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 
Yep, one more to Bath before HT! (Maybe.)
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It is! 33-19, and there’s still a restart.
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@ticht
Going to be in Edinburgh for a couple of days next week….
Any recommendations for things to do that wouldn’t pop up in usual guidebooks etc?
Going with my wife plus sons 2 and 3 (16 and 15). Son 2 has arm in sling after breaking collarbone last week….
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Trisk – the Sheep’s Heid is a good pub, up Arthur’s Seat!
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61-26 at FT in Bath.
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Trisk, it’s a mainstream tourist place but the National Museum of Scotland is worth a visit – when I lived in Edinburgh I used to go there at least once a week, sometimes twice. It’s on Chambers St, just along the from Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is also worth a walk around. At the other end of Chambers St you can turn right and a few yards up you’ll find steps up to the the Old College of Edinburgh Uni – a lovely square to sit and eat your sandwiches if it’s nice weather.
Opposite Chambers St is Infirmary St, where Mother India’s Cafe is situated – good curry place.
All that area of Edinburgh is nice to walk around, Victoria St which runs from George IV Bridge down to the Grassmarket is nice, Cockburn St just up for the station is good, and it’s worth talking a walk down the closes off the High St, there are some lovely little streets there.
There is another good Indian food place but it’s on Lothian Road which is a bit, meh, it’s busy with traffic and besides the Lyceum, The Usher Hall and The Traverse Theatre, you probably wouldn’t go there. If you do, then Chaakoo Bombay Cafe is a good place for food.
Oh, now that I think of it there is a really good vegan place behind/beneath the church at the bottom of Lothian Road on the corner of Prnces St, it’s called Pulse.
If you’re in that area then a walk across the Dean Bridge and a wander around Dean Village is nice.
The Botanic Gardens are lovely.
All the galleries and museums in the tourist guides are pretty good, I have to say. Surgeon’s Hall is pretty famous and might appeal to teenage boys – it’s got some gruesome exhibits.
If I think of anything else I’ll get back to you
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Thanks Ticht!
I recall doing Arthur’s Seat a few years back and whatever way we came at it – in the fog and rain – it was like climbing Everest, then we got to the top and the walk down the other side was a gentle, grassy slope….
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If you’re flying into Edinburgh, avoid the Siren selling haggis in the domestic part. I got suckered hook, line and sinker by her accent and eyes into buying about 3 kilos of the stuff and I don’t even like it. Luckily, my dad did, so I offloaded it on him when I got back to Joburg. Jeez, not even the sniffer dogs wanted to tangle with it!*
*Sorry Ticht, BB, it’s mainly the oatmeal I don’t like.
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@deebee – I can’t believe you’d consort with someone who’d killed a poor defenceless haggis…..
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Was the eyes…. had no defence against them. Still don’t. If anybody sees a scruffy Saffer wandering aimlessly around Edinburgh airport with trolleys full of haggis, don’t laugh.
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Deebee, how dare you? Haggis is delicious, most offal tastes better than actual meat. Brain, sweetbread, kidneys, liver, bone marrow, heart, tongue, yummmy. Can’t stand tripe though, although the Turks make a delicious sandwich with it, difference being the tripe is grilled.
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Hmm, now, I love haggis, but am not a fan other offal, namely liver, kidneys or tongue. The smell of liver or kidneys makes me retch, perhaps because I was force-fed it as an anaemic pre-teen.
Bone marrow is great, though! When I cook a roast with a bone in, the marrow most definitely gets added to the gravy.
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My granny used to put out tongue at lunch-time for sandwiches, and it looks just like ham, and I was occasionally fooled into putting it in my sandwich. Yeeuuch!
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Still on offal, I had a French colleague and friend who desperately missed ‘greasy goose liver’ (foie gras), with a chef’s-kiss to indicate his appreciation.
I’d happily eat pâté de foie gras, and have eaten foie gras in France when it’s put on top of your dinner, but once I found out what the poor geese go through to make it happen, I decided it’s definitely not delicious enough to make it worth that. Have similar feelings about lobster – to my palate, it’s a bit meh, and definitely not worth boiling something alive.
One peculiarly French dish I do love is escargots. Was dining in Montbéliard with the Welsh mister and my Argentine best mate, and ordered the escargot pasta. It was absolutely fuckin delicious, and I asked them both if they’d like a taste. I got puke-faces. Their loss!
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On a completely different topic – BB, have you seen this?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/14/librarians-in-uk-increasingly-asked-to-remove-books-as-influence-of-us-pressure-groups-spreads
Absolutely egregious, and I have sent my local librarians a message of support.
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There’s some scary stuff going on Thaum.
This from this weekend’s Observer, for example
The rise of end times fascism
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk?fbclid=IwY2xjawJqO5xleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHu_zH2Ne_RRnyH-bN7PnByT3NMAZOfsaCy3KGpbUIc6sRr98j-QI8l4YaNF__aem_UXyJY1Ng6ml8yY66Ldt3KA
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Testing?
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Let me try again on offal (seems the fascists have got it in for offal too!):
Liver – only as Pâté or heavily disguised.
Kidneys – used to make ’em with brandy, cream, coarse black peper and touch of Tabasco on toast as a hangover cure. Bloody nice. Also in steak and kidney pies, of course.
Tongue – used to eat it as a kid, but haven’t seen it around for ages.
Brawn – loved it as a kid, but also haven’t seen it in ages.
Brain, heart, sweetbreads – not enough experience to judge.
Tripe – my dear mum used to make it for my dad as a treat, after he grew to love it as a young engineer in north of England where he worked. Nope. Then a friend of mine made it in Cape Malay style (her family roots) and it was sublime – tasty, tender and subtle.
On haggis, it’s basically the texture of the oatmeal that puts me off, much like with liver and avos, which remain the world’s most overrated fruit, healthy or not.
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Forgot to mention blood: whether it’s black pudding or the delightful Basque Morcilla con arroz (with a slightly different interpretation from town to town), I love the stuff.
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Leinster got a bit more unlikable
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Deebs, just as black pudding depends on the black pudding, there’s haggis and then there’s haggis.
Black pudding was one of the very few things in France where I preferred the version from home, particularly Stornoway black pudding.
I started to like tripe when we had it after Friday night rugby training for the mighty Union Sportive du Pays de Sault.
Then I went off it.
I’m not much of an innards man, I have to admit, and I’ve cut way back on red meat lately. I try to eat game and fish, but a mainly vegetarian diet.
That being said, we went to this restaurant for cocktails and mezze last week for a big birthday https://baba.restaurant/
I had the carpaccio of venison and I had to force myself to slow down and savour it – I could disposed of it like a Christmas tree in the log chipper on the 3rd of January.
I also had a drink that was kind of like an Old Fashioned but had cherry smoke in it. (If Trisk reads this, I’d recommend Baba, it’s on the corner of Charlotte Sqr and George St)
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Yes Thaum, saw it yesterday. Worrying but it has been creeping in sadly. I think it affects public libraries more than schools, and perhaps more down south than up here. Not to say it can’t happen though, especially as school librarians everywhere are being cut which means no-one to act as a check against the idiots.
Thankfully I never really had that problem in any of my schools, although there was stuff that I and my colleagues would ‘self-censor’ if they contained dodgy material. Of course, being Glasgow we had to work around the Catholic church in some schools and I know some of the librarians in those schools had problems displaying LGBTQ+ stuff, eben though the school was going against council policy. It could depend on the HT sometimes. Both my schools had pupil and staff LGBTQ+ groups so I made sure I bought a large selection of books which could cater for them as well as others.
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Ha… Sexton smuggled on to the Lions after all ….
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Could be an interesting dynamic with 10s he played against who maybe think they know better?
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Sexton has been pretty open in his dislike of Russell. Finn would probably be better off spending time with his family over the summer.
He (Sexton) has zero coaching pedigree, the Lions isn’t supposed to be a development tour, it’s meant to be the best available from four constituent parts.
I said a while ago that I hope this Lions team doesn’t turn into Leinster +, it’s getting closer to that.
If it turns out that way they will win but it will be shite
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Sexton is just not a likeable person. Turned out to be a very good FH – I was among the doubters in the early stages, but it’s undeniable.
Not sure that Russell is a very likeable person either (for all the reasons that Clyde’s Middle One outlined), but he’s also brilliant, although in a completely different way: instead of robotic precision, he has wild creativity that can sometimes go wrong. I know which I prefer to watch, and I also think Finn won’t get picked for the big matches with this coaching team.
But anyway, I’ve been thinking about Edinburgh and haggis. I have quite a close connection to Edinburgh: my two favourite uncles and a favourite aunt (siblings) all lived there for some time, and I visited them as often as I could.
My aunt lived in a tiny council flat in the ‘New’ Town (it’s quite old), within easy walking distance of Arthur’s Seat, Princes Street, Waverley and the Parliament and so on. She’s the one who introduced me to the Sheep’s Heid, and she also worked in a very nearby community garden, which might be worth a visit, Deebs, if you like that sort of thing?
Anyway, she died of cancer a few years ago, so my last visit to Embra was for her funeral. We stayed at a hotel that was basically in the middle of suburban nowhere, and on the morning of the funeral we headed out. The mister spotted a café and decided he wanted breakfast, a meal I generally didn’t eat at all then. He got a haggis bap.
Now, I had had haggis once or twice before, and had neither loved nor loathed it. But he offered me a bite of this bap, and after having taken it, I wanted to rip the entire thing out of his hand and devour it myself. It was absolutely delicious.
Despite no longer having any relatives living in Edinburgh, and no real liking for cities, I might consider going back to find that café and that bap again.
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Unlike O’Gara – who headed off to Racing, then to the Blues, and finally LaR before becoming HC there successfully – Sexton has no previous coaching experience.
England tried that with Johnson and SA with Straueli… I think you’d put it kindly as “wasn’t a success”.
Sexton won’t be “in charge” but he’s no business being on this tour.
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I was among the doubters in the early stages, but it’s undeniable
Rightly enough …
Everyone seems to forget it took him a good few years to become the player we recall in our mind’s eye. He wasn’t an instant success by any means. He got there – to his credit.
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Trisk – yep, I was firmly in the O’Gara camp. :-) Who was the genius with the last-minute drop-goals? Johnny wasn’t even very good at kicking from the tee at that time, although he certainly slew that demon.
Someone from AoD christened Sexton PGCP – pretty good club player. It seemed right at the time.
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Johnny wasn’t even very good at kicking from the tee at that time
Yeah, it’s rarely mentioned that he missed a straightforward enough penalty Vs NZ in 2014 that would have put the lead at 8 with a few mins left ….
Still winning then might have done more harm than good – we needed to be “robbed” rather than cheese a win – to convince ourselves we had what it takes.
A win then and everyone goes on the beer for a year. Instead, Schmidt could drive them on.
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I’ve just had a look for the article that Trisk might be referencing, and wow – here it is: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c7937n394yvo
The Beeb is unusually not pulling any punches in it.
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But Trisk – any decent coach could drive a team on after a victory anyway!
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Anyway, I’m aff to me bed. Enjoyable conversation, and anyone who wants to write a Lions preview article would be welcome!
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A win then and everyone goes on the beer for a year. Instead, Schmidt could drive them on.
Chalks up another reason to dislike Sexton. A decade of success because the pillock missed a kick against the Kiwis.
Thauma – would love to see the community garden you talk about. Not convinced about the haggis bap, but would give it a go. I’ve eaten weirder things in my time!
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Thaum, is that Dr Neil’s garden you are talking about? That’s near Duddingston Loch. Funnily enough we were talking about just the other day, I haven’t been yet.
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Comments back at last! Yes, it was Dr Neil’s Garden.
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Monty Don had a series about British Gardens, starting in Scotland and Dr Neil’s Garden was one of the ones in Edinburgh he looked at. Some of the places he looked at were interesting although I’ve been to a few, gave me ideas for other places to go.
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Glasgow without about 300 players for the visit to Zebre this weekend. Oh, if only we could call up an All Black or two….
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On the subject of Lionz fly-halfs (halves?), I wish folk (not on here) would make up their mind. First we were told that the 6N form would decide who would go, now it seems that they are determined to pick players based on their domestic club form, so Prendergast, who gets an easy ride from the Leinster pack is a shoo-in, but Finn, who has been pretty damn good for a Bath side who also give him an easy ride behind their pack, isn’t. Also, I’m not sure some of those folk who claim that Finn’s still ‘flashy’ have actually watched him for Bath. He takes the ball right to the line, his passing has been great as has his offloads and kicking. He’s a damn good tackler too (better than some of the options – that’s you, Owen).
Still if he does go on the tour, I’m sure he’ll enjoy learning the Sexton wrap-around tactic. Though I reckon Bundee and Henshaw would enjoy actually being given ball to run onto and played into space.
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I’d start Finn and/or Smith.
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Which Smith? I’d go with Smith, F. rather than Smith, M. If you’re taking 3 number 10s, which seems to be what’s mentioned in most of the Lions Squad pick videos I’ve seen, I would take Prendergast as the third. Farrell O, shouldn’t be anywhere near this squad, never mind that he’s son of coach and pal of Johnny. Plus, the Aussies are quick and like an open game. They’ll love it if Sexton fanboys keep kicking the ball to their back line.
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Yep, Finn and Fin. And agree about Farrell! How many years has it been since he’s played in a Test match?
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Apparently Daddy was at the Connacht/Racing game. Didn’t Owen get carded in that game?
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Yes, for once!
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I think picking Owen Farrell is the right thing to do. It’ll even up the series a bit.
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Edinburgh 10-6 up at HT against a Bok-laden Sharks. They look hopeless playing for the Sharks. Seriously need new management to get the best out of this talent.
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That said, Edinburgh have looked sharp in the last few weeks. Playing very intelligent rugby. Good value for their lead and should be a few more ahead.
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I think picking Owen Farrell is the right thing to do. It’ll even up the series a bit.
It’ll even up the card count, you mean.
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Don’t think your average Aussie can count that high. Cough.
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Getting a little feisty in Edinburgh. Skinner and Etzebeth in the bin. Am already there, so the Sharks down to 13 and Edinburgh barge over for the try! Ashman I think! 17-13 to Edinburgh.
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