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 
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Seems to play if you tap on “watch on Tiktok”
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Does look bad, though if Cole doesn’t have Venter round the neck in the first place, the subsequent action doesn’t happen. Also handily removes one of Glasgow’s main defenders from the line as Leicester attack. And I wonder why Cole didn’t make the referee aware that he had been gouged at the time.
On the other side, if the TMO had seen it and brought it to the ref’s attention, then that would have put a whole different complexion on the game.
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The whole citing and tribunal system is a joke and it’s made worse by the inconsistencies – there was an incident this season where Glasgow’s Stafford McDowall was given a three week ban for contact in the eye area of Facundo Isa of Toulon. Venter is given a six week ban for the contact with Dan Cole and Eben Etzebeth didn’t even get cited after making contact in the eye area with Venter a couple of months ago.
Now, everyone knows that not all contact is the same, but these incidents were very similar and led to very different outcomes in each case.
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It does all seem pretty arbitrary and I have no answers as to how it’s currently managed and thus how it can be improved. That’s the best ChatGTP could do.* I concur. I do, however, think that ‘hand to eye area’ incidents have increased quite a bit since you couldn’t punch a bloke for being an irritating twat and just get a ticking off from the ref.
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Bugger. Zander oot for Friday. Not that he would change the result single-handedly, but we’ll miss one of the best tichtheid’s about. Especially for his ability to play for most of a game.
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Zander oot? Bulls chances of a win just shot up to 5%!
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Bulls chances of beating Glasgow would go up by more than 5% as we are playing Leinster in Dublin tomight. Edinburgh might be quite relieved as well that the Bulls are in the wrong Scottish city.
Unless of course this is some sort of clever reverse DeeBee psychology….
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Glasgow are without half their starting XV – Fagerson, Cummings, Dempsey, Sutherland, Tuipulotu, Jones and MacKay. Arguably you could add Hiddlestone in there and Williamson is on his first game back after injury that kept him out of the 6N – he’s on the pine. Losing Venter too is a blow, though there can be no argument as to whether a ban was warranted.
I don’t think I’ve seen a stronger Leinster selection this season, and the game is in Dublin – what could possibly go wrong.
Success for Glasgow tonight would be not getting battered by more than 50 points, to be honest.
The Bulls beat Edinburgh 22 – 16 on their home turf last September but they will have a stronger selection out tomorrow. I find it difficult to believe that Embra will prevail, they have been so hot and cold this season, mainly cold, that if a team sticks in we crumble eventually. I’m not even sure it will get to that, though, we could well be blown away by half time. It has not been a good season for us and it looks like a couple of results this last month will save the coaching teams’ collective arse. There has been no cohesion in the play this year – “give it to Darcy or Duhan” isn’t a game plan that gets you very far, more so since Duhan is now crocked.
Mr Iks had the misfortune to be a Newport supporter, it’s no better following Edinburgh. There was a blog called, “Did the Dragons win?”. We could do the same with my team.
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Right, so in my absentmindedness, I got the sides and dates completely wrong. I blame the government of Djibouti, from whom I’m trying to extract a bloody visa, except that you can’t log into their online portal properly and they don’t answer the phone. Quite excited – assuming I actually get a visa, I’ll be going there next Sunday for a few days looking at some port operations. Will be my first visit and first time in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.
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Just to save time…
‘Mon ra Weedge! (said more in hope)
They’re offside ref!
Not scrumming straight ref! (For when Porter comes on)
They’re all over the ruck ref!
Forward pass ref!
Christ, James Lowe’s insufferable isn’t he? (Sorry, you know that already, ref…)
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This should be good!
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Glasgow are cosplaying as Racing 92?
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BB – they’ve just showed a montage of RG Snyman’s offloads on our tele. You’re missing it in your analysis.
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Glas that Pearce is the ref. Might not be saying that at full time, mind.
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Just hoping we don’t get nilled. Not looking good at the moment.
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Leinster were on a different level in that half.
I might switch off when they bring their bench on
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Bloody hell. Absolutely battered AND Matt Fagerson off with what seemed like a serious injury. Franco’s got a lot to do to stop our season going bad from here.
We’ve got Zebre up next, away, who have been tricky buggers in the past, then Bulls at home. Hopefully we’ll get some of our wounded troops back by then.
Finally, well done Leinster. Can’t see either Saints or Castre stopping them, so it will need to be one of the French big boys in the final.
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BB, I wouldn’t be too downhearted, that is a phenomenal Ireland, sorry, Leinster side. In fact I think they’re stronger than Ireland in the centre, front row and lock than Ireland
I think the big French packs will force a different outcome when they come up against them
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@bb / ticht
Leinster’s IRFU budget is about 8m. But central contracts mean IRFU – currently – pay for Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Ryan, McCarthy, van der Flier, Doris, Gibson Park, Henshaw, Ringrose, Keenan.
You can estimate what those are paid – but Furlong was supposedly offered 700k from France last time out.
As a result, Leinster have a lot of cash to retain upcoming talent and stockpile players. Like at 10 they currently have Byrne x 2, Frawley, Prendergast, Tector – 1 Byrne moved to Bristol, 1 Byrne will move to Gloucester, and Tector repurposed at centre.
They also have current Irish 1-2-3 at hooker in Sheehan, Kelleher, and McCarthy (G)
Other provinces can’t outbid Leinster – so they can retain likes of Osborne who’d start elsewhere (even if not at centre at Ulster)
Some change coming – provinces have to pay up to 30% for centrally contracted players – that’s going to effect the stockpile of cash
Can be seen already in Ross Byrne leaving for Gloucester. Also stockpiling had meant different players promised same minutes – so Milne and Barron moving to Munster where they’d make the match day 23 almost immediately. They was a flow that had dried up recently.
Leinster’s budget is in reality about 15m… bigger than any French club
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BTW the lad mostly responsible for all of the above is Nucifora.
Best of luck.
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Generally, a big pack is kryptonite to Leinster, as it tends to be to Ireland (or anyone I suppose)
They like to win a midfield penalty, kick to the corner and maul over or create an overload for a winger to stroll in
Robbed of that they can look laboured. See Clermont match before Xmas.
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Premier Sports do make some baffling decisions. For some reason, the colour under ‘EDI’, on the score box at the top of the screen, is dark blue – not the orange Edinburgh are wearing. It actually took me a second to work out which team is which (I have the sound off).
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Edinburgh backs carving the Bulls like a Sunday roast at the moment. 7-0 up, Bulls with a player in the bin for a cynical foul and we’re only 8 minutes in. And they look to have bashed over for a second try. Ooh! Looks short and a Bulls defender cleared out of the path off the ball before that too. Yip short. Bulls scrum.
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14-0, Edinburgh are relentless at the moment. Bulls can’t get their hands on the ball. When they do, it’s pretty static stuff. Oh! Whilst I was typing that, Edinburgh decided to stop defending and Vorster burst through, offloaded to his centre partner, Kriel, who scored next to the post! 14-7 but the Bulls still a man down.
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That was almost amazing by Vellacott, only foiled by a poor bounce.
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Bulls kick it out on the full from the restart, gifting Edinburgh an attacking lineout, which they lose but pour back downfield and are fingertips away from a third!
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Bulls are trying to be too cute by far and coughing up possession in dangerous places putting themselves under added pressure. Edinburgh take it through a few phases and then get an admittedly lucky ricochet off an attempted grubber and score under the posts. 21-7.
Bulls finally use some big men to bash it up and get the penalty and 5m lineout. Can they make it count? Nope. Edinburgh turn it over but only to the 22. Bulls butcher the lineout and back in their own half.
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Ah, they’ve fixed Edinburgh’s colour on the score board.
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Edinburgh reading the Bulls like a cheap after roast novel. They’ve got the lineout in the Bulls 22, and now another penalty. Taking the three, which is a bit surprising.
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Bulls start the second half identically to the first: down a man and down another try. Lovely conversion from out wide and Edinburgh should be out of sight at 31-7.
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31-14, penalty try and yellow for collapsing the maul.
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Bulls within 10, and that’s with a man down! Are Edinburgh going to Edinburgh this up?
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Bulls score again whilst I was pouring drinks. 31-21. Still 27 minutes to go – can they?
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Head contact by the Bulls player who’s just come back on for a yellow for head contact. Incoming red – unless the refs somehow talk themselves out of it.
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I was fucking joking! It’s been ruled just a penalty?!
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Jannes Kirsten looking at a second yellow for a no arm tackle. Shoulder to head. Ball carrier was dropping, but is it enough to just be a penalty? Apparently so. Jake White needs to hook him ASAP.
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That is a fucking disgrace.
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Refit talked himself out of it
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There was another heavy shot going in at the ruck there
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This ref should never work again. I feel he made some baffling decisions last week too.
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I’ll quote Grégory Alldritt again here where he said to ref, “Don’t talk to us about player safety anymore.”
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Why were Edinburgh pinged for an early push before and the Bulls not there?
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Finally
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Well done Schoey, but it should never have been that close
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Munster must have the best travelling support in club rugby
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The contrast in reffing between the Munster and Edinburgh matches. The ref in this match has had no hesitation in dishing out warnings and deserved yellows. Now a high tackle from a Bordeaux player who’d already been yellowed – didn’t even bother with the TMO, just a yellow then a red.
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Good game in Bordeaux. UBB stopped playing a bit too soon and Munster gave them a scare. UBB are still a young team, great in attack but prone to defensive lapses. Can’t see them winning either vs Leinster (neither Northampton nor Castres can stop them) or vs either Toulouse or Toulon.
As Refit said, excellent reffing as well.
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So, Saints vs Castres or Ospreys vs Lyon?
Neither look very promising. Who knows?
I’ll watch Fin Smith, I really like him. The best FH in the last 6N for me.
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