Six Nations

[Rookiescot]

Predictions, chat, banter and general nonsense regarding the 6 Nations championship starting this weekend.

OK I will kick off with a prediction the Scotland will beat England on Saturday. Conditions are set to be awful which means messy rugby. Something Scotland has always excelled at. I also look at the England team and think "Nah, lots of pace and flair but on a rubbish surface"? Think it will be a low scoring match won in the trenches.

Brace yourselves you heathen Sassenachs . 

[oldschooler]

4 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Predictions, chat, banter and general nonsense regarding the 6 Nations championship starting this weekend.

OK I will kick off with a prediction the Scotland will beat England on Saturday. Conditions are set to be awful which means messy rugby. Something Scotland has always excelled at. I also look at the England team and think "Nah, lots of pace and flair but on a rubbish surface"? Think it will be a low scoring match won in the trenches.

Brace yourselves you heathen Sassenachs . 

Without Farrell, England now have a very strong team and an equal chance to win I feel . What a great finely balanced game we have in prospect … ! Lawes a massive loss though. Dombrandt should have started at No8 with Simmonds not Ludlum moved to flanker. Randall better than Young’s at scrum half. we will see these guys brought on though.Several England Backs out of best position but that will leave Scotland unprepared. Game On !

[Rookiescot]

9 hours ago, oldschooler said:

Without Farrell, England now have a very strong team and an equal chance to win I feel . What a great finely balanced game we have in prospect … ! Lawes a massive loss though. Dombrandt should have started at No8 with Simmonds not Ludlum moved to flanker. Randall better than Young’s at scrum half. we will see these guys brought on though.Several England Backs out of best position but that will leave Scotland unprepared. Game On !

Never been one for slagging off Farrell. He is a talented player.

I do agree its probably the closest the two teams have been in many years and should be a close game. 

Yeah I see the backs being "out of position" but I think they will switch around a lot. They can pretty much play anywhere.

The "smaller" English pack may haunt them given the predicted weather conditions. Can see lots of knockons and resultant scrums. Scotland also has a 20 stone wrecking ball sitting on the bench. Its a long time since we had that!

Dont think it will be a classic game. Think a low score ground out by the forwards with penalties being the difference. 

[Santa]

14 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

OK I will kick off

Nice pun.      

Edited February 5, 2022 by Santa

[oldschooler]

8 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Never been one for slagging off Farrell. He is a talented player.

I do agree its probably the closest the two teams have been in many years and should be a close game. 

Yeah I see the backs being "out of position" but I think they will switch around a lot. They can pretty much play anywhere.

The "smaller" English pack may haunt them given the predicted weather conditions. Can see lots of knockons and resultant scrums. Scotland also has a 20 stone wrecking ball sitting on the bench. Its a long time since we had that!

Dont think it will be a classic game. Think a low score ground out by the forwards with penalties being the difference. 

Hoping that bad weather doesn’t materialize to let the backs work.

Farrell doesn’t fit into this fresh England team picked two years too late.

Farrell simply not needed , no current form yet as captain must play.

Read so many interesting Six Nations articles on all the teams.

Enough analysis. Let’s Play !

 

[Rookiescot]

Ireland v Wales going for an Ireland win. Wales heavily hit by injuries and I honestly think Ireland will win the tournament.

 

[Rookiescot]

Its a funny old game.

Usually when England have that much territory and possession the other team is in for a spanking. But on this occasion England simply couldnt convert that into points. Scotland were making their tackles and England seemed to just keep doing the same things over and over again. Thats going to be a problem if it doesn't change.

When Scotland had the ball they were the more dangerous side. Which is a wonderful change from where we were only a few years ago.

Not a classic encounter but there were flashes of genius by both teams occasionally. Which you will get when you have quality players on a pitch for 80 mins. Suspect the conditions played a lot in that.

There were also some flashes of pure lunacy as well. A lot is being made of Cowan-Dickies knock on. I think thats unfair. He was trying to catch it. It was a very difficult catch to make and he got it wrong. People are saying he should have just left it. If he had then people would be saying he should have tried to catch it. None of this addresses the issue of a brilliant cross field kick by Russell to the wing and for some reason its your hooker who is out there defending. 

So a reasonable game for Scotland (I have seen them play a lot better and lose) and some questions to be asked of England.

Still think Ireland are going to win the tournament with possibly a grand slam. I dont see who will beat them. They will have tough games but I believe have the quality to win all of them. 

[Rookiescot]

Well in a thread of "one man posting" I will give my oracle of wisdom yet again.

Ireland visiting Paris. This is going to be a fascinating encounter. Ireland a very good team with quality throughout and fired up. France beat them in their last 6 nations encounter in Dublin. Old scores to settle. Sexton out? Will that be the difference? I suspect not given his replacement Carbery is a fine player.

I think it will be a very tough game for both teams. No quarter asked for and none given. Can actually see punches being thrown between them.

Wales v Scotland. This is going to be tight. Wales will want a pound of flesh from someone after the Ireland mauling. Scotland has experienced players but Cardiff Arms is a cauldron. Very easy to get spooked in there. Is the roof closed? I bloody well hope not. Difference could be down to individual battles between players on the pitch and the smallest of margins may bring victory to either side. Scotland fields a totally changed front row since last weekends win over England. That may be genius or pure folly. Substitutions may be key but you always run the risk of the game being already out of reach if you rely on that. 

Jones has made a lot of changes in the England team against Italy. Cant see any result except an emphatic England win but seeing how those changes make a difference will be interesting to watch.  

[oldschooler]

England just didn’t do enough finishing to beat Scotland who were defensively  immaculate. Scotland made way too many mistakes against Wales so just threw away the clear win. 

Ireland let France get too far ahead, started too slowly. All these games results should have been in reverse ! 
Nobody so far playing well away from home. ( forget Italy !). First away winner will be Champions.