Six Nations Rugby Thread

[thrashaholic]

The Six Nations should be a corker this year round, I feel there are four teams who could potentially win it (England, France, Ireland, and Wales), and I feel Scotland are a bit of an unknown quantity: they could be thorn in everybody's side.

I'm certainly looking forward to this weekend's matches, but especially England vs. Wales in Cardiff. The atmosphere should be tremendous and it should be an extremely close match. Both teams will be bouyed up by their Autumn performances (although Wales moreso I believe), and both teams are missing key players (Charvis and Wilkinson are the most notable), so I think it's too close to call. My heart says Wales (I'm Welsh), my head says England....just, I reckon Wales will be pipped at the post like they were against New Zealand, but maybe without Johnny to kick all their points for them England will crumble under a wave of tries from the superior Welsh back line. England need to keep it in the forwards to win, whereas Wales don't want to get bogged down, rather they should get the ball out to their runners like Shane Williams, Tom Shanklin, Gareth Thomas, Gavin Henson etc. Also maybe Wales should play the kicking game today given that Wliko isn't playing, IMO Stephen Jones and Gavin Henson are both better kickers than their English counterparts. It'll be a very good game.

The other two matches (Scotland/France, Ireland/Italy), are both foregone conclusions, France and Ireland should walk all over their oppostion. The only upset I can possibly see happenning is if the 'bad' France turn up (which could happen after their performance against New Zealand) against an outstanding determined Scottish performance, but it's unlikely.

[LittleGrizzly]

I am not really a rugby fan but i always make sure i tune into the six nations, have done so aslong as i can remember.

Heres my knowledgeless predictions, EN-GER-LAND!!! EN-GER-LAND!! to demolish everything in thier path with france or ireland for 2nd place.

todays games i'd say England, France and Ireland should win.

[thrashaholic]

Gavin Henson, you absolute legend!

What a win for Wales, they more than deserved it. England played rubbish it must be said; Wales should've won by far more. That was such an exciting game..... I think I need a little lie down now....

[LittleGrizzly]

#%$& &$#^ $&%$ #$%^ ^%$# &^%# &^%$

above is swear words i needed to get out, damn them to eternal damnation bunch of overpayed lazy sobs!!

i lost 7.50 thanks to that, looked such a sure bet, must beat up friend for revenge....

[ah_dut]

I always said the welsh had fighting spirit...

[Somebody Else]

#%$& &$#^ $&%$ #$%^ ^%$# &^%# &^%$

What he said.

Was watching it in the only rugby bar (not even a pub, how bad is that) in town. With a bunch of Taffys (including one turncoat). Too much kicking about I felt.

[thrashaholic]

Too much kicking about I felt.

By England, yes, they couldn't even string one passage of decent play together, they had to resort to kicking people in the face (that number 4 t### should've been banned for that).

Wales should've put another two tries on England tbh, they had the opportunities, and we should never let Stephen Jones kick anything ever again. Give it all to 'silver-boots' Henson!

[Orda Khan]

we should never let Stephen Jones kick anything ever again. Give it all to 'silver-boots' Henson!

For one horrible moment I thought Jones was going to cost us the game just as he did against the All Blacks. Personally I have never rated him and if I had my way he would never touch a rugby ball again. How long will it take Ruddock to work out he needs a reliable kicker?

Henson deserves all the praise that will no doubt be coming his way. The margin could and should have been much wider, thankfully we had one man with belief and confidence who seized victory because the others wanted it given to them

.......Orda

[Tribesman]

Nice result , quite a few Welsh in the pub this afternoon , plus a large crowd from the Clontarf-Galwegians game who seemed to be wearing a lot of Welsh jerseys , entertaining game , though not that exciting (lots of bad moves by both sides) . I didn't see the Scotland match (bloody kids wanted to go to the beach , don't they know its February in the West of Ireland ) . But I will have a nice warm seat for tomorrows game

[JAG]

Dear, dear, dear. Didn't England play terribly. We need to seriously improve, we have gone down, down, down since the world cup.

Jhonny back - at last! - might help though.

[King Edward]

At the end of the day England are still in a transition period and as long as they are back to number one come 2007, i can accept losing a few matches in the six nations on the way. That was a very bare bones England team but well done Wales they definatley deserved it more than we did!

[TonyJ]

Personally, I think the Wales pack has been 'just about to turn the corner' into world class rugby again for far too long. Hopefully this will be the year that we finally do it.

But then, I'm biased and an eternal optimist.

[Myrddraal]

You can't imagine how dissapointed I am in england. Ollie Barkley should have kicked everything in my oppinion, we might not have missed so many. But really we need Jhonney back...

[Axeknight]

I only saw the last half our or so of the game, listened to the first fifty mintues in the car on BBC radio Wales (didn't even know you could get that here). Where the heck did Steve Thompson learn to throw lineouts? For God's sake, play it short for once! Every time he played it long, he overthrew it and that Welsh number 8 nicked it. Argh! The Welsh earned it though; I didn't see (or hear) one coherant backline move by England; with Jason Robinson out on the wing, we should have got a couple of tries at least. Our kicking game wasn't up to much until the last few minutes when we had Hodgeson and Barkley on either. Even their forwards seemed to overpower us in the ruck. I think we're just a young, inexperienced side at the moment. Hopefully time and games will improve us.

I heard France beat Scotland 16-9. While I thought (if I remember rightly) France were a bit crap in the Autumn Internationals, they may be more serious competiton for us when we come to play them. Should be a corker of a Six Nations anyway.

[Tribesman]

Well ... I nearly gave up and walked out of the pub to go and listen to a band instead , Ireland were rubbish , but they still won in the end . A serious rethink is neccasary before Murrayfield , especially in light of the injuries picked up .

[LittleGrizzly]

Scotland were desperatly unlcuky to lose, it didn't look like he went out of play to me fror the scottish try, and frances try was just a terrible terrible mistake.

[Jochi Khan]

Over-eagerness on the part of the Welsh players cost us a few missed tries.

Why Stephen Jones takes so many of the kicks beats me.
Gavin Henson is a far superior kicker as he has proved with his line kicking.

Against France, Scotland were robbed and silly play by the winger that allowed the French to charge down and score in the dieing moments.

Jochi