Six Nations 2017 (4th February - 18 March)

[Participant]

One of my favourite sporting events is nearly here.

Squads:

ENGLAND

Dare I say...favourites to win again?

Somehow Marler is fit having fractured his leg on the 10th January...!! I can only assume it was a hairline fracture at worst. Still impressive though.

Also look out for: new and exciting ways for Hartley to get himself banned, and will Jack Nowell be the same without his rat tail?

FRANCE

Normally the most volatile, both in terms of the fans and the players. As usual, a bit of an unknown quantity.

IRELAND

Johnny Sexton and Peter O'Mahony will miss Ireland's Six Nations opener against Scotland on Saturday. Shouldn't be a problem though .

ITALY

Favourites...to win the wooden spoon?

SCOTLAND

Perennial also-rans. Hogg's a decent player.

WALES

Wales lock Luke Charteris is out of their Six Nations opener against Italy in Rome on Sunday as Bath team-mate Taulupe Faletau awaits a fitness test. Both expected to be fit for England though.

Fixtures:

Saturday 4th February 2017
Scotland v Ireland at BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh 2:25pm
England v France at Twickenham Stadium, London 4:50pm

Sunday 5th February 2017
Italy v Wales at Stadio Olimpico, Rome 2:00pm

Saturday 11th February 2017
Italy v Ireland at Stadio Olimpico, Rome 2:25pm
Wales v England at Principality Stadium, Cardiff 4:50pm

Sunday 12th February 2017
France v Scotland at Stade de France, Paris 3:00pm

Saturday 25th February 2017
Scotland v Wales at BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh 2:25pm
Ireland v France at Aviva Stadium, Dublin 4:50pm

Sunday 26th February 2017
England v Italy at Twickenham Stadium, London 3:00pm

Friday 10th March 2017
Wales v Ireland at Principality Stadium, Cardiff 8:05pm

Saturday 11th March 2017
Italy v France at Stadio Olimpico, Rome 1:30pm
England v Scotland at Twickenham Stadium, London 4:00pm

Saturday 18th March 2017
Scotland v Italy at BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh 12:30pm
France v Wales at Stade de France, Paris 2:45pm
Ireland v England at Aviva Stadium, Dublin 5:00pm

 

[Participant]

May's yellow card was a joke. If the guy you tackle falls on the floor while you hold his legs without lifting them, how is that the tackler's fault?

 

[Participant]

This ref is an anal dullard. Let these teams play.

 

[Participant]

****. Great tackle.

 

[Participant]

The French are the better team. How disappointing.

 

[Participant]

HA HA HA

Blag.

Ireland are favourites because of the way the fixture list falls out. Also fully expect Les Blues to turn England over in the opener

Great punditry brah.

 

[Participant]

That referee was a freaking dork. Loved Dylan's comment of 'so when is it out then?'.

That was so random. He called the ball out of the ruck then said you can't jump on it as it's emerging from a ruck. It wasn't emerging, you called it out you bell end. I don't get that at all.

Still at least we scrapped our way past. They must be wondering how the hell they lost that game. I can't believe the French kicker failed to find touch with that last pen. Huge mistake.

Shows how much we rely on the All Black B team when the Vunipola bros are missing though!

 

[Participant]

Remi Lamerat (aka Keanu Reeves) was a hero yesterday by the way. What a player. Same goes for Spedding and Picamoles. Oh and Elliot Daly...player! HUGE penalty easily over and he just placed it and wacked it, none of this standing there gurning for half an hour first.

Italy Wales at 2pm then. Let's see if the Italians can build on their offering this year and become more competitive.

If you want to steal the ball when it comes out of the ruck, you have to stay on your feet - it's not often penalised but that's the rule.

So when can you jump on the ball then? At what point is the ball fully out of the ruck and in open play? When the ref says 'ball out' perhaps??

 

[Participant]

Nigel Owes explained it quite well. There is a distinct state where the ball is 'emerging' from a ruck. You can't dive on the ball in this state. If the ball had stopped or hit another player, it would no longer have been emerging and Wood could have dived on it. As it was still bobbling (emerging) he was not entitled to.

It's not a rule I knew about when I was playing tbf

...except it was perfectly still when it was dived upon.

 

[Participant]

England team for Staurday:

England: Mike Brown (Harlequins); Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs); Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby), Owen Farrell (Saracens), Elliot Daly (Wasps); George Ford (Bath Rugby), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers); Joe Marler (Harlequins), Dylan Hartley (captain, Northampton Saints), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Maro Itoje (Saracens), Jack Clifford (Harlequins), Nathan Hughes (Wasps)

Replacements: Jamie George (Saracens), Matt Mullan (Wasps), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), James Haskell (Wasps), Danny Care (Harlequins), Ben Te'o (Worcester Warriors), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)


Clifford in for Wood, I think that's a fair shout, Wood by all measures had a poor game last week and Clifford adds a bit of dynamism and terrier at the ruck, Haskell still to unfit to play a full 80 so his impact as a finisher will be key. Nowell in for May, again a fair call as May was mostly anonymous last week apart from the leg humping incident.

Wood and May decisions I agree with. However EJ should start with Ben Te'o instead of Ford. Ford has a beautiful passing game but we need ball carriers too.

Nowell I agree with too. Class player.

Please could someone explain to Mike Brown that it is ok to pass to your teammates. I reckon most of the forwards have a higher pass rate than Brown.

It's not about pass rates as a full back. This isn't football where a key stat seems to be how many ineffectual sideways passes you made.

It's about decision making based on the position of your teammates and the situation of the game.

Brown is often having to carry the ball into contact and ensure a recycle, so as to allow the team time to get back in support rather than risk a pass across the 22.

His main remit includes penetrating counter attacking runs from defence when he might be the last guy, putting up decent kicks to chase or find touch with, and being able to catch the ball. It doesn't include a beautiful, flowing passing game with no end result. If it did he would be called George Ford .

Mike Brown's a fantastic player.

 

[Participant]

Ireland looking to spoil the party then. I know it was only Italy and Italy are poor, but Ireland looked quite menacing against them.

What a great game Wales vs. England was though. Both sides really went at each other and Launchbury was a hero.

 

[Participant]

I really cant believe they subbed Moriarty...he was clearly the man of the match until they subbed him. Great win for England though.

That's a very good point...I'd forgotten about that. What a crazy decision.

I really cant believe they subbed Moriarty...he was clearly the man of the match until they subbed him. Great win for England though.

The under 20's did very well and the women's team crushed the welsh ladies.

lovely to get a clean sweep.

Hehe. Whatever makes you feel better brah (no one cares!).

 

[Participant]

Watching France Scotland on the BBC Sport website. Good game, but there's so much buffering.

It's the same on iPlayer, no idea what the BBC are playing at with their crappy online service. I've got 150Mb fibre so it's not my connection.

 

[Participant]

Streamed it whilst at work and had no problems what so ever. Not sure it is the BBC at fault.

It's odd because Netflix and Amazon Prime are flawless on the same connection, both through a smart TV and a web browser. My BBC video buffers both on the smart TV and through browsers. Perhaps it's something to do with Virgin Media and BBC in my area then? Anyway, not an internet support thread so I'll move on!

One point I wanted to make is that this is a great tournament, but Italy unfortunately just aren't a serious test side and I think the administration should seriously consider removing them in favour of Canada or something .

 

[Participant]

Just eject Italy to be honest. They're plucky but add nothing much to the tournament. Games against Italy would be better served by a grand finale between the top two teams.

 

[Participant]

Glad Te'o is starting but hope it's more than a one off because it's Italy and he wants to rest someone.

I'd always pick Nowell over May personally. May always looks out of place to me somehow. He doesn't seem to make the yards that Nowell does.

 

[Participant]

How does May keep starting these games? Nowell is a star.

Really interesting game.

 

[Participant]

Some great ranting from Eddie Jones and the England players in regards to this 'no ruck formed' business.

I thought it was clever from the Italians, and even though 'Italian' is right next to 'dirty tricks' in the sporting dictionary, I think it's innovative and you can't expect the Italians to compete in a conventional way against England at Twickenham.

 

[Participant]

I hope they don't change the rules because of one 'incident' that was mostly caused by England's inability to think on their feet.

 

[Participant]

Very strong team. As well as Scotland have done so far in this tournament, I'll be amazed if they beat us.