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 
Russell missed all his kicks at goal. Not often you’ll see that. Scotland had enough chances to win without that. England defended superbly and bossed the collisions at key times to keep their line intact at key times. Great match, with some lovely attacking rugby being nullified by brutal defence. Loved it!
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Well the Wales-Ireland game was surprising to say the least.
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Thought the decision on the non-try towards the end was fair enough. Probably three 50/50 calls involved so nothing wrong with it not going our way. Don’t think Ireland could have complained too much if it had been given on the basis of the ref himself having given it though. Conversion was more likely to be missed than not and even if he made it there was time for Ireland to still come back and win it.
Wales looked a lot better than we have done though it was of course a home game which the others weren’t. Certainly fuel for the theory that we didn’t need to be quite that shit though.
Ireland still won and grand slams have been missed out on in games like this one so I guess they’ll just be happy with the win. I think France are a better team just now and should beat them though they ‘should’ have beaten England so who knows, we’ll have to wait and see.
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Obviously with the (not ever so) old sending off rules we probably would have won the game. At least everything we saw suggested that. I’m in favour of the change though even if that’s neither here nor there.
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All I can say about the England-Scotland game is that most of what caught my eye came from Scotland so my impression was that they were perhaps a bit unfortunate not to win. Beer and company got in the way which was all for the best, especially the latter.
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Really wish camera operators would keep their lenses out of the faces of players during anthem time.
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It seems improbable that France haven’t scored already.
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G’wan Italy!
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What looked like a lovely French try is chalked off for a forward pass, then from that scrum, Italy score!
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French strike back? Maybe not, Dupont knock on?
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French try given! This could be anything.
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More coherent attack from both sides in first ten than England all game.
Cmon Italy.
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Should have just been given as a knock-on without the TMO.
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Beautiful try.
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Wow! Another French try! And Italy haven’t really played badly either.
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That was wonderful by Italy.
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Another brilliant try! From Italy this time!
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Wooheee. also, How was Alldritt supporting his own weight there ?
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Italy strike back with the best of the lot so far!
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And France are back in again. ‘Big man five yards out’ as they used to say so often on Rugby Special Wales back in the day.
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Quite glad we played Italy first…
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I’m glad we played them in the rain. Would rather have done so with an outside half mind.
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This is just insane!
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England got no chance against Italy if the weather is dry.
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Fantastic first half, 6 tries. Wonder how much of half time ITV will spend on England…
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Cant see Italy coming back, but the big French forwards were blowing at the end there. 7-1 split probably needed.
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Fortunately I cant see that,BB. Do report back. I think all they should be saying is that Borthwick and Wrigglesworth ought to be watching, they might learn something, but I expect they are both sitting down analysing kick chase and box kick stats, patting themselves on the back for their new old school masterplan of kicking to world domination. How did that go in the seventies, Misters B and W.
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Amazingly enough, England weren’t mentioned! I suppose if they didn’t lose 5 or 6 minutes to adverts, then another couple for this bloody stupid competition they always have they would have been able to shoehorn a few mentions in. Still, we do get to see Lol.
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4 tries to Italy would be about right for the second half.
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Think Dickson missed a knock and to a guy in front back there.
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That seemed too easy for France, just pure power from that lineout. Can’t see Italy coming back now.
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Aldritt is ‘like’ a big man five yards out apparently.
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Shit, we’ve got France still to play. In Paris.
Gulp!
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Will be a huge score at this rate.
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Phew, good job France were all out on the lash in London until dawn the night before they played us.
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This guy Dupont’s not bad.
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Comeback is on.
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Comeback’s on! Try Italy!
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Comeback’s off. That was beautiful from France.
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This feels a bit harsh on Italy. They’ve not played like a 40+ point worse team, but I fear they’ve got a bit of a backlash from the result last week.
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Well, some attractive rugby from 5 of the teams this week. Who are France playing next? Scotland or Ireland ?
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Wonder how worried Ireland will be after this? Ireland obviously a far superior team to Italy but haven’t been quite at their peak yet. It’s going to be a cracking match.
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Ireland SBT. We play them in Paris on the last weekend.
Gulp!
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I guess it feels a bit harsh, Refit, but its like the All Blacks. If you get more than two scores behind, they can start taking chances with offloads and passing out the back, and if it clicks you are fucked. If Ireland can keep it tight, they have a good chance. Not sure about Scotland, pack might get a little beaten up.
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Wish France had saved a few knock-ons two weeks ago for today. Don’t think England is that much better than Italy and yet the score board does not lie. Should be tasty in Dublin in a fortnight.
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Hi Flair. Italy have a good chance of beating England, I should have thought. If they play the way they did on Saturday, I would fancy both Italy and Wales in Cardiff to be in with a good shout. Funny really, as one win over France will probably save Borthwicks job for another year. Hope he has a cunning plan up his sleeve.
France are majestic when on song, Dublin could well be the game of the tournament, as we would expect.
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@SBT
Who was it who said that Wales couldn’t beat a 12 man Ireland ?
Some bunch of insufferable dickheads on a podcast called “Off the Ball” (OTB) – tiresome low level analysis. Even one of their regular pundits – Gerry Thornley of the IT – gave out about it both in print and on the actual program.
Worse case of “Leinster” camp followers, latched on to rugby now Leinster and Ireland are successful. The nickname for them is “Dermots”
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Overall, Ireland were not good.
And Wales were much improved – new coach bounce, actually playing a 10 at 10, etc etc
As predicted, Smith was a handful for Clarkson – which meant we couldn’t keep Wales deep.
Ireland – are following Leinster to an off-ball game – kick long, play in the opposition 22.
Ringrose has done that 1000s of times, rush up wildly – the idea is to make the carrier step back towards the defence – and even if you miss you slow them. Got it badly wrong. 20 min red was a gift in retrospect as Aki came on – him and Henshaw are the best centre pairing (as good as Ringrose is)
If France play anyway like yesterday they will win – if they play like against England, then not.
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SBT, I honestly think that two weeks ago, had France left their mittens in the locker room, the score board could’ve read like two years ago in Twickenham, such are the dynamics of a game.
But it didn’t happen and this is why we had a terrific game, even if I didn’t like the end result.
It also shows England could be a better team than the one they are now, as they have the players to play differently than the tedious kick, chase, repeat.
FWIW, I expect a great game in Dublin with Ireland as the winners. Agree that both England games vs Wales and Italy won’t be a walk in the park.
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“It also shows England could be a better team than the one they are now, as they have the players to play differently than the tedious kick, chase, repeat.”
It feels like there have been bits of almost every game in the last year or two when this has been apparent yet they don’t seem to ever want to do anything about it for any length of time. I find it incomprehensible, hope they don’t choose Cardiff as the place to play for a full 80 minutes.
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