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 
Howley going was obviously to be expected and on the face of it very necessary. I gather some backs have been called up (Anscombe, Jarrod Evans and Max Llewellyn) though in part because of the injuries to Liam Williams and Watkin. Must be a good chance that is the end of Liam Williams’ Wales career given his age, shame for him to go out that way if it turns out to be the case, but then there isn’t a good way to go out just now regardless. Will be very interesting to see who starts at outside half, kind of hope they go with Edwards with Anscombe on the bench.
Read about the London Irish thing yesterday, feels like quite an exciting idea though I don’t really know what the implications would be. Wonder if it’s really serious or are they just trying it on to help them get back into the English Premiership. Will be very disappointed if Wales do cut one (or more) of the Regions as it’s a sign of giving up for good.
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Evening all.
Due to unforeseen family events, I am forced to travel to Trumpyland on Thursday.
Therefore it would be wonderful if someone would like to write a 6N preview article by Weds. Well actually, Friday would probably be fine, I’ll just be in a silly time-zone and possibly preoccupied by other matters.
Also, if SBT could tell me how I can watch the matches there, ie what network carries them, it would be very much appreciated!
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Ah, apparently it’s something called Peacock. And my sis has a login!
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Hi Thaum, yep, best way in country for surefire watching is Peacock TV, all Six Nations games shown live hosted by Alex Corbisiero, quite good coverage using Euro coverage commentators but not the panels of hexperts. They are also available full match replay not long afterwards. Cheap and cheerful, with lots of other interesting stuff to watch, a lot of womens rugby , sevens, premier league soccer etc if that floats yer boat, Yellowstone full series etc, so well worth the ten bucks or so it will cost you before you cancel it.
The back up plan would be a vpn thingy, I use DNSsmart proxy, so you can then watch terrestrial channels overseas with some fiddling, altho unfortunately ITV have now cottoned on, but so far RTE, Beeb, Aus channel 9 and France TV haven’t. Bit of a pain to set up on a new device tho.
Hope reason for visit not too serious.
Just as a matter of interest, I have just discovered you are allowed to bring in 6lbs of hard cheese, for some reason. I suspect a former politician with mafia connections wanting to bring in a regular supply of parmesan or pecorino, so if you want to bring offensive gifts to the Cheese State , ie something that actually tastes of something…….
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Cheapest current trans-Atlantic flights by the way are IcelandAir. Stop off for a couple of days in Reykjavik and hit one of the best swimming pools in the world, the outdoor 50m Laugadalslaug, geothermally heated of course, with the HI Dalur hostel right next door for cheap accommodation.
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Cheers, SBT! Funnily enough Iceland is my sister’s favourite place, but unfortunately there isn’t time for that.
My Dad’s been very seriously ill, but is on the mend now. He’s been discharged from the hospital but can’t be trusted alone. My other sibling is with him at the moment, but I’ve to take over.
I’m very much not keen on going to the US, particularly not under Trump, but needs must. At least I’ll get some decent Mexican food.
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About 30 years ago probably, when I was living in Detroit, I made a trip to Europe and decided to bring back some unpasteurised Camembert, because why wouldn’t you? My return route was through Boston, where I was met with an FDA beagle accompanied by intimidating blokes of the sort that you pretty much only get in the US. I was cool at first, thinking that their main concern was drugs, when I remembered that FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration. The cheese was in my carry-on rucksack, so I was walking off the plane with it.
Knowing that they hate it, my escape tactic was to act the airhead and go all Oh, what an adorable doggie, can I pet him???? The beagle, being a beagle, went all wiggly either because it smelt the cheese or because it was getting attention, and the sinister border guards instructed me sinisterly to Move along, ma’am.
Success!
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Delighted to see Ovally Balls/AoD returning to its roots and fulfilling my desire to be up to date on US cheese import/export policy.
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CMW: you are Liz Truss and I claim my fiver.
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@Thaum – I may be many things, but in this instance I am merely a humble fantasist who longs to travel the world with my pet cheese while ignoring anything happening on a rugby field in the next decade.
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Well, I can tell you that unpasteurised cheese is not welcome in the US. And I can understand why a Welsh person would choose to ignore things happening on the pitch at the mo.
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And I can’t spare a fiver and you’re not getting the cheese.
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The only cheese based question I have been asked in the US was ‘You want Swiss cheese or American cheese?’ With nothing much to go on I nervously replied ‘Swiss’ which subsequent events proved to have been very much the right answer.
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Both are the wrong answer, imo.
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@Thaum – I’d already innocently asked for cheese and there was no going back from there. What I got added nothing, but was relatively inoffensive which wasn’t how I felt about the alternative once I saw it delivered.
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Reminds me of the time I asked an American waitress about the red wine on offer. Well, honey, it’s a sweet ‘n’ sour kind of wine.
She was right.
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Edinburgh lose at home to Zebre – before hand all the talk was about a full five points for the home team.
This must the be low point, if it’s going to be worth watching that, then it must precipitate Sean Everitt’s departure. Sharks fans elsewhere were incredulous that he was hired at another URC team and they’ve been proved right.
Edinburgh had a team stacked with current and future international players, Zebre are no mugs and are playing well, but they are no Leinster.
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On the subject of US food, have I told my jar of pickled pigs lips story?
It’s very short, me and a mate were in a fast food place in New Orleans. My mate, a big foodie who will eat anything, points to a jar on the counter and asks, “What’s that?”
“Pickled pigs lips” came the answer.
“What do they taste like?” asks my mate.
“Dunno, I’m not eatin’ that shit” she said.
We left it at that.
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Never been Stateside. Have limited interest in the place. Mrs Deebee would like to do a tour of southern states to small towns and dingy bars. I’d like to do New York and a boat trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans. That’s about it.
Hope all goes well, Thauma, and try not to talk politics to the locals
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Sean Everitt for the Scotland gig?
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Deebee, didn’t you say there will be a vacancy when Rassie steps down?
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Thanks Ticht, we got a few other options!
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McCloskey’s back!
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TRY Doak!
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Ulster were attacking again – very well – but lost control of the ball and Treviso kicked it to the far end and scored.
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Intercept TRY Lowry!
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Damn! Izuchukwu re-injured.
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Treviso scored again while I wasn’t looking, but didn’t convert.
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TRY Stockdale!
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Treviso score again just before half-time. It had been coming for quite some time.
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17-19 at HT.
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Second half not starting well. Lowry down injured and McCann yellow-carded for coming in at the side.
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Ooh, that wasn’t a good tackle.
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Although there was one in the Quins/Saracens match earlier, that was even more upright, and the ref talked himself down to a yellow on that.
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And this ref’s done the same, just a yellow for Timoney.
I’m really not a fan of the increased leniency being shown over hitting another player in the head.
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I don’t argue with the card, but I think it was just a mistake, that Timoney was just trying to get out of the way.
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Was already thinking we wouldn’t win this without Timoney, but we seem to be fucking it up as much as possible.
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Oh great. Now we’re down to 13 for a deliberate knock-on.
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And Treviso score, of course.
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BP TRY Rea! Whew! Still losing though.
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Oh fuck, now they’re checking something.
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Ulster going to lose another player, by the looks of it. You can’t go around elbowing people inna face.
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Tom O’Toole had lost his mind and sent an elbow into an Italian player.
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Fortunately it only hit the shoulder and not the head. I wouldn’t argue if it were.
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Wait, because he throws a shit punch, he gets away with just a penalty??????
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Refit – yep, I think that’s the gist of it.
I’m disgusted with our lack of discipline; we have always been one of the cleanest sides.
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Treviso score again. We deserve this.
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Another match where we score 19 points in the first half, and none in the second.
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19s also featured in Connacht v Cardiff.
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Mighty Lions dispatched the Bok-laden Stormers yesterday to place themselves beautifully for a run to the top eight and ultimate glory! Win our two games in hand and we can move past Munster into 5th spot.
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