In the exciting battle for the wooden spoon between Ireland, Wales, Italy and England, coaches have not learninged much from their previous selection errors. To be fair to Italy, they don’t have a huge range of players from which to select, and they have played brilliantly; they could and possibly should have beaten Ireland, so we’ll let Quesada off.
As for Ireland, it seems that Farrell has at least learninged that the Prendergast experiment has woefully failed after watching him splash around in the shallow part of the pitch in the first match, and create his own wadi in the second. While Crowley, like his other possible replacements, is dubious with the kicking tee (and by the way, kicking points is only HALF YOUR FUCKING JOB as a fly-half), he’s clearly much more effective on the pitch.
The inclusion of more Ulster players made a clear difference in the second match with Player of the Match being narrowed down to a choice between McCloskey, Baloucoune, Fischetti and Zuliani: two Ulstermen, and two Italians. So of course Farrell drops Izuchukwu, who also performed well, and Timoney remains on the bench.
As for England, the inclusion of Stewart continues to please ABE supporters, and Genge is always on a hair trigger for a card. Maro is looking less saint-like these days. Boris Johnson’s illegitimate son, the Pillock, provides a figure one loves to hate, sadly also because, like most super-villains, he’s pretty effective.
On to Wales. Well. Their set-pieces are functioning well, and I reckon they can beat Ireland. Also first-week Scotland, but not brilliant second-week Scotland. Probably not Italy either, especially if they keep kicking possession away, although possession is often coughed up anyway.
France obviously don’t need any learnings*.
*Have I mentioned how much I hate this horrendous evisceration of the English language?
Ovally Balls 
Cardiff with the penalty and linout on the Bulls 22. Stolen and the Bulls on attack. Aimless crap from Pollard and Cardiff win the kicking duel. Neither side doing much, to be honest.
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Bulls over the line, but Papier correctly called for blocking. Not much later Arendse breaks through and the Bulls score. A fantastic break by Moodie but he goes for glory with plenty of options outside and the Bulls blow the bonus point. 19-7 after 30, but Cardiff are struggling to make an impression right now.
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A period of bugger all from both sides and then Cardiff box kick. Arendse collects, beats a couple, burns upfiels and offloads to Papier who had enough gas to beat the cover defence and score. 26-7 with three to oranges.
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As soon as the teams came out, I told the mister, You’re playing in pink. You’ll lose.
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33-7 at half time. Nizaam Carr’s ‘cross kick’ is a peach! He has the decency to look a wee bit embarrassed about a hack that floated perfectly off the side of his boot into the wingers hands!
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To be fair, Thauma, no, nope, you’re right. Mrs Deebee said the same thing. Pretoria isn’t the most forgiving of places. The Diff disturb the Bulls drive though and get the penalty!
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Ach! Cardiff bugger up a 5m lineout. Bulls scrum and they get a penalty after that, getting them up to midfield
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Still 33-7 after 15 minutes of the 2nd half. Cardiff not doing much, Bulls butchering ball. Until a scrum move sees Vermaak crash over. 40-7 with 23 to go.
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Slick hands by Cardiff and they carve the Bulls up through midfield! Shoulda been a Difv try, but the Bulls turned it over and shoulda scored at the other end!
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Final score. Getting quite tight in the top 8.
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Sarries 0-7 up inside 2 mins at Bath.
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Stockdale playing 13!
Lowry’s already gone off injured – or for an HIA – after making a ridiculous tackle.
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Barf with a nice move off a scrum on Sarries’ line and Muir scores in the corner. 7-10.
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Ooh, Finn with a 50-22 from more than half-way across the pitch. And Bath score a couple of phases from the resulting lineout. 14-10 20min.
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We are missing three players thanks to Scottish concussions in 6N. Not our strongest side out.
And Connacht have just scored.
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Sarries concede a penalty on the far side and Bath stick it in the corner. Barbeary crashes over from short range. 21-10.
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Beeeeeautiful team try finished by Doaky! Bryn Ward wearing 20 running down the pitch to pass to him….
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Stockdale is not doing badly at 13! Perhaps not his worst position.
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This is very silly, in just the best way
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B Ward’s been taken back off as the HIA has been passed. He made a serious impact while he was on.
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Arundall with an intercept and runs 60m+ to score Bath’s BP. 28-15.
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Bealham has just smashed McCann inna face. TMO looking.
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Yellow with review.
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7-7 at HT.
Pleased with the way our pick-up side has played so far, and expect home advantage to tell in the end.
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Aki must be raging that McCloskey’s not only made team of the 6N, but is now also nominated for Player of the Tournament (although I suspect LBB will win). In any case, our youngsters don’t seem to be afraid of him.
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It’s a public vote! I must get my vote in. Steyn and Menoncello also nominated.
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You can vote here: https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/m6n/news/vote-for-your-2026-guinness-player-of-the-championship
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The stats show that it should be a clear contest between LBB and McCloskey, with the latter having the edge through my green-tinted glasses.
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Bayliss having a blinder for Bath, even making a break from behind his own line, until he JD2’s it into the cloud. Just a shame there is a settled Scottish back row in front of him. He tends to be a 6, but I think Gregor Brown is being groomed as our second row/6 hybrid. Think he makes a very good back row ‘finisher’.
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Dunno where Timoney is. Not on tonight’s squad, and not mentioned as an injury. We could use him.
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Saracens attack Bath’s line repeatedly, before the ball gets knocked loose in a tackle. Bath clear up to half way, then the ball squirts out the back of a Sarries’ ruck and Spencer picks it up and runs in from half-way. 36-15 50mins.
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Fuck. We didn’t profit from the card and now bloody Bealham has scored.
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Replacement Bath prop Kepu Tuipulotu explodes through the centre of a Bath maul in the Saracens 22 and scores. 43-15. It’s turning into a proper rout.
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Double fuck! Connact score again! At least one forward pass in it, but I don’t think they’re going to go back.
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Zac Ward inna corner!
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Doak’s off so Murphy takes the touchline conversion and misses it. 12-19 at 65 mins.
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Fuck! Connacht score again for the BP.
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Saracens haven’t been particularly bad, Bath have just been a little better (and luckier) across the park.
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We need 2 converted tries in ten minutes to draw even. I fear it won’t happen.
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50 up for Bath, Arundall with his second. Still 15 mins left to play.
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AAARRRRGGGHH!
We were very close to equalising at the last minute and fucked it up.
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Ooh, lovely little show-and-go from Finn. He passes to Arundall who heads down the wing, then flings it in-field to Lawrence who then passes to Pepper to score Bath’s 8th try. 57-15.
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Tompkins gets isolated on Bath’s 10m and Bath’s replacement 9, van der Linde, picks up the ball and that’s 9 tries now. 62-15, still 3 mins left.
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Lovely stuff, Refit!
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Bath were worth the 62 – 15 win over Saracens, but Sarries didn’t play badly.
Bayliss was just talking postmatch about his pass that went over the head of the target which would have seen another try.
Okay, he’s not going to be a centre, but I remember an ongoing thing on the notablog about Foxy throwing passes into the stand and he made the Lions
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Ticht – ah, the old ‘JD2-ing it straight into touch’.
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Hadn’t realised that Portugal won the Rugby Championship (AKA 6 Nations B), beating Georgia 19-17 in the final. I’d put up the highlights, but they were so badly edited (almost as bad as the URC highlights). Missed a Georgia try and the winning conversion.
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” I remember an ongoing thing on the notablog about Foxy throwing passes into the stand and he made the Lions”
Think he even made ‘player of the series’ in NZ. Bit of a funny player in some ways, he seemed to become more highly valued the less exciting he got. Great defender obviously and a good kicking option with one notable exception, but he had a real nose for the tryline to start with and that disappeared a bit along the way. The throwing it into the stand thing was always a bit harsh (he was involved in plenty of great tries for the Scarlets) though he did do it of course. He would certainly rate higher on my list of ‘best’ Welsh centres than he would on my list of ‘favourite’ ones though.
I thought Bayliss looked pretty good for Scotland in the 6N – did he get dropped for the last game or was he injured?
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Well. It would be kind to Munster to say they didn’t play well. 45-0.
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Brilliant try by Kyle Rowe – Glasgow’s BP.
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