Rugby - RIP Jonah Lomu.

[ljkeane]

On the downside for English rugby this weekend they just lost to Wales for the first time at Under 20's level.

It was probably the worst performance I've seen from an England pack at that level. You have to give a lot of credit to the Welsh forwards, who were extremely good, for that but still I wouldn't back England to be retaining the Junior World Cup again if their forwards are playing like that. They tend to rotate the sides at bit in junior tournaments so hopefully England have got a bit more in reserve.

[The Anti-Targ]

Dang, the Super Rugby season is about to clash with the Cricket World Cup.

[Which Tyler]

And the IRB (yes, yes, I know) have chickened out of disciplining the Welsh hierarchy for not even testing to see if George North might possibly be concussed after everyone at the stadium*, and everyone at home saw him fall to earth like a discarded sweet rapper.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/31360525

* NB: Everyone at the stadium that is, except the Welsh medical / coaching staff.

[ljkeane]

This weekend's games:

Ireland-France: France looked powerful last week and as always they've got plenty of talent but they struggled to convert the field position it gave them into points against Scotland. With O'Brien back in I expect Ireland will be able to front up and with Sexton back they should have enough to win.

England-Italy: England should have more than enough to beat Italy at home but again I don't like the lack of a proper second row on the bench. Croft and Easter can cover there but they aren't anywhere near international class second rows, what's the point? I'm surprised Italy went with Haimona again Allen looks the better 10 to me.

Scotland-Wales: Probably the tightest game of the weekend for me. Wales play a simple game plan and back themselves to win the physical battle. The English pack won pretty handily in the end last week, I'm not sure the Scottish pack is quite as good but they've got some units in th second row so it'll be interesting. Scotland also looked sharp out wide last week. Wales do have a tendency to bounce back well from loses in the Six Nations though so I'll go for a Wales win, just.

[Consigliere]

The Super Rugby tournament got underway today. The Brumbies completely dominated against The Reds and ran out to a comfortable 47-3 win. The big shock of the opening round came in Christchurch where the Rebels defeated the Crusaders 20-10. The Crusaders do have a reputation of being slow starters though.

[Hereward]

Ireland and England look nailed on for home wins, but I fancy Scotland narrowly to make it the full set.

[Which Tyler]

Most interesting 6N match this week is most definitely the Raeburn Shield encounter in Dublin

[ljkeane]

Not the best of starts for England in a game in which they were supposed to be racking up the points. Look like they'll have to reshuffle the backline with Brown not looking too good at all.

ETA: Decent first half to the game actually. Italy got the ball through the hands well for their try and then England scored two good tries, nice step from Joseph and who doesn't like a front peel?

[ljkeane]

Not a terrible effort from Italy overall, they scored thee good tries after looking pretty poor in attack last week. They did a good job of disrupting England's maul early as well but they just couldn't get enough ball.

England were a little bit ropey but they've clearly got the talent in the backs now to take advantage when given half chances. They really need to improve their restarts after scoring, it was poor last week as well.

ETA: Why's Eddie Butler pronouncing Kockett with his stupid French accent? Muppet.

[Sir Thursday]

Like the BBC commentary team, I was amazed how different the French looked once they changed their front row. With Atonio and Debaty on the field they seemed to be able to get quick ball from the rucks a lot more often and they also did a pretty good job of handling the ball in the open field. It's a shame they came on slightly too late to give France time to turn things around.

I thought Lopez had a pretty poor game on balance. He had one or two good kicks in hand but tended to make pretty awful decisions, and his distribution was really poor. It seemed like whenever he tried to throw a long pass it didn't go to hand, and that squandered several opportunities to break. Plus his missed kicks in the second half were vital - if they make the penalty and conversion he missed then they would have been within two at the end and would have had the option to steal the game with a drop-goal on the final play. Seemed like the difference between the two No. 10s was what decided the game. Sexton didn't look quite as good in the second half but his up-and-under kicks were consistently inch perfect (it helps to have competent kick chasers - the French just didn't seem to bother contesting high balls when their kickers put them up) and the persistant territorial edge he gave them meant the French were always having to start their attacks from a long way out.

ST

[ljkeane]

Agreed on Lopez ST. I thought Parra looked better than Kockett too when he came on although to be fair it's easier to look good at 9 when you're getting quick ball on the front foot.

Ireland are playing with very conservative tactics at the moment. Given the way his Leinster side played Schmidt clearly isn't against letting the backs play but at the moment Ireland are playing for territory a lot. Perhaps they're simplifying the game plan because of the new centre combination/recent return of players like O'Brien and Healy but hopefully they'll start to kick it up a gear soon, preferably after the England game though.

I'm looking forward to today's game. I think it'll be the tightest game of the weekend and now Samson Lee's out for Wales I think there's even less in it.

ETA: Good first half but Scotland might regret not putting away some of their chances. I feel for Hibbard on the Scottish try though. I've been there, bloody backs with their running fast and all that nonsense.

Two somewhat harsh yellows in that neither player really intended to tackle the other guy in the air but the interpretation seems to be that it's dangerous enough that you need to not put yourself in that situation. That's fair enough I suppose.

[lessthanluke]

Shit once again. Ref was terrible. Gatland needs to fucking go, this one dimensional bullshit is doing my head in. Ar least we won I guess.

[ljkeane]

Good game.

Scotland will be fairly gutted with losing that, they certainly had the chances to win the game. I think Wales probably deserved the win due to the way they controlled the game a the key stages of the second half, although they were a bit lucky to avoid picking up a yellow card when Scotland were putting them under pressure towards the end.

[Macklunkey]

Promising from Scotland. Be nice to see us grinding out a few wins though.

[Calibandar]

The anthems before Scotland vs Wales were fantastic. What an atmosphere.

And after that, a great game as well. England vs Italy was a great game to see as well I thought.

[ljkeane]

Scotland-Italy: It's a shame for Scotland that Richie Gray is out for the rest of the Six Nations, Swinson's a good player but there's a step down in dynamism, and losing Russell is a blow but they still look a pretty solid side. I'd expect them to kick on and pick up a win against an Italy side who don't seem to have the forward power of a few years ago. Italy do look to be trying to play more though so it could be a good game.

France-Wales: Who knows whether France are going to turn up or not but they're usually better at home than they are away and I like the additions of Parra and Dulin who should up the pace of their game, I don't think I've seen Guitone before so that should be interesting. I like the changes to the Welsh side as well, Lee was a given, Ball hasn't been playing too well and Charteris should improve the lineout and Liam Williams has a more rounded game than Cuthbert. I think this game comes down to whether France apply the power they'd showed at the end of the Ireland game, if they do I think Wales will struggle like they did against England, if they don't I'd expect Wales' experience to get them the win. I think France might just get the win.

Ireland-England: This looks like the game of the weekend and possibly the tournament. No real surprises in selection with Heaslip a loss for Ireland with carrying power of England's backrow and Brown a loss for England with Ireland's kicking game. Nowell comes in probably to help deal with that kicking game as well. I'd be surprised if we see anything different from Ireland, especially with England's lineout not quite as good as last year and Brown out at fullback. They'll look to win the kicking battle with Sexton, Murray and Kearney and play from there. I don't think Goode coming in is quite the disaster some people do, he's not as good as Brown but he's an ok fullback and his positioning and kicking are strong. It should come down to whether England's back three do handle the pressure they'll be put under and if they do whether Ireland can stop England's forward carriers on the gainline. I think it'll be very tight I'm going to take a bit of a gamble and go for an England win.

[Calibandar]

Fine game today. Italy and Scotland were well matched, and Italy's win was not undeserved.

France vs Wales was strong as well. Some missed penalties for France in the 1st half which really changes tone and outcome of the game. France had it in the first half but were largely outplayed and outfought by a powerful Welsh team in the second half.

[ljkeane]

Ha, it's not going too well for my predictions so far, hopefully that's not an omen for tomorrow.

I caught the second half of the France-Wales game after playing and I just caught up with the earlier game. Two tight competitive games if a little bit scrappy.

Scotland will be absolutely gutted with losing that after going 10 points up early, being on top most of the second half, then missing that kick for touch with a couple of minutes to go. Credit to Italy for sticking in there though and they have picked up 3 tries in the end.

Good performance by Wales in Paris as well. Wales under Gatland are very good at putting away sides who don't have a cohesive gameplan and that looked like a good description of France today. It doesn't help when your 10 has a poor game either.

[ljkeane]

I'm starting to get a bit nervous now. England have had a bit of a track record of crumbling in big games in recent years, hopefully they can get over that today.

[ljkeane]

If England's lineout is going to struggle that's a serious problem for them.

I think Sean O'Brien's learned his lesson about running at big George Ford though.

ETA: Sigh.

England just couldn't deal with the Irish kicking game, especially when Sexton was still on. Their discipline wasn't great either although a lot of it was down to the pressure Ireland put them under.

The Irish gameplan is fairly tedious but you can't argue with it's effectiveness and they certainly execute it very efficiently. Their error count is extremely low and that's a pretty good recipe for winning international rugby games.