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 
Wow!
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Yay! We got a “spread his legs” from comms.
Booo, he was in touch.
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Oh fuck off.
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No try?!
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Wow! What a finish to the half! What? Didn’t hear what that was chalked off for?
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Not seen a replay of that.
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And indeed wow.
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Deebee – heard ‘player was in touch’.
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Somebody was in touch Deebs, but we haven’t seen a replay.
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Ah! I thought it was close, live, but assumed that a few phases later it was okay. Good finish by Scotland nonetheless. France looked a bit rattled.
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Damn. Still, at least we have another 40 mins to watch Kinghorn.
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Best match of the day by far.
Big dilemma for a Scot: win the match, and let England win the tournament!
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Good half from Scotland, I thought they were going to buckle after 20 or so, but they’ve stood firm. On another forum, someone has asked how you can get a red for accidental head contact, but only yellow for a deliberate headbutt. Seems a reasonable question.
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Mauvaka should be off. I didn’t think so until I saw it on the replay at HT
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Mauvaka should absolutely be off. It was just thuggery. Fickou should’ve seen yellow as well.
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Just seeing the Jordan try again, Kinghorn’s elbow just hits the line before he can get the offload away. Touch judge was right there too, and didn’t put his flag up.
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Yep, Kinghorn was in touch,
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There we go, one loose pass and France are in. Did a French player slap that down?
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That’s a real kick in the teeth for Scotland. Beautifully finished, it must be said!
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It’s LITERALLY (yes, actually literally) a commentator’s job to learn how to pronounce players’ names, but they don’t do it. Bielle-Biarrey is really not that hard.
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Brown’s been more dynamic in this game than Jonny Gray was in 4 games.
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Anyone else getting slightly annoyed by the confetti effect French players are getting?
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Here we go, the French Bomb Squad.
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I would make Finn starting FH for the Lions.
Farrell won’t. He doesn’t like unpredictable genius.
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Not seen much of Finn Le Genie this tournament.
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Think the last 3 games are best I’ve seen Ritchie play for Scotland. And that was brilliant from Duhan.
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Brilliant Scottish escape!
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Thauma, if Finn had found touch, Duhan wouldn’t have needed to rescue them. He’s magical at times, but a bit flaky. A poor man’s Carlos Spencer for me.
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SBT – well, he did something there that inspired the comment.
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Think that might be the try that clinches it for France. Even though this has been one of our best performances this 6N.
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That said, I think the Lions can risk it, given they’re man for man vastly superior to what Australia can put out at the moment.
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Oh dear.
Applause for Ramos not doing a bloody stupid swan dive there, mind you.
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The penalty that led to the try felt unfortunate even if it was probably correct.
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Deebee
[Finn]’s magical at times, but a bit flaky.
That’s true, but a bit of magic is worth it.
I seem to remember Clyde’s Middle One nailing his personality a couple of years ago.
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Ashman is absolutely useless at the lineout, no idea why the hell Toonie keeps picking him.
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That’s definitely it now.
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Yup that’s done it. I think the scoreline is quite unjust right now though, so many little things that could easily have gone the other way and proved critical.
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Bielle-Biarrey should be in a lot of trouble here, but isn’t.
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The way Duhan glides across the pitch is quite mesmerizing.
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@Thaum – There was a relatively short, but you know, critical, window when that was the big thing…
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Moefana gets MotM????
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Why is the French production team so consistently dogshit? Only show replays of half the incidents, random cut aways, deciding to focus on random bits of grass.
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Well, at least they’re consistent about up-ending a player.
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Nothing in that.
Good performance from Scotland, if the luck had balanced out or certainly if it had gone in their favour then this one would have gone right to the wire. France the best team in the tournament though and not undeserving winners tonight by any means so congratulations to them.
I don’t think the gods particularly smiled on any of the virtuous triumvirate today, even Wales could have been spared about 20 points if the ball didn’t bounce the wrong way. We need to find better gods and not just for rugby.
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Refit – I love French film-making. The extreme short focus doesn’t work for sport; you want more depth of field!
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Well done France (and Flair!), well deserved champions.
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France fully deserve to be 6N champs. Well done to them and Flair! They’re a helluva side and scarily, will probably get behind the next couple of seasons. Scotland didn’t deserve that margin, but just couldn’t finish.
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We need to find better gods and not just for rugby.
Or we need to realise there are no gods and act accordingly!
France definitely the best team in the tournament and their win is well deserved.
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@Thaum – there is definitely a god involved in the bounce of a funny shaped ball, nothing will persuade me otherwise!
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That god might just be called Physics. ;-)
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