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 
Zak Burger, Bulls 9 (natch) with a cute dummy that puts loosie Rynhard Ludwig in for a free run to the line. 8-15 and that’s half time.
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From the half-time punditry, it looks like a lot of defence-optional, butter-fingers handling from Toulon has lead to the Sarries lead.
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8-22 after a bit of pinball off the shins sees David Kriel scoop it up and run into the corner. A replay after the conversion suggests the Bulls player’s foot was in touch when it ricocheted off him.
Bayonne strike straight back with a try from a driving maul following a 5m lineout. 15-22 as the extras are added.
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Toulon not mucking around at the beginning of the 2nd half, scoring 2 tries in the first 10 mins – although the second has just been scrubbed for a (very) forward pass. 32-35
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Bulls had a 5m scrum penalty and seemed to batter the Bayonne scrum but ref played on. A few phases later and Bayonne turned it over, ran it quickly and Akker van der Merwe gets binned for a high tackle. Bayonne kick to touch and they’re feeding the lineout just outside the Bulls 22. Momentum just shifting slightly over the last few minutes. Still 24 to go
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Bulls are battering away again, and get turned over again, and Bayonne flood downfield again, but a crucial tackle on their own 10m line sees a knock on and Bulls scrum. Lucky to get away with that. Still 2 minutes with 14, and they get the scrum penalty! Critical touch missed and Bayonne come again! And then the Bulls! End to end stuff!
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Finally the Bulls battering gets them over. Van Staden reaches out and over. 15-29 with 15 to go!
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That’s 100 points up in the Toulon vs Sarries game. Sag would have loved it….
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Toulon win 72-42, a 16 try thriller.
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Bulls squeezing again and two Bayonne kicks in a row go out on the full. Bulls knock on at the lineout, Bayonne scrum into the last 10. Bulls do brilliantly to hold it up over the line and get the drop out – and then simply don’t defend the counter! 22-29 with 3 to go.
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Bulls apply the slow poison and force Bayonne to run from deep. They panic, the Bulls pounce and have a shot at goal with time up. Gooseneck knocks it over, although almost hit the upright! That would’ve been interesting if it had bounced back into play! Final score 22-32.
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Gooseneck? I know there’s some in France who’d like him strung up, but didn’t know they could access my phone! Goosen, as we all know!
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Fun game in Toulon. Sarries excellent value, especially in the first half. Must say Toulon conceded several what we call ” essais casquette”, meaning funny sloppy mistakes leading to self inflicted tries.
Worst first half ever for Toulon ( 35 points conceded!) will hopefully put paid to the non sense of Sarries throwing the game away. They ultimately didn’t have enough gas in the tank but were very entertaining, very good rugby brains and hands. Theo Dan is from another planet, don’t understand why he’s not first choice for England.
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Deebee, this is the first game Bayonne lose at home this season, with the caveat that it was a B team with few regular starters.
Unlike (or like according to the press) Sarries, Bayonne clearly chose to be over with the Challenge cup ASAP.
For the first time ever, they stand 4th in the T14 and have a serious chance of reaching the T14 play offs. Not that they can win the Bouclier but if they could reach the semi final, their fans would be ecstatic and they could recruit better players.
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God, Rob Kearney’s a good looking fella.
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Flair, the depth in French rugby is scary. I believe 12 of the Top 14 sides made it to this stage of the two Euro competitions.
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I have a choice between Castres/ Trevise with French commentary or Quins vs Leinster comment free. Easy, right?
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Well, the game being so one sided in Dublin, I’ll give Castres the benefit of the doubt. Not holding my breath though. Damn, it’s Dickson at the whistle. Might fly back to Dublin.
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Leinster 19-0 up at half time. It could have been more. Quins not landing many punches.
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24-0 with the kick to come as Leinster score from the 5m lineout and maul. Kick misses to the right, quite close to the corner flag!
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Ring Ringrose adds another! Quick hands and he beats three defenders down the left to score untouched. 31-0 with the extras. Still 30 to go.
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And another. 36-0 and still 20 to go.
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Trevise lead in Castres. 37 /27 with 20 minutes to go. Castres got their usual RC ( head contact) and there was a long handbags sequence, that lead to two YC.
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And now 35/37.
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Oops, 32/37.
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43-0 with a penalty try for a failed intercept. Yellow card too.
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Half century up for Leinster. Bit of a humbling for Quins, with 7mins still to play.
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50 up. 7 different tryscorers and a penalty try in the 8!
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Winner of Glasgow/Leicester plays/loses to Leinster.
Gulp.
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And Quins now down to 13 (yellow for an early tackle).
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Lowe scores, 55-0.
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And Castres win at the last minute 39/37.
They’ll go to Northampton. With a B team?
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Just the two forward passes in the leadup to Montpelier’s 2nd try. Nothing from the officials, Glaws can feel rightly aggrieved about that.
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Clown officiating. Wade does the ‘stepping a player inside a phonebox’ trick, but is called back for a forward pass that wasn’t (backwards from the hands, but forward with momentum).
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Good old fashioned dogfight in LaR.
10/7 at HT.
Both teams look a bit like aging boxers. I pity the poor ref in charge of policing the rucks, though it is the excellent Amakashvili.
Bench will probably make the difference, between two very close teams.
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Ooh, a scrap’s broken out.
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The ref at Montpelier is blind to forward passes by the home team. There were two in the last play that they’ve done. And now a yellow for the Glaws 9 for a ‘deliberate knock on’, after the ball was passed into his arm.
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Flair LaRochelle started very well – looked like they’d run away with it, but Munster dug in. For all the attacking flair LaR showed, Munster defended excellently. Then got a bit more cagey. Teddy Thomas just butchered a certain try! Trying to cut inside to get closer to the posts when he could’ve cantered in untouched out wide.
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And Munster punish them! Work it upfield and eventually score in the corner. 10-22, with the conversion missed.
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Yep, and just after that Munster score two quick tries.
End of the contest and end of an era, for both LaR and O’Gara.
Funny, the dynamics of a game.
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Gloucester win in Montpelier. Yay.
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And Munster in LaR, 25/24.
Peak drama at the end.
Old fashioned but fun.
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Quite a finish to that match! Plenty of stoppages, TV refs, turnovers, a drop goal and enough controversy to keep us busy for weeks. Eventually, Munster sneak it by a point! 24-25.
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@flair
the excellent Amakashvili
If only, instead it’s the incredibly variable Piardi – who seems to give decisions based on how much it’ll annoy the penalised team ….. or how much the crowd will howl …
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Key point was probably Thomas botching the try … If he goes left he walks it in …
It’s the sort of thing that an U14 does – once.
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Back at grassroots, number 1 and number 2 son on winning team in West Munster Cup final.
Unfortunately, number 2 son ended up with a broken collarbone scoring what was effectively the winning try – put us 29-13 ahead.
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Final score was 36-20…
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Hope number 2 son recovers soon, Trisk!
Weege 14-5 up against Tigers approaching 30 minutes. Been a ding-dong old affair, with Glasgow largely on top and playing some lovely rugby, with Leicester defending grimly for large parts, but doing it well.
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Two incidents of head contact from Leicester players have resulted in a total of a single penalty.
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Should be more. Leicester giving away loads of penalties. Just wish we could mix things up a wee bit more.
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