Rugby - RIP Jonah Lomu.

[Which Tyler]

Saturday 4.50; BBC1

Scotland:

1. Dickinson
2. Ford
3. Nel
4. Gray
5. Gray
6. Barclay
7. Hardie
8. Denton

09. Laidlaw (c)
10. Russell
11. Seymour
12. Scott
13. Bennett
14. Maitland

15. Hogg

 

Bench:

16. McInally; 17. Reid; 18. Fagerson; 19. Swinson; 20. Cowan

21. Hidalgo-Clyne; 22. Weir; 23. Taylor
 

 

England:

1. Marler
2. Hartley (c)
3. Cole
4. Kruis
5. Launchbury
6. Robshaw
7. Haskell
8. Vunipola (vc)

09. Care
10. Ford
11. Nowell
12. Farrell (vc)
13. Joseph
14. Watson
15. Brown (vc)

Bench:

16. Vunipola; 17. George;18. Hill; 19. Lawes; 20. Clifford
21. Youngs; 22. Goode; 23. Devoto

[Which Tyler]

Sunday 3.00; ITV

Ireland:

TBA

 

Wales:
1. Evans
2. Baldwin
3. Lee
4. Charteris
5. AWJ
6. Warburton
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau

09. Davies
10. Biggar
11. James
12. Roberts
13. J Davies
14. North

15. Anscombe

 

Bench:
16. Owens, 17. Jenkins, 18. Francis, 19. B Davies, 20. Lydiate

21. Williams, 22. Priestland, 23. Cuthbert

[ljkeane]

Hopefully it'll be a good Six Nations this year. New dawns for England and France, Scotland building on the back of a decent World Cup, Ireland, after winning the last two, might have to have a bit of a rethink after a disappointing World Cup and Wales look a lot stronger now they've got a lot of players back fit. Italy will also be playing.

Having said that I must admit to being a little underwhelmed with England's new dawn so far. The new look back row, going from 6. Haskell 7. Robshaw 8. Vunipola to 6. Robshaw 7. Haskell 8. Vunipola, seems to be missing the out and out seven everyone was talking up and I'm really not a fan of Care at 9. Still, to be fair, Jones hasn't had a lot of time with the players and I can see why he wouldn't want to jump the gun with too many changes, England were close to winning the last two Six Nations and Scotland away doesn't look to be an easy game. We'll have to wait and see how they play.

Noves is being a little more aggressive with France's new dawn. The France team for Saturday:

1. Ben Arous  2. Guirado 3. Slimani 4. Jedrasiak 5. Maestri 6. Lauret 7. Chouly 8. Picamoles 9. Bezy 10. Plisson 11. Vakatawa 12. Danty 13. Fickou 14. Bonneval 15. Medard.

16. Chat 17. Atonio 18. Poirot, 19. Flanquart, 20. Camara, 21. Machenaud, 22. Doussain, 23. Mermoz

It looks quite decent to be fair, other than Doussain covering flyhalf, but we'll see how it goes.

 

 

[Which Tyler]

Right, that England team. He's gone for all the petulant / fighty characters ion the leadership group then; guess he wasn't joking about being happy to be hated.

 

Overall the team is very Burt-esque; but hey, Burt's starting selections were rarely too far off; it their inability to play as a team, to reach the sum of their parts; gameplan and use of the bench that always hamstrung England. Aside from that 3 uncapped players is quite enough for a match-day 23 IMO and I'm willing to give the guy a chance given that he'd not met any of the players at all until 2 weeks ago, then got 2 days with them before deciding his 23.

I have no doubts at all that Edie can get more out of each player, each unit the team and the squad than Burt managed; it's just not going to happen without having any time with the players. I'll be judging him this time next year.

 

 

Having said all that, what is the point of Alex Goode sitting on the bench? The guy's a very good club player, but has yet to put in an international level performance. He's also an out-and-out FB providing emergency cover only at FH in international rugby (again, acceptable 2nd choice at club level). We don't need him; we have 2 FBs and 2 FHs starting, we really don't need another one on the bench; especially one who provides no "impact" against tired legs. Either select a player who can basically the whole of the backline (Daly) or someone who can provide real impact and cover for a position we have no other cover (Roko)

[Hereward]

Underwhelming and disappointing selection. I was hoping we'd see Daly, Itoji and Kvesic, and be done with Robshaw, Marler and Haskell..

[Which Tyler]

Friday 2.25; BBC

 

France:

15. Maxime Medard

14. Hugo Bonneval

13. Gael Fickou

12. Jonathan Danty

11. Virimi Vakatawa

10. Jules Plisson

09. Sebastien Bezy

 

1. Eddy Ben Arous

2. Guilhem Guirado (c)

3. Rabah Slimani

4. Paul Jedrasiak

5. Yoann Maestri

6. Wenceslas Lauret

7. Damien Chouly

8. Louis Picamoles

 

16. Camille Chat; 17. Uini Atonio; 18. Jefferson Poirot; 19. Alexandre Flanquart; 20. Yacouba Camara

21. Maxime Machenaud; 22. Jean-Marc Doussain; 23. Maxime Mermoz

 

Italy:

15. Odiete

14. Sarto

13. Campagnaro

12. Garcia

11. Bellini

10. Canna

09. Gori
 

1. Lovotti

2. Gega

3. Cittadini

4. Biagi

5. Fuser

6. Minto

7. Parisse

8. Zanni

 

16. Giazzon, 17. Zanusso, 18. Castrogiovanni, 19. Bernabo, 20. Van Schalkwyk

21. Palazzani, 22. Haimona, 23. McLean.

[Hereward]

It's nice that Hugo Bonneval got another gig so soon after Downton finished.

[ljkeane]

The Ireland team for Sunday is: S Zebo; A Trimble, J Payne, R Henshaw, K Earls; J Sexton, C Murray; J McGrath, R Best (capt), N White; D Toner, M McCarthy; CJ Stander, T O'Donnell, J Heaslip.

Subs: S Cronin, J Cronin, T Furlong, D Ryan, Ruddock, Marmion, I Madigan, D Kearney.

Ok some predictions.

France v Italy: I'm still not entirely convinced France aren't going to be rubbish but other than Doussain covering 10 and Vakatawa, who apparently hasn't plays anything other than sevens since 2013, on the wing it seems like a reasonably sane selection. Noves has at least been a decent coach at some point in his career so they might be ok. Italy on the other hand I'm fairly confident are going to be rubbish so I'm going to go with a fairly comfortable French win.

Scotland v England: It's a bit of a tight one this. Scotland have home advantage, they probably had the best World Cup of all the Northern Hemisphere sides and they have what looks to be a good, well rounded side. England on the other hand had a terrible World Cup, they've got a coach new to the job and haven't picked a particularly exciting looking side. I can see why people might go for Scotland, in particular I think Hardie and Barclay could cause England problems and I wouldn't have picked Ford with the form he's in, but while it's not an overly exciting selection last time they played a pretty similar England side were fairly comfortable winners. I'm going to go for an England win, probably a tight and fairly nervy one though.

Ireland v Wales: Ireland have won the last two championships, have home advantage and tend to be well prepared under Schmidt. Having said that Wales beat them last time out and with most of their players back it looks a very solid Welsh side. Anscombe is a potential weakness under the high ball but with Sexton in pretty poor form and Zebo not the most convincing fullback I'm not too sure Ireland are better equipped to win a kicking duel. The real worry for me would be the forwards though, with no O'Connell, O'Brien or O'Mahony and most of the rest of the pack not in great form it's hard to see them coming out on top. I'll have to go for a Wales win.

 

[ljkeane]

Hmm, England Under 20's just got battered by Scotland. In theory they have a couple of the more promising players like Sam Underhill and Harry Mallinder to potentially come in but, other than in the scrum, Scotland pretty comprehensively outplayed them in every facet. It's not overly encouraging.

Scotland were quite impressive to fair. Their defence was extremely solid for this level and Kinghorn at fullback looks useful.

[Which Tyler]

And we're off

Hmmm not sure about that France change kit

[Which Tyler]

I'm enjoying this.

France finally seem to have been given a licence to play rugby - it'll just take them a while to get used to it.

Italy having a storming game and just playing very well.

 

Great match for the neutral

[ljkeane]

I haven't seen any of the game so far but it doesn't look like a promising start for my predictions, or for the Noves era for that matter.

[Which Tyler]

I never expect an immediate revolution in playing style when you change a coach - they just don't get enough time with the players to do that without a huge dollop of luck helping them out. Same goes for England; it will take at least a full 6N and an overseas tour to get players and coaches used to each other, and start making big changes.

France playing better than they have in 8 years.

Italy also playing better than they have in a long time (taking the full match, Italy often put in great batches of 40 minutes)

 

 

Of course, the analysts disagree with me, but what do they know?

[ljkeane]

Scrappy first half in the Scotland-England game. England were on top early but there's really nothing in it now. On the plus side for England they do have a decent looking bench, in the forwards at least.

[ljkeane]

Fantastic hands from Mako Vunipola, most international centres would be fairly pleased with that.

[Which Tyler]

Interesting that Devoto managed to beat as many defenders as our 9, 10, 12 and 13 combined.

[ljkeane]

Good start for Ireland. Sexton's looked reasonable, which is a bonus given he's looked fairly gash for a while, and they've caused the Welsh defence a fair few problems with their carrying around the fringes and one and two out. Priestland coming on for Biggar doesn't hurt either.

Wales have come back into it though and they're clearly on top in the scrum, Evans is looking good up against White.

ETA: A bit of a scrappy second half, neither side really got much going in attack. A draw's probably a fair result. I think Ireland will be pretty pleased with how well their forwards held up overall though.

[Which Tyler]

I know the result, but haven't watched the Wales vs Ireland match. Is it worth watching?

[ljkeane]

1 hour ago, Which Tyler said:

I know the result, but haven't watched the Wales vs Ireland match. Is it worth watching?

It wasn't a terrible game but if you already know the score I'd think the highlights would cover it.

Some general thoughts having caught up with all the games:

I was a bit dismissive but to be fair having watched the whole game there were some promising signs for France. Vakatawa, who I thought would be a big liability, looked really good, the halfback partnership of Bezy and Plisson showed some promise and Danty looks useful in midfield. I'm pretty sure Vakatawa is going to be on the receiving end of a lot of high balls on Saturday though.

England got the win and weren't terrible but I'd still like to see some more positive selections. Haskell and Robshaw is very one paced in the backrow, I'd definitely get Kvesic in but that doesn't seem to be on the cards so I'd like to see the more dynamic 6.5 in Clifford starting, probably for Robshaw. In the backs Ford-Farrell as a midfield combination just doesn't work for me. We need to get an actual 12 in, I'd go with Hill but Devoto if Jones is that way inclined, and, it pains me to say this, but while he's the more talented player Ford's form is such that I'd go with Farrell at 10. Actually I'd go with Cipriani at 10 but unfortunately barring injury that's not currently an option. Also Care's kicking still isn't up to international standard.

Scotland with the benefit of hindsight probably shouldn't have gone with the 2 opensides. In a tight game they lacked the carrying options to make enough headway. I'd probably get Strauss in. I'm a fan of both Scott and Bennett but maybe Taylor into midfield as well. Richie Gray also needs to pick his game up.

Ireland will be reasonably happy with their result given their significantly weakened pack, which held up much better that I thought it would. Sexton played better than he has for a while as well. I still think they need to offer more of a threat outside him though, I'd probably go with McCloskey in midfield and shift Payne to fullback.

Wales on the other hand I think should probably be fairly disappointed. Losing Biggar was a big blow but Priestland held up ok. They just failed to consistently impose themselves on the game.

 

[Calibandar]

If only the Italians could find someone, somewhere, who could kick the ball, they would have beaten France quite solidly.

And that is not the first time I have seen that the last few Six Nations cups. They drop so many points, a real shame.

England vs Scotland, not a great game but very tense. I don't have Ljkeane's knowledge of the game by any means but I felt the England team definitely could look more exciting. Superb game from Vunipola though, a rock, but then he is usually one of the best.

Ireland is hard to judge with as many injuries as they have.