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 
Slade (wastheanswer) here – phew! Both sides left points out there and I’m sure France’s last try included two forward passes.
Takeaways:
– Lawrences hand-off on Ramos
– Martin slow / Chessum very good today
– The team looked much better balanced with Fin at 10 (who had a good game)
– Marcus good and bad – a leeson perhaps that the game is not all about him and he needs to prime his killer instincts through coolness not adrenaline. He is not the best 15.
– the looks of relief on the English players faces after the whistle
– French Tv commentators saying they didn’t deserve to win due to major errors in handling.
– Borthwick keeps his job and maybe learns that players should play in their natural positions
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Or Fin ? Marcus who ? Very satisfying to see Dupont dragged over the try line with behind Elliot Daly and his zimmer frame.
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Well done England!
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Along with a number of others I thought the England scrum half had a very good game.
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Phew, thanks BB, your turn tomorrow. Would really appreciate Darcy making Lowe look stupid.
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If he does then he’ll be making Predict-a-Bear look stupid too. But not Hamish McMagic of course. Must be tough for BB – I’m sure he’d like Scotland to win for himself, but poor P-a-B faces humiliation at the hands of The Menagerie.
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P-a=B is used to humiliation. He’s a Scottish rugby supporting bear, after all.
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Refit, looking back, I can’t see a problem with Sleighthome on Penaud, sure it was a bit of shithousery, nothing serious tho, but it looked like it ruffled Penaud, and may have been a plan, like Itoje throwing Penaud’s boot away, unlike him, maybe getting him on the back foot and flustering him saved two tries .
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SBT – for me, it was more that it was a bit too obvious provocation. Bit too much of a risk of the ref or assistants pinging him for it. He’s got to learn to be a bit more subtle.
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Well, the session wasn’t as messy as it could have been, or more accurately it was “mighty” for the players and some of my generation, but I kept a relatively low profile.
Skerries were forced to play a league fixture yesterday which meat their touring party was made up of young and social players. Dunbar gave away an interception try in the first five minutes, but the game was abandoned just after the hour mark with the home side leading 71-12.
Dunbar are a very young team too, mostly around the 22-23 age, but they have been playing good rugby the season.
We are sitting on top of the league, 10 wins, 1 loss, 9 try bonus points, 1 losing bp.
Theoretically Hawick Harlequins could catch us if they collect the full five points from all of their rescheduled games, one of which is against us. We have three games left, the other two are at home to the bottom two teams, sides we beat with bp wins away from home.
We start the run in next weekend.
Real rugby update ends.
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Fo4 the sake of the full picture, Dunbar need 7 points from the three games to win the league.
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Oh, and by the way, for fuck’s sake France.
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Refit, I watched the game again last night, and really enjoyed it more than the first viewing.
My main second impression was how good is the referee ? He really lets the game flow, and doesn’t intervene needlessly and constantly. If the ball is available at the scrum, he is more than likely to tell teams to play it, instead of resetting or penalising. He lets minor infractions at ruck and maul go if they don’t affect the possession, and give players really loud and clear instructions. He also allows a fair bit of rough-housing. Dupont complained about Sleightholme, and he shrugged and said it was only a little push. I loved his comment when Freeman was getting attention-” Play on, it’s only a wing “. There was a fair bit of niggle going on, more than I have seen in a game for a long time, but no major all in shoving and pushing posturing. I get the feeling that the players understand that he will let a little go, but not to push him too far. His frequent comments, ” Ok, thats enough ” etc, seem to be understood and acted on. There were numerous shoulders , pushes and plyers getting thrown to the ground after the ball got away from the breakdown, but nothing developed or got out of control, and he generally let play develop and gave good calls on advantages, as well as changing his decision on knock ons a couple of times after the fact. I am glad that young Fin got the man of the match, but I think I would award it to the ref. He also seems to listen well to captains, and then gives a concise and definitve answer, brooking no further wingeing. Too often, the ref is a high profile, Andrew Brace and Karl Dickson, take note. This guy knows how to manage a game.
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On Smith.M at 15- works for the Kiwis with Beaudy, why not ? I thought it showed a lot of promise. I also like Earl at seven, and a proper 8, again, looked effective, and Earl to 8 after 50-60 mins looks fine if he still has gas in the tank. An effective and proactive use of the bench went really well yesterday, is it possible that Borthwick is improving and learning from experience at last ? Horses for courses is great if you have a big enough pool of experience, and a solid spine.
Have England got a new scrum coach ? Something is working.
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Maybe a false dawn, but who knows? I’ll take it, one of those every few games keeps the spirits up thru the darker times.
Now for Finn to have a Man of the Match performance today please.
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“Hawick Harlequins”
They’ve done well to combine the names of everyone’s two favourite teams from Scotland and England like that.
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The advantage of Smith(M) at 15, is he doesn’t have the turning circle of a large supertanker. Steward is good in the air, but gets stepped far too easily and doesn’t really run his weight.
It’s amazing what having a back-row of players in their preferred positions can do to the balance of a team. I dunno why more coaches don’t try it /s.
Amashukeli really is one of the least annoying refs around at the moment.
Speaking of refs, Eddie Jones isn’t a fan of Doleman, who’s on the whistle this afternoon https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/scotland-v-ireland-referee-james-30949210
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Just getting a sinking feeling about this.
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Fuck.
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Ooh, that was a horrible scrum for Scotland.
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Where’s the Scotland that have regularly picked England to pieces over the last couple of years?
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They’re being wrapped in cotton wool for the next round, Refit.
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Naughty by McDuhan. Could be in trouble here.
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Can’t scrum. Can’t hold on to the ball. Can’t tackle. Can’t pass.
We’ll get nilled here if we’re not careful.
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I think Scotland got lucky there, with just a yellow.
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Done well to keep that maul out.
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Ouch. That’s Graham done for the match then.
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Bloody hell, Finn knocking Darcy out now.
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Not sure Russell’s gonna pass an HIA either.
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With the way this has started for Scotland, it’s a miracle they’re only a score down.
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Aw crap.
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How is Aki not off for blood, with it streaming down his head?
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Have these Scottish players ever played rugby before? This is as bad as the Wooden Spoon days, if not worse.
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If you spliced Prendergast and Liam Williams together, you’d get a perfectly straight pair of legs.
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Think we’re lucky to be at nil.
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Beirne taking a dive there?
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Good lord, what a finish by Duhan.
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Did Duhan get that down?
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Comeback on :)
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Could be a lot worse on the scoreboard for Scotland though they did defend heroically during the yellow card period and got some reward at the end. Feels like it will be pretty one-sided again in the second half, but you never know…
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I wouldn’t say ROG is a natural at this.
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Good decision to take 3 points I think.
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That decision is plain wrong.
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I wouldn’t say ROG is a natural at this.
At talking to cameras, no. He has some quite interesting things to say about tactics and strategy, after he’s stopped saying Errr.
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@Thaum – He does, but he doesn’t half gabble once he gets going.
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Hmmm, Gibson-Park backed into a covering player to block him from the loose ball there.
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Smirky Bastard scores, bugger.
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The comeback is off.
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It’s great having Nige on comms. Him repeating whatever the ref or Andrew Cotter has just said really makes it clear.
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