Oooo. I got a rumbly in my tumbly about tomorrow... Farrell as no.10? WTF??
HG - I hope you got your prayer mat out - Warburton's gonna rip him a new pen-ôl. Thought Flood or Hodgson would be 10.
Ones to watch out for:
England: Ben Morgan
Wales: Alun Wyn Jones
I'm still trying to understand the logic myself. Hodgson was the obvious choice as Flood appears a little match rusty right now. I really rate Farrell, but not as a 10 and not in this game.
Ireland v Italy tuning into a bit of a scrappy/crappy game. Can't see Ireland winning the 6N on this form...
42-10
Slightly off with my prediction (34-10), but Italy were never going to win this one.
Right, off down the club now - celebrating the Celtic win with some Guinness, hopefully will be celebrating another one in a few hours. Haven't been this nervous in a while...
:(
England have, at last, come alive. Manu is the man, and Farrell is proving to be a pretty effective 10 after all. Great game all round...
Cracking game, could have gone either way, full credit to Wales for the win. Absolute Certs for the 6N and Grand Slam now I reckon.
My prediction: 15-17 Result: 12-19
SHEEEEEET. What a game! I told my boy on the way to the club that it would probably come down to the last minute. As you say HG, could have gone either way. And I think that every armchair rugby pundit would have said that before the game. My view:
ENGLAND
Farrell - gave Eng the platform they needed - keep him for the next game.
Dickson - love to hate him. He'll prob be the most hated man in World Rugby after Paul Grayson.
Botha - poor choice. Get a better 2nd row.
Wings and 15: anonymous.
Pack: ok, nothing special. Front row got an absolute tuning.
WALES
Mike Phillips: should be taken out the back and face summary execution - similarly Rhys Priestland if he can be found.
Scott Williams: blew a try and bagged a very good one. Could be the next Scott Gibbs
Desperate Dan: Jamie Roberts was marked to buggery and made to look v.ordinary.
Adam Jones: single-handedly wrecked the Eng front row - pity there were so few scrums.
Warburton: saved a certain try, played like a man possessed. OMG.
That was Eng's best performance so far, arguably Wales's worst. However, England did not allow Wales to play and Mike Phillips squandered neraly every ball with poor decisions and slowness.
TOMORROW
C'mon Scotland
Let's make it a Celtic clean sweep! Although my prediction is against it (15-26), I reckon Scotland will be HUGE first half and may even edge it.
Second half, France will go berserk and score some serious points. This is one game that I will miss as Cardiff City are playing Liverpool at Wembley at the same time. Me hates soccer, but the lad loves it. What can you do?
France 6-17 Ireland at the mo. What a half! Tommy Bowe - what a player! That second try was amazing. C'mon Ireland! C'mon!!!!
The choke and hold is serving them well. Horrible, just absolutely amazingly horrible. Can't believe that Healy didn't get carded for the lazy running. He's one lucky homme.
PLD W D L PtF PtA Tries PTS
Wales 3 3 0 0 69 46 7 6
France 3 2 1 0 70 46 8 5
England 3 2 0 1 44 40 2 4
Ireland 3 1 1 1 80 50 8 3
Scotland 3 0 0 3 36 63 3 0
Italy 3 0 0 3 37 91 3 0What a shocking result :( But cracking match!
France 17-17 Ireland
Ireland must be devastated as well as France must be disappointed. First prediction that went astray.
NEXT WEEKEND
Wales v Italy (Sat)
Ireland v Scotland (Sat)
France v England (Sun)
I reckon wins for Wales (36-7), Ireland (17-3) and France (24-13). Although I've placed Wales in the driving seat, Italy are a hard nut to crack and they will be looking for a win in the last two games. Similarly Scotland will be embarrassed to be 0 from 3 and will put everything into the Ireland game. England will be heartened by their performance against Wales, but I think France will have been given a warning by Ireland to shape up their act and will be too creative - although their passing has to improve by 50%.
Wales 24-3 Italy [Wales were poor, Italy were brilliant defensively]
Ireland 32-14 Scotland
Hmm, who to support England or France?
No-brainer :)
England played out of their boots for the first twenty, have fallen asleep since then though. Second half just started, should be an edge of the seat job methinks.
What a shame England have the ref to play against as well. What a complete twat. Mind you, par for the course for the man with a very French sounding name... Yelliw card my arse :(
Edge of seat indeed. Great effort by England to keep it score-free for the sin bin ten, but ten to go and 15-17. Eeeeek!
Tom Croft. I love you!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
Blindly. 22-24 with three and a but mins to go. My finger nails are shot...
What a cracking match. Brilliant stuff, shame the English hadn't played that well all tournament. Great spirit.
France were absolute cack though.
Brilliant game. England have woken up. France were abysmal until the last 15. Alain Rolland has once again shown that he should never be in charge of another international match. Idiot. And I agree - no yellow card. Ridiculous.
Unfortunately, this result has taken the shine off Wales v France next week. Although France couldn't win the GS with a draw to their name, they could at least have been playing for the championship. Unless England can put a shed load on Ireland and win and France beat Wales by a sizable margin, Wales must win the 6N. Bit of an anticlimax :(
My predictions were a little astray this weekend.
PLD W D L PF PA PTS
Wales 4 4 0 0 93 49 8 [diff = 44]
England 4 3 0 1 68 62 6 [diff = 6]
Ireland 4 2 1 1 112 64 5
France 4 2 1 1 92 70 5
Scotland 4 0 0 4 50 95 0
Italy 4 0 0 4 40 115 0So England need to win by - and Wales lose by - a combination of 38+ points
NEXT SATURDAY
Italy v Scotland
Wales v France
England v Ireland
My Predictions
Italy 6-16 Scotland (Scotland will be too strong in the loose - however Italian defence is very good)
Wales 21-20 France (both playing badly at the moment - too difficult to call)
England 14-19 Ireland (Ireland probably the best team in the tournament following the first game. Although England have won 3 away from home, their biggest test will be next weekend. Interesting to see how Ferris et al will affect the English back dynamic)
Congrats on the GS :)
Congrats on the GS :)
Maybe being a bit previous there HG. Judging France on their performance today, I don't think Wales have got anything to be particularly worried about other than their own poor form at the moment.
England - Ireland will be the game of the day I would guess.
The only way Wales will not win the GS is if the team has one too many shandies the night before and Andy Powell leads them in a golf cart parade on the M4 in the wrong direction and they miss the kick-off.
Knowing Wales' propensity for self-destruction, I wouldn't put it past them! :)
Have they found Tuilagi yet after his swan dive out of the DC-10 from Orly?
Ok, getting ready, 3 hours to go. Good job I'm typing, so nervous, am finding it difficult to speak.
Italy - Scotland to start. I predicted Scotland win. Now I'm not so sure.
RIP Mervyn Davies - true gent and one of the best No.8's ever.
Italy - bloody beauties! Alain Rolland did his best to make the game as slow and awful as possible, but rugby triumphed in the end. Rolland take note - your days as an international referee are numbered.
OK, Wales 6N Champions and Grand Slamers. France were shocking in the first half and that IMHO did it for them.
England beat Ireland by a country mile. Ireland were atrocious, England were good, although not that good, but thoroughly deserved the win.
Dan Lydiate (Wales 6) was the stand out player of the day. What a player! Everybody has built up Sam Warburton (Wales 7), but his contribution to the game today and over the championship has been without compare. Mention a key moment or quiet moment that sparked into life and you can bet Dan Lydiate had a hand in it.
Shame 6's rarely get the accolades they deserve. I had tears in my eyes when he was named Man of the Match.
Watched the games again without the Guinness Goggles. Yep, England were that good - sorry HG - looks like we're in for hell of a 6N next year!
Ireland may struggle with the creaking oldies.
Scotland may get a lease of new life if they ever get that albatross of a manager from around their necks.
Italy have to be thoroughly pumped after that win and that AMAZING crowd.
France will lick their wounds and come back with a thump.
England will be building up that new young exciting side - Farrell outstanding.
Wales will be looking to get a few Southern Hemisphere scalps - but maybe still a bit too early for that.
OK this my last post until next year. :)
Lidiate was truly phenomenal I thought, man of the tournament for me let alone match.
Wales played well enough, but France were asleep for 40 minutes which helped :)
Yep, I think England played out of their boots and the score was a realistic reflection of that. Ireland look tired and past their sell by date now.
Great to see Italy avoid the wooden spoon at last, something Scotland thoroughly deserved. Agree 101% that the manager has to go, he's shite on a stick...
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