6 Nations, week 2

Well, my predictions for last week weren’t up to much, were they? Scotland and Italy both performed much better than expected. Wales less so. I would now discount Ireland from the running for champions (a week after saying they would win it?! Crazy!), mainly due to me still believing that Italy is be where the points scored should make a difference. Both England and France should be able to put a few past them and, as such, should have a much higher points difference than Ireland at the end. Having said that, the match on Sunday could be pivotal and it could really make things interesting if Ireland could take advantage of the home crowd’s support and pull a win out of the bag.

So, as for predictions, I’ll go for the easiest first. England will wallop Italy at Twickenham. Simple as. England are on the up, they are confident, Italy won’t be half as good away from home. England by 15.

I’m going to say that France will probably take advantage of an Ireland side that will be trying too hard to create chances that they failed to do last weekend. Could be tough to begin with, but as it opens up, France should be able to notch up the victory. France by 8.

This is where my lower lip may begin to tremble before my stupid optimism takes over. My head says that Wales are going into this match low on confidence and with James Hook playing in a pivotal role in which he hasn’t started this season. It could all fall apart. Scotland are getting harder to beat and are looking very promising. However, my heart is ignoring all logic and I’m going with a Welsh victory! Wales by 2.

Let’s see how off the mark I am this week, shall we?

Rugby-o-rama!

Friday again, eh? I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. It’s the start of the 6 Nations! Come on Wales! England tonight for us. I HAVE A TICKET! I am very excited. So my weekend will be largely concerned with rugby. For what it’s worth, here are my predictions for this weekend and the tournament as a whole.

Wales v England

Possibly slightly swayed by my heart on this one, I’m going for a narrow Welsh victory. England haven’t won in Cardiff since 2003, so it’s been a while. With the Welsh crowd behind them in the stadium (me included – yes, I’m still excited!), it might be enough to give Wales the extra shove they need.

Italy v Ireland

I can’t see this going any other way than Ireland’s. Italy, after seemingly developing into competitors, not contenders you understand, have slipped a little recently. Ireland should walk this fairly comfortably. I’m going to also say that points against Italy could prove crucial in deciding the outcome of the championship as it could be very close this year.

France v Scotland

France is always a difficult place to go to and come away with a win. Scotland are starting to look like a good team, but I can’t see them overcoming France in Paris. As always, we never know what French team are going to turn up – the mercurial, skilful team, or the chokers. But they should grind out a victory on home turf.

As for the overall table, this is my prediction for the final tally:

1^st – Ireland (Good start and nice run of fixtures)

2^nd – England (Lose today, but grow during the tournament)

3^rd – Wales (Or more likely 4^th, but I don’t want to put that down!)

4^th – France (See above comment)

5^th – Scotland (Still not sure it’s their year quite yet)

6^th – Italy (Wooden spoooooooooooon)

 

Do any of you have any exciting plans for the weekend? Do you agree/disagree with the predictions?

Six Nations – Round 2

 

 

I haven’t given up after last week’s unsuccessful attempts at predictions!

Wales v Scotland

I would hope to see Wales improve on last week’s performance. They looked very dangerous with the ball in hand, especially in midfield. I imagine that’s why Andy Robinson’s brought in Sean Lamont, to try and stop the charging Roberts and the guile of Hook. Scotland have real class in Thom Evans and the battle between him and Shane Williams could be very exciting. Scotland will have taken heart from watching Wales’ line-out last weekend, I imagine Nathan Hines will be licking his lips at the prospect! Chris Paterson’s place kicking is probably the most accurate in the world. Wales cannot afford to give awaytoo many penalties in their own half, they will be punished if they do. The other position Scotland may have supremacy is at scrum-half. Many people were surprised that Gareth Cooper held on to the no. 9 jersey after his performance against England. Having said all that, I still expect Wales to win by 10 points. They can’t afford to give away as many points as they did against England. If they get their line-out functioning and make less handling errors (shouldn’t be too difficult!) they should be able to show the class they have in the backline and score some good tries.

France v Ireland

This could be a tasty encounter, especially after Morgan Parra’s interesting comments in the past few days. This is being billed as the Six Nations decider already. It could go either way. If France turn up (and nobody ever knows how thy are going to play!) they should win. However, Ireland have learnt how to grind out victories where necessary with O’Gara and O’Driscoll using their kicks effectively. I think that, either France will run away with it, or it’ll be a close Irish victory. I think I’ll go with the latter, Ireland by 2 points.

England v Italy

England will win. Probably quite easily, I would say by 13 points. But if they do, they need to remember who the opposition are and not get carried away. They are going in the right direction it seems, but they mustn’t assume that they’ve improved that much in a short space of time after beating an underperforming Welsh side and, presumably, a stuttering Italy. After all, after this weekend’s round of matches, they could find themselves sitting at the top of the Six Nations table.