, he says something to the effect that English people imagine that forriners see them as overly polite and fond of queuing when in fact others see them as absolute arseholes (might have been a less polite word beginning with C).
I was getting down with that sentiment while the English commentator was rabbiting on, and the English players were looking entitled to their slam. Obviously I know that that there are plenty of perfectly decent English people. But as a group, there are unfortunate voting patterns.
LikeLike
The Welsh commentators got quite stuck in to the referee, as often for decisions that went in Wales’ favour as for ones that went against them and a lot of the time more for the time he was taking to make decisions (often while play was carrying on) and his general manner. I wouldn’t normally approve (it’s OK for us to moan, but the commentators shouldn’t), but it’s hard to say they weren’t right. They were certainly very fair-minded in their description of the game itself which BBC Wales isn’t always famous for.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Two great tries won the game (and they were close to adding to them a few times) along with some great defence and England dropping the ball an awful lot.
LikeLike
Clyde – yes, Wales defended really well. Maybe whoever is their defence coach should move up to the big time, Shaun Edwards being gone?
LikeLike
@Thaum – Hopefully some of the players make the step up too. There are several who definitely look like ones to watch though of course you never know.
LikeLike
That was quite the evening – first half spent watching a film in the parish church hall about anti-capitalism and well-being as a better measurement of the wealth of a country than GDP.
Then the second half of France v Scotland U20s, which was a lot closer than anyone thought it was going to be, even given the fact that France had many missing.
The most heartening thing for me was our scrum which actually dominated, even when France had some 156kg kid on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reading up on them hopefully a couple of the England U20s players make it as full internationals as well… for Wales. Don’t suppose they will though.
LikeLike
Maybe I’ll have to see if I can find England/Wales and France/Scotland on YouTube tomorrow
My advice in return is to skip Italy / Ireland. Final score 15-12 to Italy. Italy scored all their points while down to 14 in the first 15 mins. Then just kicked long to Ireland.
Doesn’t seem like a very good crop from Ireland but they don’t look well coached either. Strong impressions of having just met in the car park before the match. Foy seems to be the name to reckon with – parallels with Peter O’Mahony and Tadhg Beirne. Let’s see how he develops.
LikeLike
The Black Panther Chiefs have just scored a great try against the Spider-Man Blues! Yet another reason I’m glad our sides are in the URC!
LikeLike
Doesn’t seem like a very good crop from Ireland but they don’t look well coached either.
Yep, that was the impression I got in the 5 or 10 mins I watched of it.
LikeLike
Fun but freezing cold yesterday in Jean Bouin. Wales win means France win the 6N for the first time since 2018! (.while 3 times WC in the mean time).
Excellent game, fast and furious. Scotland was very very close to spoil the party. They are in a good place, with excellent SH and FH, a great pack who had the upper hand in the second half and a terrific #7 Huw Douglas (?) who’s so good it is his third season with the U20. He scored a wonderful try, bumping out of 4 tackles!
LikeLiked by 5 people
@Flair – Freddy Douglas I would think, he was man of the match (and really did stand out) against Wales last week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it was Freddy Douglas. He’s already had a full cap, but he’s got to get past Darge if he wants to be Scotland 7. Bodes well if we have two young guys scrapping it out for that place. Now we need some props and locks…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, Freddy. My MOTM as well vs France. Although it was awarded to Etchegaray, (FB with UBB already) who wasn’t too shabby either.
Special mention to the young ref, from the USA, who had a blinder.
Thaum, my extra ‘s’ in Flower of Scotland was a typo. I was very happy to see my daughter arrive just on time from work, to belt out as expected the men in dark blue anthem.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Fun facts:
One of the best French players yesterday was the outside center Oliver Cowie. Interesting story: Born in France from English parents, he plays with Toulon. Great pace, great hands. France poaching England now?
The inside center, Daunivaucu, who plays for LaR, was also born in France but from Fijian parents, his father played in many clubs in the area.
LikeLike
Am on a fast train, on my way to the Basque country to visit my family. The only downside is I’m going to miss this afternoon games, and possibly Fr vs Sco tonight as it might be difficult to negociate a truce in the middle of the diner…
LikeLike
Flair, it must have been Cowie that did the post-match interview on the BBC coverage. I was surprised by the southern English inflection without a hint of a French accent.
I’ve just remembered the daughter of the hotel owners in the little pyrenean village I lived in, her mother is English and she had no hint of a French accent either when she spoke in English
LikeLike