The 6 Nations Thread

France played well and England once they fell behind i thought EJ just reverted back to 10 man rugby as he didn't want to give away anything ahead of the WC, and tbf you cant blame him for that, England could win nothing on Saturday night apart from bragging rights Jones and crew will be focusing the next time they are in Paris it will be for something a bit more worthwhile.

Well folks, that’s a wrap for another year. France get their first Championship in 12 years and it’s well deserved, they are a formidable side with a home World Cup to look forward to next year. Ireland best of the rest and these two sides are the only Northern Hemisphere hope for the RWC as things stand.

Until next time…….

And Italy have just done a Leeds!!! What a wonderful last minute try to humble the Taffies in their own back yard. Forza Italia!

Right then, now it's back to the second most important thing over the weekend. The Scots will be a tough challenge, but we are at home so I expect us to come through the task with flying colours and then it's time to unfurl the flag of St George and cheer on Engerland as they put the French to the sword!

Never experienced back to back Carlsberg weekends, but this is definately going in the right direction!😂

True Glory and its great that CM has a challenger for the 9 jersey, although i think CM is now over that hill and unfortunately his days are numbered and come WC Gibson Park will have that jersey nailed on especially if Leinster continue to dominate on the Club scene.

However for me if anything should happen Sexton we are a completely different team without him, for the worse with no replacement of equal standing unlike the days of tony ward/ollie campbell or the battle when Humphreys/ROG were both vying for one spot or when ROG and Sexton were at it 2009-2013. For me that's the weak point of this Irish team, not the pack our out-half.

As for Saturday I honestly think the ref had his mind made up early on in the contest that "if" the scrum got messy it was Ireland's fault and hence the huge penalty count against us. Yes we were at fault and did struggle at times but on more than one occasion you could clearly see the English player go down first but yet it was a penalty to England, and on at least two if not three other occasions you could see that England were wheeling the scrum but the ref still penalized Ireland. I suppose his way of reducing the impact of the red card that he had no option to dish out so early in the game.

I did think that we would have difficulty in finding a suitable eventual replacement for Conor Murray, however Gibson Park has certainly stepped up and possibly has given us an improved version!!

My only hope is that once again we are not peaking too soon and then end up with another disaster of a World Cup!

I dont know about the french being the best side in the tournament if im honest.

Wales were unlucky and were well in it, ireland ran the french very close and i would argue we were unlucky not to win in Paris. England down to 14 against Ireland made life extremely difficult and only for the last 15 mins it was nip and tuck 15-15 coming into the final quarter. So i give england a great chance over there although the french havent won a GS since 2010 i think so they wont want to lose this game now that they are within touching distance and i will eddie jones be 100% balls out committed and show his hand before the world cup next year?

I like the english out half, good temperment, good at keeping his pack going forward, very good running lines, i think he can put it up to the french and ask them serious questions. The height of the ball with some of his garryowens on Saturday was outstanding and gave the english wingers a more than a 50-50 chance to contest the jump.

Great to get the victory, but jeez was that hard work. England played great with 14 men, I think half time came at the right time for us. In the end, the last 10 minutes was always going to be tough for England with a man down and provided Ireland executed their plays, a win was more than probable, but definately not guaranteed.

On for us against the Scots and then we will be whole heartedly behind the flag of St George for England's trip, to probably the best side in the tournament.

You got your wish Bully - you got the 4 try win.

Feels empty - total waste of an afternoon, looking forward to a great game and a great contest - instead we get that.

The red was a red. Can't complain about the ref, but there's no denying it handed you the game.

So....

All the hype and build up. All the anticipation.

All over in just 1 minute.

May as well mail this one if we have to play 79 minutes with 14 men

In the mean time I have a sneaky double on Ireland and Norwich this weekend..... 😖

£5 bet returns £5.15

England will triumph against your over confident boys in green Bully.

Dunkirk spirit will prevail, we're not letting you escape - this is our semi final before glory in Paris next week.

Well just for one day I'm going to forget the trials and tribulations of being a Leeds fan and concentrate on the Boys in Green continuing their march to the Triple Crown by bringing up the bacon at Twickers today. I think the Grand Slam is deserved by the French, who have been the better side this tournament. COYBIG!!!!!

Ye could let us win on the 12th and still have that fantastic event in Paris on the 19th, all of us irish lads would be saxons for the day i could guarantee you that

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Watch this space Bully - I have money against your lot with a green minded mate of mine, but given we struggled to put the Welsh away after you got the BP against them at the start you have the advantage.

If we were to beat you, it would make the final match in Paris a fantastic event.

Any chance soopa ye guys will roll over to keep our triple crown hopes alive on the 12th?

Just asking like😉

Well Soopa one bit of good news after yesterdays war of the roses washout

Paddy Power have England as raging hot favourites and the handicap is 14 points, surly ye wont lose to the taffs on the hallowed turf of twickers on Saturday!!! Money for old rope 😉

I know many of the celtic nations would be delighted if it actually did end up like that🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

At least England have avoided the wooden spoon Soopa😉

Or alternatively you could say its all over bar the shouting

France have beaten Ireland

Ireland have beaten Wales

Wales have beaten Scotland

And Scotland have beaten England

with everyone beating Italy

so final table will be

France

Ireland

Wales

Scotland

England

Italy

But somehow i doubt it 😉

It's shaping up to be the most competitive 6N (apart from Italy) just as anticipated.

Scotland > England

Wales > Scotland

Ireland > Wales

France > Ireland

So on that basis it's France's to lose, but they are the most fragile of all the countries historically and can get beat by anyone. Roll on round 3

2 rounds done - French in the driving seat but i'm not convinced that they will win a grand slam, and could come undone sooner than people might expect.

England 2nd in the table (points difference) started well and seemed to be moving through the gears but they went so long without scoring in the 2nd half against an Italian side that was buried when the english 3rd try was scored with the last play of the 1st half, questions remain. Any questions people may have had about Marcus Smith are being answered and he will be a star in the next WC of that im absolutely certain of.

Ireland 3rd (6 points from 2 difficult / tricky games) would have taken it tbh but once again we were beaten up by the french physicality, we lost far too many collisions and in the end we done well to hold onto a losing BP. Away in Rome in 2 weeks time and hopefully getting on the plane with 5 points added to the 6 already earned to keep the pressure on others.

Scotland 4th where do you start, got off to the best possible start winning the Calcutta cup but capitulated against the welsh, who were truly shocking in Dublin a week previous. I fear it will be a bit of a mixed bag (again) from GT's crew, but here's hoping they can disrupt the french in a fortnight's time back in Murrayfield, any sort of win will be seen as a good result.

Wales - after a truly horrific performance (cant even call it that) against Ireland they fronted up and deserved to beat the Scots on Saturday, Wales are away to the English next so its a make or break for both sides, crucial fixture this for both teams and how this years 6N's will pan out.

Italy already after conceding 70 points in 2 games albeit against two of the best teams in Europe, Ireland next and i can only see the losing trend continuing if i'm honest, but "if" wales lose to England and to France Italy may target the Welsh in the final round of games or indeed if Scotland endure a crushing defeat at the hands of France in week 3 the Azzurri might target Scotland in Rome on Week 4, but either way its already bottom of the table for the Italians i'm afraid.

So we have all played the game...

What did you think of the penalty try to Scotland?

Was the ref right?

For me if i had the whistle I personally would yes have deemed it a deliberate knock on, a yellow card (10mins in the bin) to the English player and given a penalty but that's it.

What would have resulted would have been a lineout probably on the 5mt line and with 8 forwards against 7 i would be guessing Scotland would have rumbled over for a try off the lineout.

But for me to award a penalty try when there is no evidence that the Scottish player was definitely going to score the try is incorrect. Yes it was deliberate, and yes its against the spirit and laws of the game but as i say i still feel a yellow only and a penalty for Scotland should have been the decision.

Fly half and kicker but only played til 16 at school before football took over properly.... we were the 2nd best team in Bedfordshire and just gave it to our 6'4" beast every time who got the tries.

Egg chasing is a crap game with no tactics anyway and just an excuse for a beer and touching odd shaped balls.... 😲🤔🤬🙈

Not a bad guess.

I was a second row at school, moved to flanker as a couple of lads grew past me on the way to 6'6" +

I played fullback in 7's later on and TBH enjoyed that the most.

Bull - you are correct. Back Row man! But during my career I played in every position from 1 to 15. But it was flanker that I loved playing.

Where did ye guys play?

BB im guessing in the pack backrow???

Soopa Full back or centre??

TC10 i'll guess winger or scrum half

Did you play Glory? i know you are irish, where are you living?

Yes i love the rugby, came to it after i left school when i moved in 1989 (still do) for work. The lads at work convinced me to go to the rugby club over the local GAA club and the rest as they say is history.

Started on the wing hadn't real blistering speed so i bulked up and moved to outside centre and really enjoyed it. suffered a bad wrist break (in a bloody pre-season friendly) and that was me done, took up coaching underage teams and got a real buzz from that, and also put the whistle in my mouth and refereed for about 10 years before hanging up my boots a few years back.

A few of us would go to landsdowne road back in the 90's / 00's and eventhough i was brought up in a GAA stronghold where no rugby was played going to Thurles & Croker Park for the Cork hurling games the craic at the rugby games was something different (maybe i was alot older) but by god i really enjoyed those sporting occasions.

This years 6N

Yes wales were poor and that seems to be coming from the problems they are having at Club/region level, only a few weeks ago in Europe all of the welsh teams lost so for me it was no surprise Ireland had the upper hand coming into Saturdays game.

England are at a crossed roads do they go balls out for another 6N trophy or do they hold their powder for the ultimate prize of the WC? yes they had a few players out injured, and conditions were very bad which certainly didnt help the team with the ball trying to create things, but Scotland took their chance and will be full of confidence heading to Wales next Saturday.

France were poor in the 1st half yesterday against Italy but ran out with the bonus point easy enough in the end, again conditions were very poor and with being their 1st game yesterday of course players will need a bit of time to get up to full tilt.

Italy will be boosted by their 1st half efforts in Paris and will now be focusing their attention on Wales as their best possible chance of a win, especially if Wales remain at 6s and 7s (the last game) or they could target Scotland in Rome in round 4 especially if Scotland lose to wales in round 2 and to france in round 3. Could the Italians win a six nations game for the first time since 2015? still a tough ask but i think they can be hopeful and if they get a bit of luck and the opposition have an off day anything can happen. Look at Boreham Wood or Forest yesterday in the FA Cup.

Ireland arguably had the best performance in round one, a win against the welsh is never to be sneezed at, and they being the current title holders too, but us lads in green shirts cant get too apprehensive and start to count our chickens. We done what we could do but to get the BP was the real result and it could make all the difference on the 19th March. As i say Wales weren't the Wales of last season so we must take this result in context and understand that Paris next Saturday as the football final whistles all around England will start to blow Bull will be nestled into the armchair with a fire on and a beer in hand (fingers crossed) tuned into events across the English channel. At this early stage it does look like the winner (if there is a winner) of FRA/IRL will be in the driving seat and they will be ones that will need catching with 3 matches to go.

COYBIG

I thought we played very well in the main - much more speed and attack that previous years where it was very much kick and clap and a big pack.

Marcus Smith is a star, but just missed a kick to the corner, then Luke Cowan-Dickie with a daft mistake cost us.

You only deserve victory if you win. Possession is pointless it you do not make it count.

England have gone backwards these past 2 years. Need more invention when it counts and more discipline too.

I'm gutted. 😡

The Sweaty socks had almost nil possession and territory but took their chances and some stupid penalties cost a dominant England side a deserved victory.

The Irish lads had a waltz against a rubbish Welsh bunch.

Tomorrow Italy will demonstrate their mastery of retreat against a very good French team.

Let's move on to week 2....

Well the boys in Green did not disappoint, great result although a pretty poor Welsh side in truth, and the Jocks beat England🤣. If we beat France next week in Paris, job done for the season. If memory serves me correctly, we won the the Grand Slam the year before the last world cup and then imploded big style against Argentina in the competition, however Farrell has them playing a different game of rugby, clearly he has been spying on Bielsa, lol!

TC were you the wimpy guy who always got put on the wing so you did not get in the way?

Same as you BB and really miss those days....

My initiation ceremony was running through the clubhouse naked before getting sucked off by the flanker whilst the chairman's forfeit was to finger me.... and then having to eat another teammates puke in a sandwich on the coach journey home.

God how I miss those days....

I love rugby - both Union and League.

Played union for 32 years and started in the days when mauls were more common than rucks and a scrum was totally fair! Players of all sizes had a position but nowadays you have to be 6'4" and weigh 15 stone just to be a scrum half! My day, they made Steve look like a giant!

God I miss those days