Better late than never.... a thread for the big sporting contest of the northern hemisphere winter Watching the Scotland-Wales game... I'm struck that if you could combine Welsh handling with Scottish defense (or indeed ANY defense) the result would be pretty decent...

England have won the 2 easy games which is an improvement on what happened before christmas but they still need to get a hell of a lot better to do anything in the World Cup.It says a lot that the Irish are favourites to win it as they are solid but not really frightening.

I should have posted this thread a week ago, don't know why I didn't! Cheers Rach.

It was good to see us paste Scotland last week. I love the Scots and lived there last year, but they didn't half give me a roasting after we lost to them in Edinburgh last time around. I'm very impressed by Ellis and Lund - if we can't have Lewis Moody charging around like a bull at opposition flankers and full backs then Lund's rucking and driving will do! Robinson has been excellent, Farrell solid, but Vickery has led surprisingly well, even curbing the penalties significantly!

The test will come at Croke Park, though they have looked indisciplined and surprisingly vulnerable in defence. If we win there I reckon we've got a great chance, although I haven't seen France in action yet.

Owing to some incompetence in prorgramming the video recorder, I didn't see the Calcutta Cup. But I did see Englan v Italy yesterday, and it was pretty unconvincing stuff as far as I could tell. If England repeat this performance in Dubmin in two weeks' time, they will lose, and lose heavily. Ireland are deserved favourites for the Six Nations this year and the only team in the northern hemisphere with a shot at the World Cup.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

Doesn't seem that this thread is attracting much attention this year, but for the record today sees the third round of games in the 2007 season: Scotland v Italy at 1500GMT; Ireland v England at 1730GMT; France v Wales at 2000GMT. A serious challenge for the diet as I shall be watching all three in my local Irish pub. Highlight of the day must be England's first tough game of the season at Croke Park. With Robinson out, Wilkinson still unknown (but surely a likely starter following his kicking practice yesterday) and Ireland smarting from their last minute defeat by France two weeks ago, this should be a corker. My heart, of course, is with England, but my money, if I had any, would have to be on Ireland today.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

I haven't talked about it much as i don't want to jinx England.

I think we will lose today but that is no disgrace as we didn't expect to be in this position last year.For the record i think France will demolish Wales and Italy will sneak a surprise win against Scotland.

Not sure about Italy v Scotland, but I agree on the France v Wales game: seems like a mismatch to me and France should take it by 20 points or so. In Dublin, I'll say seven points between them, Ireland to win.

__________________
Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

I told you Italy would win though i wasn't expecting 7 minutes of comedy by Scotland to gift them the game.

Ireland was predictable and so was the France match.

I don't think the Ireland v England scoreline was predictable at all - though as noted above I had Ireland to win. The fact is that Ireland were great yesterday, outplaying England in all aspects of the game, and even as an Englishman I was glad to see it. IMO, Ireland are the only northern hemisphere hope for the World Cup this year, and I'll stand by that even if France take a Grand Slam because they were frankly lucky to get a last minute win against Ireland two weeks ago.

Yesterday I was with a pair of New Zealanders to see the games, both of whom said before they started that the All Blacks had not seen anything in the Six Nations so far which would worry them. At the end of the day, they had changed their tune - not to the point of conceding the World Cup, of course, but certainly acknowledging that there is a northern hemisphere challenge being mounted: it's wearing green jerseys.

__________________
Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

Well, this really hasn't been the best of tournaments from my POV.