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 
Much vaunted Leicester scrum being blasted.
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Boo. Letting them back in.
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Convincing win in the end, although score was closer than I would have liked! Think Franco made too many changes at once early in the second half, blew us off course for a bit.
Just the ‘easy’ challenge now of beating Leinster at the Aviva next week…..
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Also reading on the BBc about ‘a strong wind at our backs’. Bollocks, for Wind Tunnel Scotstoun this was a gentle breeze. Nothing compared to what last week’s weather was like.
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Trisk, my mistake about the ref.
Wish he had been more assertive, especially about the preposterous wasting time (by both teams, but mostly Munster). The rest is soo hard to ref!
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Three Premiership teams played today. Total scores: Premiership 61, Everyone Else 177.
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Damn, can’t find the report on the Guardian about the game between the defending URC champions and the third top side in the Premiership.
Anyone else seen it?
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BB – don’t be daft.
Lots of high-scoring games yesterday. Will that trend continue today? Will Bordeaux put 100 (probably unanswered) points on Ulster? We shall find out soon!
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Well, we kept Penaud out for a whole six minutes.
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Tameifuna in for Bordeaux’s second.
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Ulster fuck up a line-out in the UBB 22 and Coleman goes over for Bordeaux.
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TRY TOT!
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TRY McCann! Comeback is on!!!
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Bah, Bordeaux score again at the HT whistle.
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28-14.
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Entertaining game in Bordeaux.
UBB score almost at will on the counter attack and Ulster score almost at will from close range. Great handling skills. More than the bench, I think the heat will decide the outcome.
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Trisk, hope son #2 get better soon. I broke my collar bone when I was 11 and I remember a sharp pain, specially at night as the slighest movement reminds you you do have a collar bone! It heals well but still takes 3 weeks.
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Flair – yes, they all looked knackered after the first 15 mins.
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@bb
I think you’ve a reasonable chance – Leicester were sterner opposition than Quins.
I only saw highlights but I wasn’t very impressed – like a U18 team playing U14s….
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Lamothe scores again for UBB.
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TRY Timoney!
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Dont understand why Ulster kick back at UBB. Each time they do it, UBB score. And each time Ulster keep the ball in hand, they score.
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TRY Ward after a completely bonkers phase of play!
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Argh, no try! Doak with earlier fingertips to the ball.
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TRY Ward for real this time!
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Doak misses the conversion, which leaves Ulster 12 points out.
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Ah bollocks, Bordeaux score again.
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TRY Moore!
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No, Ward again!
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Doak has scored again, but I think something happened earlier.
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Damn, there was a knock-on. Shame, as it was a great try. But it was a high tackle that caused it!
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Well, it ends with another crazy period of play, and all players half-dead with exhaustion. 43-31, 6 tries to 5. It was a great match to watch!
Pleased with Ulster – we did have 2 great tries chalked off, and generally played better than we have in a long time.
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No disrespect to Ulster who played well all the way to the end but Bordeaux won’t go all the way with so many lapses of concentration.
For a start, Munster will offer a different challenge. One also understand why Jalibert does not start for France, he looked like too often the bad Finn today.
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Delay in the Toulouse match starting, because one of the sky divers on for the pre-game ‘entertainment’ got hung up on the stadium roof.
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Wow. Sale winning at half time! Maybe Toulouse are still on the roof with the parachutist…
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C’mon BB, don’t keep us hanging, what happened in the second half?
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Toulouse 38 Sale 15
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From 10/15 at HT to 38/15!
Toulouse looked surprisingly rusty.
A great try by Cappuozzo, unfortunately tarnished by a serious injury.
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@flair thanks for the good wishes.
Unfortunately, this is 2nd break in 6 months (first one was playing soccer)
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Trisk – eek, that’s not good!
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Trisk – has he considered investing in a Zorb?
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Is it safe to google Zorb?
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It is. They’re those big inflatable balls people roll down hills in.
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Had a spell of dry weather here – yes, unlikely, I knows but it does happen.
Pitches were rock hard – “tackler” went high (there’s a picture of him on my son’s back) .
Cathal couldn’t get his arm out to break the fall (I suppose if he had we’d be looking at a broken wrist instead)
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Henco Venter banned for ‘making contact with eye area’ of Dan Cole, so out for six weeks. Which as he appears to be off at the end of the season, will mean he was man of the match in his last appearance.
Lots of chat among Glasgow fans that Cole actually had Venter in a sort of head lock and he was just trying to get him off. Obviously couldn’t see it at the game and haven’t seen any footage so don’t know how true this is.
Maybe Dan should have spent less time trying to throttle Glasgow forwards and more time working on not going backwards in the scrum, which they seemed to be doing at a rate of knots….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cddeyly7rgzo
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I seem to recall that Cole has previously received a ban for gouging?
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Things aren’t going well in Cardiff
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@bb
Footage I saw wasn’t good at all – I’ll try to dig it out.
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