6 Nations

heavymental

Its here again! What are your thoughts? First match up is the Ospreys vs England Bit strange to see almost a whole club side pull on a national jersey but could be interesting. They'll be nicely bonded and could catch England cold. I'm not as excited about the England team as I thought I might be. Not sure why Balshaw is in there and not sure why players like Hipkiss and Tait have been left out as I thought they did well in the World Cup. Will Ireland come back after a poor WC? Will France get revenge for their semi final defeat? Will Scotland find a win or two? Will Italy manage to not get the wooden spoon? Who will win it?

redddraggon

If Wales beat England at Twickham, but unfortunately that's a big IF, Wales should do well in the Rest of the Tournament, Ireland away being the tricky fixture.

jimmythecuckoo

I think France will win if England don't.

heavymental

Out on a limb there Jimmy, backing the 2 favourites!

Richrd2205

This one looks like being one of the harder ones to predict in recent years.
The two form teams of the WC, France & England, have both had lots of changes & may take time to settle.
Ireland didn't really turn up at the WC & haven't really made changes, so may or may not find their form.
Scotland are continuing to build & progress.
Wales/Ospreys will be interesting to watch with their new coach.
& Italy are hard to beat.
I think it will depend on who finds their form soonest.
My predictions are for a close finish & for Scotland to beat France at the weekend.

Harry B

England have made some strange selection decisions but then they did that in the World Cup :?

I'm not convincing that Ashton is up to the job. I still feel that the improvement in the side during the World Cup was down to the players being embarrassed and getting slaughtered. There were no real changes in tactics after SA, just spirit.

Hopeffuly we will do well but I'm wouldn't bet my mortgage on it, well possible the sub prime one I got one my trailer in California 8)

drewfromrisca

Wales - we are either good or very bad!!!

Clever Pun

Vianakolo to make an impact off the bench

Tait was dropped as he's recently changed position to FB and is still finding his way (something you don't do in internationals) he'll be back maybe later in the tourno, maybe in some tests come the end of the year

afx237vi

Clever Pun wrote:

Vianakolo to make an impact off the bench

Tait was dropped as he's recently changed position to FB and is still finding his way (something you don't do in internationals) he'll be back maybe later in the tourno, maybe in some tests come the end of the year

Tait is just scared that Gavin Henson will pick him up, tuck him under his arm and carry him around the pitchagain like he did in 2005

Salsiccia

afx237vi wrote:

Clever Pun wrote:

Vianakolo to make an impact off the bench

Tait was dropped as he's recently changed position to FB and is still finding his way (something you don't do in internationals) he'll be back maybe later in the tourno, maybe in some tests come the end of the year

Tait is just scared that Gavin Henson will pick him up, tuck him under his arm and carry him around the pitchagain like he did in 2005

I always worry that quips like that might bite us on the aris...

Anyhoo - unfortunately many Wales supporters are still of the 'beat England first and anything else is a bonus' mentality, and a loss against them is a catastrophe. But in reality Wales could lose at Twickenham and still win the Championship. In fact I'm not sure any team will win the Grand Slam.

I think this is the most open 6 nations for years, and any of 5 teams could win it (Italy can't yet, but they might stop one or two others doing so). My dark horses are Scotland, they have a good coach and are starting to get some continuity which few of the other sides come close to; Ireland will be either fantastic or terrible; France will be fantastic AND terrible; England will be England, lots of bosh and Jonny, which depending on how the others play could be good enough; and Wales - well who knows!

heavymental

It always makes me laugh when I consider how the careers of Tait and Henson have gone since that day when all of Wales celebrated one tackle. Henson hasn't cemented his place in the team despite such great potential, he's lived the celebrity lifestyle, made the headlines for all the wrong reasons and made an censored of himself on a train thats landed him in trouble with the law. Ok, he's had his fair share of injuries that have kept him out but where was Henson when Tait was making that break in the World Cup final? Sat at home with Charlotte cultivating his new beard. I doubt Tait is too worried about lining up against Henson these days. He's kept his head down, worked at it and is a top player these days. Shame he isn't in the squad as I think it would have been an interesting rematch.

afx237vi

To be honest, I totally agree. It's a bit sad that the only thing I could come up with was a tackle from three years ago. Since then, Tait has played in a world cup final and Henson is yet to play in a world cup at all.

It was a corker of a tackle though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzN8Hg7yCkE&NR=1

The thing about Henson is that when he's in shape and has his game head on, he's absolutely world class. Except he only ever shows it in snatches. It's so frustrating.

As for this year's championship, I think it'll probably be France again. They have a young team and they never seem to take the 6N quite as seriously as they should, but they're a class act. England will be 2nd, with either Wales or Ireland in 3rd.

Ireland were truly appalling at the WC so it'll be interesting to see how they'll play. They'll be under a lot of pressure. And Wales - sorry, Ospreys - if Shaun Edwards can sort our defence out, who knows?

jimmythecuckoo

Heavymental wrote:

Out on a limb there Jimmy, backing the 2 favourites!

ahh you know, gotta take a risk now and again

robbarker

Ewch Gymru!

Reslistically, Wales are the underdogs tomorrow, particularlu up front, but it would be very nice indeed to get a result. It shoul;d be a cracking game anyway!

Mark Alexander

drewfromrisca wrote:

Wales - we are either good or very bad!!!

don't you mean Great, or down right awful. :evil:

oldwelshman

Heavymental wrote:

Its here again! What are your thoughts? First match up is the Ospreys vs England Bit strange to see almost a whole club side pull on a national jersey but could be interesting. They'll be nicely bonded and could catch England cold. I'm not as excited about the England team as I thought I might be. Not sure why Balshaw is in there and not sure why players like Hipkiss and Tait have been left out as I thought they did well in the World Cup. Will Ireland come back after a poor WC? Will France get revenge for their semi final defeat? Will Scotland find a win or two? Will Italy manage to not get the wooden spoon? Who will win it?

]
Sorry to have to correct you Heavy but the Ospreys are not a club side, but a regional side
Anyway its a weird team selection for both teams.
Aston seems to have picked a team to play the type of game he prefers, a bit more open. The only problem is that the backs are a bit incosistent so willl be interesting to see how they do.
I can see why Gatland picked almost all Ospreys as it is good to have a core of a strong team. The only problem is the Ospreys have 3 kiwis who have a big impact int the forwrards. he has clearly picked Adam Jones infront of Gethin Jenkins for his scrummaging against the over rated Sheridan but I expect to see Jenkins later in game, I prefer Jenkins anyway.
I am surprised that Parker is preferred to Shanklin and see him as a weakness in the back line.
No predictions as the teams look to odd to me 8)

redddraggon

The Six Nations is currently looking pretty red.

redddraggon

For just the second time in my life we have won at Twickenham, how good does that feel?

sing_for_absolution

It feels like this:

redddraggon

oldwelshman

For once my analysis looked correct
Jenkins, Shanklin and Popham made a big difference when they came on, Englands backs were totally cluseless in the second half and with the pack having to turn round and run back 50 yards when they cocked up made the pack very tired.
The England pack looked knaclered in the last 15 minutes.
Sorry but the England team looks the wrong shape. The forwards they use will not last 80 minutes in a fast and open game, they are too big!!
They should have played a bit tighter second half especially whilst leading.
I cannot believe England played so badly at half back in second half.
Gommarshall was dreadfull and wilko was n ot much better but the no9 has to go!!
Not impressed with Sackey either, he breaks defensive line too often, that how Hook beat him to set up the first try, that left Wales back in.

oldwelshman

redddraggon wrote:

The Six Nations is looking RED

Bit early for that mate, have you forgotten the first half performance already? It was almost scholl rugby standard, but not quite that good !! How many turnovers? How many lost lineouts? How many kickoff takes lost?
They will not come back against France if they play that bad !!
Gatland and Edwards looked happy on tv but believe me they will give the team an absolute bollocking next training session.
I would make them practice receiving kick offs for 2 hours at least !!!

Ed Moses

Well done Wales - let's hope it is not another 20 years!!!

Ruari

Hooray! Well done the Welsh boyos! Congrats Redddraggon, and commiserations to all the rest! This looks to be an interesting competition...

notanotherhill

Yeah well done to Wales today. Fine second half performance (wonder what would have happened if they had played like that for 80 minutes instead of the last 30).

Lee Byrne was the player of the match for me and at the other end of the scale i'd be questioning Hensons place in the Welsh squad (when he shines hes very good, but you cant only shine for 10 minutes in a 80 minute game)

Closer to home I was dissapointed with Ireland. Italy were made to look like a team that they aren't. Dosen't bode well for the rest of the tournament for us.

Besides results, for anyone who watched Socer AM this morning, I am currently gloating in the satisfaction a certain ex-England player will now be eating his words.

afx237vi

:shock: <- this has been my face for the past 3 hours.

HOW, just HOW did Wales win that game? More to the point, how did England lose that game?! Wales were truly abysmal for the first hour. How many times did they lose the ball in the contact area - 12, 15? The Welsh pack was outmuscled everywhere - scrum, rucks, lineout... it was embarrassing, and at HT I was convinced it would be a 40 pt drubbing at least.

But WTF, a mad 10 minutes and what the hell happened? Why did Ashton bring on Cipriani?! Once our backs started to get into the game, there was only going to be one winner. It's hard to work out who was worse - Wales in the first 60 or England in the last 20. A truly confusing game of rugby!

Ireland-Italy was a total yawnfest. The most entertaining part was the commentator accidentally saying "pissed off" midway through the first half. Ireland are a bad, bad team though.

cycologist

It wasn't that England lost that took the gloss off my day but that the game I'd been looking forward to for the past 2 or 3 weeks was such a poor display for most of the time with only one or two exceptions.

robbarker

Boy does my head hurt this morning...

Mark Alexander

I sacrificed my 80 day sober challenge after this :evil:

kevin44

robbarker wrote:

Boy does my head hurt this morning...

were you on the train home with Gavin Henson?

ddraver

and the list of white injuries sustained in the first 5 minitues seems bloody catastrophic.....

we now have serious issues for the rest of the tournament and beyond