Six Nations 2017

I'm going to forecast that Italy will, like the dish, run away with the wooden spoon this time round. Apart from that, any of the others could win it though, of course, England look the most likely.
My wish is that they fetch up at Lansdowne Road on the last Saturday with it all to play for between Ireland and themselves.
(And that Ireland hammer them, naturally.....)
But - there is a lot can happen in the next two rounds and the only real probabilities are that Italy will ship another couple of heavy losses.
 
Maybe Mr Bruce should have a chat with our English rugby manager who seems to have added some confidence and steel to the English rugby team.
 
England need to take some team 'to the cleaners' and get some bonus points on the board. Fortunately, that opportunity raises it's head tomorrow against Italy, so let's hope they turn it on.

Today should see some good, entertaining rugby from both matches and the scores could be close, and even I'm not going to predict the outcomes. Scotland have come a long way recently and got a bit of confidence in their play so anything could happen..... and probably will.......

 
Excellent performance by Scotland this afternoon! They bore the brunt of Wales in the first half, but in the second half stepped up a gear to score 20 points unanswered points to run out worthy winners 29-13!



:4:
 
Decent win by Ireland too. Didn't see much of it was I was cooking, but from what I saw of the second half, they did well.

Roll on tomorrow....... :17:

 
Well, Italy had England scratching their heads for a good part of the match, but we still had enough to come through eventually, even with Owen Farrell having an off day with the boot. At last we got the bonus point even though yet again it wasn't a sterling performance, but credit to Italy for that. Anyway, 36-15 is good enough for me.

 
It's a three horse race now.
You'd still fancy England but Scotland will certainly be up for the Calcutta Cup (and the Triple Crown).
If Scotland were to win, there then might (assuming Ireland do the business in Cardiff -hardly a foregone conclusion though!) be three teams going into the final weekend with a chance to win the title.
However, if England and Ireland both win, then Lansdowne Road will be rocking for what will be a title decider.
If Ireland lose to Wales and England beat Scotland, then England will effectively be coming to Dublin as champions. In that instance Ireland would be hoping to bring England's winning streak to an end and to deprive them of the Grand Slam and Triple Crown.
Pretty mouth-watering, eh?
 
It is great BBJ...

It would be awesome - I am sure you disagree - for England to be the first ever to have back to back grand slams !
 
I'm tempted to say that it will come down to Ireland vs England in Dublin but there is another round of games before that and who knows what will happen then. I can't imagine Scotland beating England but I certainly wouldn't have predicted Scotland to beat Ireland. Wales are in poor form but are still a very good side.
 
BodyButter - 27/2/2017 05:38

Wales are in poor form but are still a very good side.
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Yeah, I thought at the start of the tournament they might struggle without Warren Gatland, and so it has proved. I'm not sure they'd have caved in second half against Scotland if he were around.

Eddie Jones not happy with Italy's tactics yesterday...

"If that's rugby then I'm going to retire. That's not rugby. You're looking to pass and all you can see is one of their players. I'm not critical of our side a bit because we didn't play rugby. We practised for a game of rugby all week and we didn't get it.

I should have prepared to play ten-pin bowling. When the nine can't pass the ball and the 10 can't see it, you can't play rugby. They brilliantly executed that game, and they got what they wanted, which was a close loss. I don't want to be involved in a game like that. I'd rather pick up my stumps, put them in my kit-bag and go home."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39098575

Personally, I thought Italy did well, it shouldn't have taken us the whole of the first half to deal with it. And Italy stopped a massive hammering by playing the way they did.
 
Pride of Lions - 27/2/2017 16:19

You've got to love Eddie Jones...... He says it as he sees it, and quite frankly, I agree with a lot of what he says.
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Personally I find him an obnoxious loudmouth!
However, he's obviously very good at what he does.
Oh, and Pride, nice to see you around these parts again.
 
Well, tonight kicks off the penultimate weekend in this years Six Nations Championship.

Tonight it's the turn of Wales v Ireland to kick the weekend off. Ireland still have hopes of the title so a close exciting match should ensue.


 
Well it turned out to be a cracker! Wales beat Ireland 22-9. The scoreline betrays how close it was to be honest. It was only with about 2 minutes to go when Jamie Roberts scored the all important try for Wales which was duly converted by Leigh Halfpenny which gave them room to breathe. Before that it was Ireland pushing and probing for the score to edge them into the lead. But Wales' defence held firm then came that late try to seal victory.

I'm exhausted, and I was only watching........ Excellent!

 
Well, barring a Barcelona style comeback by Scotland, England are the 6 Nations champions.
Congratulations - it is well deserved.
Having said that, I hope Ireland will deprive England of the Grand Slam and Triple Crown next weekend.....
 
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