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 
Thauma, they call the video ref the 3rd umpire in cricket. I think you’ve been sneakily watching IPL and got your sports confused.
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That is highly unlikely….
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Happy Labour Day, everyone! In my beer garden in Addis after a long walk around the neighbourhood, very relaxing. Thauma, only a few hours until you can settle into Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians. Enjoy!
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Note to self- STOP watching YouTube videos on the Lionz tour and squad. Mainly seems either to be people contorting their arguments to fit as many Englishmen in as they can (looking at you, Youngs and Cole), or finding ways to drop Finn, or adding geriatric Irishmen (Connor Murray, Squidge? Really?)
And as for the comments underneath….
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Interesting the angst over whether all four home unions should have adequate (any?) representation in the Lions. Our rugby is finally at a point where we seldom need to worry about quotas anymore. The Stormers backs last weekend didn’t have a single ‘white’ player in the starting XV. It’s glorious to see – and also a sad reminder of how many players in the past never got to showcase their talent because of apartheid.
There are still arseholes down here who shout ‘quota’ every time a black player fucks up, but fortunately they’re shrinking in number as to be largely insignificant. Or living in Trumpland so nobody cares about them.
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I believe some may live in Runcorn too, from news headlines.
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STOP watching YouTube videos on the Lionz tour
You’ll drive yourself nuts.
Fair chunk of England players will go but betting here is that it’ll be Leinster heavy as Farrell bets on cohesion – just as he’s basically taken his entire coaching team
Murray – there’s a case to be made and Farrell likes him as a “closer”. O’Mahony – maybe…he was out of his central contract but Farrell wanted him as captain in 2024
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Cor, Underhill completely smashed Ali Price just then.
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Bath starting both halves with a yellow card. Penalty try along with it this time.
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Least Saints won’t get nilled by the Blue Meanies. Although they might have just annoyed them by scoring early.
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Didn’t see that score coming!
Half time.
Leinster 15 Northampton 27!
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Bloody hell, Saints have won!
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Northampton win!
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Brilliant from Saints!
Should feel sorry for Leinster, but…..
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… It’s hard to feel sorry for Leinster. Even if you’re Irish.
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That’s 8 years since Leinster last won the Champions/Whatever Cup. If they don’t win the URC this season (4 years since they won that), will questions be asked of Leo Cullen? Although, I’m not sure what he actually does there – is he ‘Director of Rugby’?
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He’s not what you would call a ‘tackling 10’
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Faz knocks himself out, but with an actual legal tackle.
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That’s cos he’s not used to the body positioning for a legal tackle!
Oh come on! You all thought exactly the same!
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Of course that’s what we were all thinking!
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A quick question for the English posters (or those who watch more English club rugby that I do). How has Juarno Augustus played this season? There’s a growing call down here for him to get a Bok runout in the June Tests, as we’re a bit shy on a big, ball-carrying eight. Jasper Wiese and Elrich Louw are both currently injured, Evan Roos blows hot and cold, Cameron Hanekom is more of a seven, Siya Kolisi has playede at 8 for his club, but is a flanker at Test level and Kwagga Smith is not an eight, starting or off the bench. Some here feel Augustus has impressed enough at Saints, others feel his work rate isn’t good enough?
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4 years since they won that
Munster fans would point out they’ve never won the URC….
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And they would be quite right to do so, Trisk!
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Have they reached a Final?
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@BB -“Note to self- STOP watching YouTube videos on the Lionz tour and squad.”
I’ve been telling myself this, failing to follow the advice and regretting it. Squidge’s videos with his pal are borderline terrible (including non-Lions ones), massively overcomplicating things and with quite an irritating manner. Some others are worse.
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@deebee
No, Leinster haven’t reached the URC final – lost 2 home semi finals (why not twist the knife) and lost in quarters last year away to Bulls….
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@deebee
Haven’t seen much of Augustus but based on Saturday looks like Ulster have spent their money well
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massively overcomplicating things
I’ve not engaged much recently but complaints I’ve heard is that he tries to attribute everything to a 19 point plan when generally it’s a player fractionally out of position or slow to get back into the defensive line that lead to a try….
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I thought before the semi that Northampton might rattle Leinster – they ran them close last year and – if not for a 1st half where it seemed like all the backs had hoofs for hands – might have won
With hindsight, Leinster were undercooked – Quins phoned it in, and it seemed a lot like Glasgow realised that with a large number of starters missing they weren’t going anywhere either.
And that’s a general observation – in URC and Heino – teams look at the table and write off the trip to Dublin in favour of a big effort some place else.
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Leinster thrive on kicking pens to the 22 and muscling over from there.
they didn’t get many midfield pens at scrums etc, to get access to Saints 22
lineout wasn’t dominant – were turned over at least twice,
maul was generally well contained – just the one try by Leinster
Decision making was shocking – 3 pts down with a kickable penalty – you’d take it every time. Saints have to kick it back to you, you kick long and try to engineer another opportunity to win.
Looking at the sideline for guidance isn’t a good look.
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will questions be asked of Leo Cullen?
Some for sure – mainly I’d guess from the types who latch on to a successful team.
His role is more DoR than head coach – can’t recall what Neinaber’s designation is.
Leinster school system turns out lots of almost ready made players – recall Deegan was player of the tournament at U20s in 2016 (I can recall the lad from Stoke… CJ ??said he’d eat his hat or something if Deegan made it as a professional)
So, part of his role is to try to keep them at home and not head off to the other provinces. Hence the pile up at 10, 2, LH that is only now starting to unwind
as Leinster lose their central subsidies.
It’s clear though that the coaching strategies have been set by first Lancaster and now by Neinaber
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Cullen has recognised the issues – brought in Jenkins and then Snyman to bolster the pack.
Now he’s also had to deal with Farrell second guessing him. McCarthy – who was quite good last Sat – was brought into Ireland after a couple of provincial appearances, same with Prendergast. Farrell wanted Frawley as his 10/15 cover – Leo has never really trusted Frawley at 10 – starts him then brings on Ross Byrne at ht
Leo isn’t so independent that he can play these players as replacements when the IRFU’s head coach wants them as starters….
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@Trisk – With Squidge’s analysis stuff I think there is an element of that – there always has been though, but perhaps it’s becoming more accentuated over time i.e. it sometimes gets a bit like ‘forget the obvious stuff that you can see, really it’s ‘this’ when the truth is perhaps more like both with more weight on the obvious. That stuff is still interesting in its own way though and makes you think even if the delivery has always been too fast for me to ever really get along with it fully.
The selection videos where he chats with his pal seem to be driven by a desire to hype everything up and especially to talk up the English Prem, if only as a way of finding more players to discuss than seems really necessary. Surely it mostly should just come down to ‘did a player have a good 6N – or a lot of credit in the bank beforehand if they didn’t get to play (much) in it or had a bit of a wobble in form’. Instead we get lots of ‘this guy is amazing’ even when he can’t get in the England team. The pair of them spend a fair bit of time telling each other how great their theories are and it gets pretty excruciating.
Their vid on Gats’ daft throwaway comment about Wales players having got ‘a bit woke’ was pretty painful too – to me they came across as people who despite being on the right side of things can also be part of the problem with their manner, what they choose to engage with and how they go about it.
Obviously I am an irritable ageing git though and possibly not the primary audience…
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possibly not the primary audience
Yes, this may be it – the idea is to draw people in – this isn’t just 30 blokes (mainly) running at each other as hard as as fast as possible…
I think their pitch is that there is planning and precision along with the “shock and awe” – maybe looking at that audience who admire the control and precision of one of Guardiola’s teams or the people who follow American football
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Harry Antoinette
I love Marina Hyde!
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Deebee – that was a stroke of genius. She has many of them.
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Thauma, she really does. Other than just the throwaway digs like that, Marina’s construction of a viewpoint or argument whilst simultaneously deconstructing the subject is superb.
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She’s pretty ‘centrist’ politically, although definitely to the left of Keir Starmer (which isn’t hard).
She really excels in eviscerating creepy stalker-type men, whom I gather she has some experience of – and also the ‘royals’. Loses me when she writes about slebs that I’ve mostly not heard of.
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She really excels in eviscerating creepy stalker-type men, whom I gather she has some experience of – and also the ‘royals’.
There is of course a Venn diagramme to be drawn there.
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St Maro to be Lions Captain! You heard it here first! Unless you read it in the Graun like I did! Or somewhere else!
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@Deebee – You could assume it to be pretty likely with the main candidate apparently injured. Of course the professional rugby journalists may have an inside line, but then again most of the Guardian writers seem to have picked at least one player who’s been ruled out in their squads…
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Happy Lions Squad Day everyone!
Just to save some time for later:
Why didn’t he pick ‘him’???????
Why did he pick ‘him’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where’s (insert player of your choice from your country of choice)?
Far too many Irish/English/Scots/Welsh (delete as appropriate)
What would Johnny think? (And who gives a shit?)
Of course, the squad Andy would have ‘preferred’ to pick was probably Ireland+Owen…..
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@BB – I think you could have safely deleted Welsh as inappropriate in the first place. I mean one might be too many for some people, but it surely can’t be ‘far too many’…
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Of course, the squad Andy would have ‘preferred’ to pick was probably
Leinster+Owen…..
FIFY
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One of the problems with the concept at this stage of its life is that he wouldn’t even be all that wrong if that is what he does.
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So much build up crap.
Must admit I did wonder when they were talking about announcing the captain, then Alun Wyn Jones appears!!!
I’m assuming he’s going to announce Maro (oops!) as the captain.
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Cummings is a surprise (a good one), but no Darge or Ritchie, reckon they can count themselves a bit unlucky. Would hope they’re on the reserve list.
Finn’s going! Johnny will be pleased. Also think Darcy is unlucky not to go, would certainly have him over Hansen.
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Oh, and Tomos WIlliams in but no Ben White?
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Bit tough on Ben White the way they did it alphabetically.
All seemed pretty uncontroversial though there must obviously have been some close calls. Hard not to notice how many ringers there are in the backs, but it was always going to be like that.
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43 days to the opening match!
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