Rugby - RIP Jonah Lomu.

[ljkeane]

Ok some predictions for this week's games.

France v Ireland: I'm not too sure about this one. Ireland have got a bit of a better team than last week and France a bit worse with Picamoles and Fickou out. On top of that the Irish pack did better than I thought they would last week and Sexton improved a lot on recent form, which helps them a lot. Still, I'm not entirely convinced by that tight five so I'm inclined to lean towards France but Ireland under Schmidt are very rarely actually poor while it's a little too early in the Noves tenure to say that with any confidence about France. Given that I'm going to go for Ireland.

Wales V Scotland: This feels like a fairly big game for Scotland, if they win the loss against England was a one off but if they lose it feels like the positive momentum from the World Cup has been wasted. Wales didn't play too well last week so there's that but the problem for Scotland is in games against Wales under Gatland you really need to match up to them physically, and that's were they went wrong against England last week. Taylor coming into midfield might help on that front but I think for them to do well they'll need a big game from their tight five. I think I'll have to go with Wales to win.

Italy v England: Another fairly underwhelming selection I have to say. I do prefer Mako Vunipola and Youngs in the team and hopefully Itoje and Clifford get decent run outs. With this game probably being the best chance to experiment though it looks like we're not going to see Kvesic or Daly this Six Nations and it seems likely, barring injury, this'll be the backrow and midfield combinations throughout, I don't really see the point of the 6-2 split on the bench either. Oh well, hopefully we'll see some solid improvements from this group of players at least. I haven't seen the Italy team so I can't say to much about the match ups but you'd think England should be too strong so I'll go for an England win.

[ljkeane]

I was under the influence of a self prescribed cocktail of whatever painkillers I could get my hands on and beer yesterday so I can't guarantee my memories of the games weren't hallucinations but here are some thoughts on the games yesterday.

France-Ireland was a bit of a slog, probably not helped by the conditions but, still, it wasn't great from either side. France have the excuse of being at the start of rebuilding the team and they did get the win. Ireland have to have a look at how they're playing to be honest. Yes, they're missing some players but they play a very conservative style regardless and while it's brought them some good results in the Six Nations I can't really see them kicking on playing the way they do. Schmidt showed with Leinster he's well capable of putting out teams to play a more all court game, I get the feeling he's not confident of doing that with the more limited time he has with the players for international duty, but I think they've got to give it a go.

Wales-Scotland was a bit more fun. Unlucky for Scotland, but again I do feel like playing with two opensides isn't really working out for them. They did score a couple of cracking tries though. Good win for Wales to keep them on track and while they probably weren't at their best they do seem to be trying to vary their game up a bit more from the continual round the corner style they've played under Gatland, so it might take them a bit more time to click into gear. They did get a little lucky with a few decisions from Clancy though.

[Calibandar]

Wales vs Scotland was a really great game. Tremendous pace and some great rugby, really enjoyed that match.

I felt a draw would not have been undeserved but I can live with a Welsh win due to the beauty of George North' try.

Scotland looked better than they did in game 1 against Scotland. I do think you can still see they are a better team now than they were before the WC so they do carry that quality into these Six Nations tournament based on this second game. Losing Hogg hurt them and Visser is another good player they missed due to injury.

France vs Ireland was dull, and that is now the second dull game from Ireland this tournament. Not enjoying their style.

Hoping for a great England vs Italy this afternoon. Two young talents might be coming in the side in Itoje and Clifford.

[lessthanluke]

33 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Wales vs Scotland was a really great game. Tremendous pace and some great rugby, really enjoyed that match.

I felt a draw would not have been undeserved but I can live with a Welsh win due to the beauty of George North' try.

Scotland looked better than they did in game 1 against Scotland. I do think you can still see they are a better team now than they were before the WC so they do carry that quality into these Six Nations tournament based on this second game. Losing Hogg hurt them and Visser is another good player they missed due to injury.

France vs Ireland was dull, and that is now the second dull game from Ireland this tournament. Not enjoying their style.

Hoping for a great England vs Italy this afternoon. Two young talents might be coming in the side in Itoje and Clifford.

Must have watched a different game. I thought it was very poor devoid of much quality apart from a few key moments, lots on handling errors and just scrappy.

[ljkeane]

Good play from Vunipola and Farrell to set up the first try for England.

It's good to see ITV going with Flatman as one of the commentators as well, he's the best analyst on UK tv for me.

ETA: Better second half from England, they looked a lot more threatening when they brought the bench on and upped the pace of the game. Interesting that they brought Itoge on at 6, I think that's where he might end up but he's primarily been playing in the second row for Saracens.

On the downside the restarts and lineouts were fairly rubbish. With both Vunipola and Haskell in the back row they're a jumper down on what most sides have so they might be a bit predictable.

[Which Tyler]

How TF did BYoungs get MotM? he was the worst SH on the pitch, let alone not the best player.

[The Anti-Targ]

All Blacks vs Ireland in Chicago in November http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11590870

Will make for a more interesting experience than All Blacks vs USA. I figure Ireland is about the best team for playing in the USA given there are plenty of people of Irish descent so there will be a bit of a cultural appeal as well as a sporting appeal. 

[ljkeane]

It should be a good weekend of rugby and as I'm not playing I'm planning on watching an antisocial number of games.

It's the first weekend of Super Rugby. I can't say I'm overly convinced by the new format but I'm looking forward to seeing how the Jaguars do, considering they've got a decent proportion of the Argentina World Cup side they could be pretty good. Unfortunately I don't think the Sunwolves will be up to much. The New Zealand sides losing a number of their top player might shake things up a bit as well, although, to be fair, the sides which have been successful recently, the Highlanders and Chiefs, don't have a lot of the big name All Blacks anyway.

It looks like a defining weekend in the Six Nations with important games for all the sides, even Ireland who are looking likely to end up mid table are blooding some potentially important new players.

Anyway some predictions:

Wales v France: France have a couple of wins under their belts which will help their confidence and they've shown some flashes of good play while Wales haven't quite hit top gear but I'm not convinced France have improved enough to be likely to beat a close to full strength side away. I'll go for Welsh win.

Italy v Scotland: This feels like a key game for both sides. Italy have played ok without having much to show for it so far and if they lose to Scotland it's hard to see them coming out of this tournament with a win. Scotland haven't played particularly well after a good World Cup and if they lose this game it feels like that performance was wasted but win here and they've still got two potentially winnable games against an inconsistent France and Ireland with not a lot to play for. I'm going to go with Scotland, Italy wilted when England's bench upped the pace an while it's not as good as England's the Scottish bench looks the stronger of the two.

England v Ireland: Launchbury is out for England which is a bit of a blow but it's good to see Itoje getting a start, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how he does. Again the starting England side isn't too exciting but they've being doing well and I can see the logic against a relatively underpowered Irish pack. Youngs at 9 is probably the right call with the kicking game probably going to be important. Where England do look strong though is off the bench, they really have the potential to up the tempo in a way Ireland may struggle to match. It's nice to see Daly on the bench as well, although both him and Goode seems to lack any obvious cover for 12 if Farrell gets injured.

Ireland's selection is somewhat limited by injury but the one positive is they've been forced by default to pick the attacking midfield of McCloskey-Henshaw a lot of people have been asking for. Against a fairly small English midfield they could certainly get some joy if their pack can give them enough front foot ball.

Overall though with home advantage and Ireland missing several important players I'm going to have to pick an England win.  

 

 

[ljkeane]

Not a great game between Wales and France.

Both sides defended pretty well, Wales in particular, although I did think Barnes let them get away with a bit in their 22, but not a lot in attack from either side. France did look to have better shape when Trinh-Duc came on so they might think about swapping him for Plisson in the next game.

[Which Tyler]

Nasty feeling that today's matches are going to make yesterday's look like champagne rugby

[ljkeane]

It looks like Scotland and Italy have come to play so far anyway. Definitely closer to champagne rugby than last night.

ETA: Good game. Scotland started well and scored some good tries but Italy came back into the game well. I'm not sure going for the chip over the top in the 22 from Haimona towards the end was the way to go though.

[lessthanluke]

That was a fun game. 

Fairly comfortable win for Wales yesterday. Two well organised defences but we were on top pretty much throughout.

[ljkeane]

England are dominating the game in general play, they probably should have two or three tries, but they're making errors at key points to keep Ireland in it. They've given away a lot of penalties as well, which isn't great as once Poite starts to go one way he tends to stick with it.

[lessthanluke]

Vunipola just looks unstoppable at the moment. Good first half for Itoje too. England need to score early in the second half to capitalise on their dominance.

[ljkeane]

Well England made harder work if that than they probably should of done, the start of the second half had me getting pretty nervous, but ultimately still a reasonably comfortable win. They'll have to be a lot more accurate against Wales in attack though.

On the positive side Billy Vunipola was excellent, Itoje and Kruis in the second row were good as well. He's not who I'd go with at 12 but to be fair I thought Farrell had a decent game too.

[Calibandar]

Agreed on Itoje, Vunipola and Kruis standing out but I thought all or nearly all of the English players had a good game.

A long section in that first half where they really dominated this Irish team but failed to score.

Second half the Irish came out with new strength and genuinely threatened England, no doubt. But once back to 11 men England were suddenly more decisive, and that's that. All in all you can certainly live with an English win, but it really could have gone to Ireland as well considering that 2nd half.

Italy vs Scotland was always extremely watchable, enjoyed that a lot. Italy to me look notably better than the last two years.

Stuart Hogg was the best player amongst the Scots I thought. The Gray brothers are good but I feel some countries have an even better lock pairing than Scotland does, so either this is their ceiling , or maybe they can be a bit more prominent.

 

[williamjm]

3 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Stuart Hogg was the best player amongst the Scots I thought. The Gray brothers are good but I feel some countries have an even better lock pairing than Scotland does, so either this is their ceiling , or maybe they can be a bit more prominent.

While I think Richie is a good player, I also think he maybe hasn't fully live up to the potential he had and hasn't been as prominent recently as he was when he first came into the Scotland team. Johnny does seem like he might be the better of the two now, and since he's only 21 and relatively inexperienced  I think there's still potential for him to improve.

[ljkeane]

Yeah, I agree with Will on the Gray brothers. Richie Gray has all the physical attributes you'd want in an international second row but he tends to half arse it far more often than I'd like. When he came to Sale I thought he was going to be a great signing but he was useless. Jonny Gray might not have quite the natural ability of his brother but I think he's a significantly better player at the moment, could well get better too.

A few more thoughts on yesterday's England Ireland game.

For England obviously they will need to be more accurate in attack against Wales but while their defence was largely good Ireland did get some joy from going to McCloskey in midfield once they got on the front foot some more, you'd think Roberts will present even more of a problem. None of them played badly but it might be worth thinking about going with a less lightweight midfield. Also if Cole held up reasonably but front rows probably shouldn't be going 80 minutes, if they're not happy bringing Hill on in the big games they should probably get Brookes back in, he's had a few games for Northampton now.

From an Ireland point of view it's obviously pretty disappointing they where second best by a decent margin but I thought a couple of their new players looked good. I liked McCloskey in midfield and Dillane looked really good when he came on, both of them are the kind of players they need as well. Van de Flier I'm a little less convinced by, he got around the park well but didn't have a massive impact. On the downside their lineout was really poor. People tend to blame the hooker when it goes wrong but I actually thought it was more down to their lineout calls/drill on this occasion. England most of the time had clearly read the Irish call and had Itoje or Kruis going up right where Ireland were throwing it. They need to have a bit of a look at that.

 

[Which Tyler]

23 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

Nasty feeling that today's matches are going to make yesterday's look like champagne rugby

Delighted to be wrong.

 

My team for Wales:

1. Marler
2. Hartley (c)
3. Cole
4. Itoje
5. Kruis
6. Robshaw
7. Clifford
8. BVunipola

09. Care
10. Ford
11. Nowell
12. Tuilagi
13. Joseph
14. Rokoduguni
15. Watson

16. George;17. MVunipola; 18. Hill; 19. Launch/Lawes; 20. Haskell
21. Robson; 22. Farrell; 23. Daly

 

We also need to start thinking about a name for the new thread, now the RWC thread is lost to the ether.

I vote for "Striking hookers is back in fashion"

[Which Tyler]

I see Calum Clark's season is over - ironically out with an arm/shoulder injury.

 

I actually feel quite sorry for him; he really shouldn't have had to suffer that injury... he should have spent the last 4 years watching from the sidelines